CO+HOOTS Member Profile: Commun.ity and its neighborly interactions
It’s no mystery that a company called Commun.ity would be a major advocate of community-building. However, that’s all part of our member’s charming goal: open collaboration with no ifs, ands, buts or secrets about it.
In a world of tech developers and social media moguls, Commun.ity is the rare app that expands far beyond the digital realm. The startup empowers locals to create news and events for their community, while enabling them to request services from and provide services for their neighbors. The end result weaves together groups of church members, colleagues and more to form close-knit relationships in the physical world.
In addition to energizing and engaging local communities, founder Aditi Madane said her app will ease the stress put on families in need through collaboration and real-life conversation. This is something that her own family sought when they first moved overseas into a new country, where closed doors made neighborly interactions more daunting than necessary.
“Me and my husband, we both are transplants over here in Phoenix and moved here from India about 14 years ago,” Aditi said. “As we were raising our very young family, we really missed the connections with the people near us, for the kids to play with or just people we could talk to.”
Commun.ity does not solely benefit those in need. The startup aims to rebuild a culture of open, nonjudgmental discussions for all. In turn, this will encourage friends to easily ask for and provide for each other in a sustainable community — even if it’s just watching another local’s dog one day and borrowing laundry detergent the next week.
“In the time of Facebook, we like the pages of only what we believe, so we only consume that information that is in line with what we believe,” Aditi said. “We never hear different points of view… There is no software that facilitates that either, so I think that is what I feel Commun.ity will do: reduce these barriers and help people quickly reach out to other people for help, for their daily needs or any life support services.”
As the app enters its first communities in January, leading to its public launch later in the year, Commun.ity will begin its activating its goal to form connections.
“The impact of Commun.ity really is reducing the isolation people feel sometimes, to be able to easily connect with the people near you or to form new friendships, to be really engaged,” Aditi said.
With CO+HOOTS as an equally community-focused space, Aditi said it made sense for her to join the encouraging, energizing environment as a member.
“CO+HOOTS cares for its members,” Aditi said. “It wants to build those connections, so it clearly goes into the work that I’m doing. It helps a lot, being in a space that has the same ethos.”
As Aditi works to scale her young business, she said she hopes Commun.ity will become a leader in changing local perspectives through physical interactions.
“In these changing times, it is a way for people to interact with people who look different, who speak different or who think different and to be okay with that and to create that local, strong connection,” Aditi said.
For Aditi, these interactions are not simply a large-scale goal for the future of her business. Rather, they have become her favorite part of creating Commun.ity — an indication that she has become a true entrepreneur, free from over a decade in a cubicle and acting as her own boss.
“It’s very freeing to get out of the cube and to meet new people and to implement your own version of the world that you want to see,” Aditi said.