Creator platforms expanding into enterprise
Sid Yadav, co-founder & CEO of Circle, on the 3 types of community businesses
Circle started from the insight that static courses are a weak business, but recurring transformation is durable. Coming out of Teachable, the founders saw course sellers spike on launches and then fade, while the strongest operators paired content with ongoing discussion, accountability, events, and relationships. That pushed Circle to build one place where the product is not just a video library, but a living member experience that can work for creators, professional communities, and eventually large organizations.
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In simple terms, Circle is software for running a branded membership business. A customer can set up a website, charge for access, host discussions, courses, events, email, and now AI help, so members stay inside one system instead of bouncing between Teachable, Zoom, Mailchimp, and a forum.
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The founding insight came directly from the Teachable era. The founders watched one time course businesses behave like hit products, with big launches followed by drop offs, while businesses built around ongoing community had better retention because members were paying for access to people, support, and progress, not just files.
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That same logic explains the move into B2B and enterprise. A Fortune 500 customer uses the same building blocks for a practitioner network, customer education hub, or partner community. The workflow is different from fan clubs, but the value is still recurring engagement, owned audience data, and a home for programs that need more than chat alone.
From here, the category keeps moving upmarket. As more businesses treat community as part of product delivery, onboarding, and retention, platforms that began with creators will look more like operating systems for recurring relationships. Circle’s advantage is that it was built around that deeper use case from the start, not bolted on after the fact.