By Chris Heivly, Managing Director at Build The Fort and Startup Community EIR @ Techstars

When we talk about building startup communities, most people picture ribbon-cuttings at sleek, shiny new innovation hubs, headlines about a government-underwritten $25 million venture fund, or perhaps a new accelerator launched with a big corporate partner. These things are sexy. They’re easy to photograph, easy to measure, and easy to sell to stakeholders.

But here’s the honest truth: those are not the things that actually build community.

Real community building is invisible work.

It’s the coffee meetings that don’t make the press release. It’s the 30-minute mentoring sessions that turn into two-hour heart-to-hearts. It’s introducing two founders who go on to build something great — without ever tagging you in a LinkedIn post. This invisible work often feels thankless. There’s no photo op for helping a founder wrestle with their pitch deck or quietly nudging an introvert into their first startup event.

Funders and stakeholders, understandably, crave the visible. They want metrics — capital deployed, companies launched, buildings built. But those things are outputs, not inputs. They're the flowers, not the planting, watering, and weeding it took to get there.

And here’s the rub: if you only focus on the visible work, you’ll build monuments, not movements.

A new co-working space can sit empty if the founders don’t feel welcomed. A big check can disappear into the ether if there’s no mentor network to guide the recipient. 

Community building is a complex system — it’s unpredictable, nonlinear, and often resistant to rigid planning. It thrives on authentic connections, trust, and shared experience, not top-down control or oversized logos on glass buildings.

So, to those doing the invisible work: thank you. 

Your consistency, generosity, and quiet leadership are the real engine behind startup community growth. You won’t always get the credit. You might never get the check. But you're planting the seeds.

And in a few years, when that next wave of founders starts giving first, telling their stories, and building for the next generation — they’ll be standing on your shoulders, whether they know it or not.

The biggest challenge isn’t doing the invisible work. It’s continuing to do it in a world that mostly rewards the visible.

Learn more about Techstars Startup Community partnerships, a new way for you to build your thriving startup community as a member of the Techstars network.

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