Hi Brad, thanks a lot for reading and your comment. This is such a thoughtful reflection, and I’m really glad you brought it up.
I love the idea of making constraints more permeable within the community. Your examples—like micro-grants (@Cameron King had this idea!), shared ops talent, and treating introductions as infrastructure—really sharpen it. This is exactly why I appreciate meta-orgs like CEA and Magnify Mentoring: they don’t just help with skill-building, they help you see which obstacles can be solved with community support. Humbly bringing up Hive, as this is exactly what we are trying to do: to democratise access to the same ways of creating impactful connections and outcomes.
I remember a pivotal moment with my Magnify mentor who asked, “Sofia, why won’t you start a charity? Our community can help you.” Before that, I hadn’t even considered myself a strong candidate to do so, partly because I didn’t feel like I had the skills to make it happen, and never thought that our community can provide at least some of the help I’d need.
That said, I also think some constraints—especially structural or geopolitical ones—are harder to overcome. For example, I wanted to attend AVA Summit in the US in 2023 (where I knew it could really boost my chances of funding and connection-building). I had nearly 7 months’ notice, but I still couldn’t get a visa with my Belarusian passport.
That’s one reason I’m especially excited about more online opportunities and community-building. They’re not only more affordable—they’re also much more accessible for people in LMICs and others facing visa or financial barriers. We often have calls with new founders or impactful folks from LMICs and try to give advice on resources based on their challenges.
I love the idea of adding a prompt like: “What constraint are you treating as fixed—but might actually be movable with the right support?” That ties the calibration mindset with collective action. I might add this to the post—thank you again for this insight!
Hi Brad, thanks a lot for reading and your comment. This is such a thoughtful reflection, and I’m really glad you brought it up.
I love the idea of making constraints more permeable within the community. Your examples—like micro-grants (@Cameron King had this idea!), shared ops talent, and treating introductions as infrastructure—really sharpen it. This is exactly why I appreciate meta-orgs like CEA and Magnify Mentoring: they don’t just help with skill-building, they help you see which obstacles can be solved with community support. Humbly bringing up Hive, as this is exactly what we are trying to do: to democratise access to the same ways of creating impactful connections and outcomes.
I remember a pivotal moment with my Magnify mentor who asked, “Sofia, why won’t you start a charity? Our community can help you.” Before that, I hadn’t even considered myself a strong candidate to do so, partly because I didn’t feel like I had the skills to make it happen, and never thought that our community can provide at least some of the help I’d need.
That said, I also think some constraints—especially structural or geopolitical ones—are harder to overcome. For example, I wanted to attend AVA Summit in the US in 2023 (where I knew it could really boost my chances of funding and connection-building). I had nearly 7 months’ notice, but I still couldn’t get a visa with my Belarusian passport.
That’s one reason I’m especially excited about more online opportunities and community-building. They’re not only more affordable—they’re also much more accessible for people in LMICs and others facing visa or financial barriers. We often have calls with new founders or impactful folks from LMICs and try to give advice on resources based on their challenges.
I love the idea of adding a prompt like: “What constraint are you treating as fixed—but might actually be movable with the right support?” That ties the calibration mindset with collective action. I might add this to the post—thank you again for this insight!