Building intersections between brands and communities.

Over the past 30 years starting, scaling, and engaging communities for brands, products, events, and movements, we've developed a few beliefs about brands and communities. You can leverage community without losing your soul.

We believe

1. 01Community is the people and their relationships. They gather for a purpose that is always higher than you, your product, or your brand.
2. 02An email list is not a community. Nor are your social media followers. Those are audiences.
3. 03A forum, a Discord, or a Slack aren't a community either. Those are channels.
4. 04An event or meetup series or conference isn't one either. Those are venues.
5. 05People join communities for their own ends, not yours. Their interests transcend your motivation to capture and profit.
6. 06You have a community when people are communicating and making their own meaning without you. That's scary.
7. 07The moment you try to own a community is the moment you lose control.
8. 08Mixing financial and social incentives creates misalignment and mistrust in communities.
9. 09Not every brand needs “their own” community.
10. 10If you want to benefit from a community, you must invest before you harvest.

Hi, I'm Tim Courtney

I've learned these lessons and more firsthand, starting with the earliest brand communities in the 1990s, the startup ecosystem in Chicago, on the founding team of LEGO® IDEAS, the BrickLink Designer Program, and through dozens of failures.

Roundabout is the practice built on it, and the name is its operating principle.

Why Roundabout?

My favorite piece of infrastructure is a well-designed roundabout. Strong communities function similarly: people on two legs share space with vehicles of two, four, and eighteen wheels. Everyone slows down enough to make eye contact and help each other get to where they're going, and the intersection moves more people faster.

Call me when

• You're launching your first community program.
• Your community program is stalling and leadership wants answers.
• Your CFO is asking what community is worth.
• Your customers are angry and you don't know how to respond.
• Customer ideas are piling up with no route to product.

Engagements run from a business-value audit to full program builds: strategy, research, launches, migrations, sunsets, and crisis response—with standing advisory for leaders seeking a seasoned thought partner and advocate.