Interview: Community Manager from Fiverr Clayton Menzel

Clayton Menzel, an experienced Community Manager with a passion for growth. Clayton has built organizations from the ground up and currently manages Fiverr's community teams/partnerships located in the Northeastern part of the U.S. as well as Florida the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East.

We sat down with him and asked him some questions about the industry.

Why do you enjoy working with entrepreneurs and startups?

Their passion and energy is contagious. Being able to work with people who really do what they love, makes me love what I do. I like to think that I have the best job at Fiverr because I get to hear all of our users' amazing success stories on a daily basis.

The community here in NYC is also incredibly diverse and inclusive, especially when you compare it to San Fransisco. The "sense" of community is also strong as well. People are comfortable sharing ideas, mentoring younger/newer entrepreneurs, and ultimately growing with each other. Even if you are running your startup/small business completely by yourself, you are not alone, and that is extremely powerful.

What are your 3 favorite tools for doing [something your audience cares about]?

G-suite and Slack for sure. Both of these make it so easy to communicate and collaborate on day to day basis with my co-workers that work in our San Francisco or Tel Aviv offices.

I also just started using Station, which is a "work station" for all the applications I use on a day to day basis. It won Product of the Year on Product Hunt in 2017 and it basically keeps you from having to have 50+ tabs open on your web browser, which keeps your computer fast and organized.

We also, just acquired a company called And Co. They develop business software for freelancers and small businesses. Their software allows its users to create invoices, file expenses, and manage projects, all in one application. We also just made their service free for everyone.

What 3 things does anyone starting in your industry need to know?

1. Your most important investment is in the people you surround yourself with and work with.

2. A great idea is still just an idea. Proper execution of the idea is ultimately more important.

3. Stop trying to figure out how to sell your product better and start trying to figure out how to make your product great enough to where people actually want to buy it.

Any predictions for the tech industry? Top Gadgets or startups to watch?

I come from a background of political organizing. We use a similar model organizing our community as well. I believe Airbnb was the first major company that started using this model, but more and more companies are organizing their communities this way as well.

Uber, WeWork, and even Facebook have been organizing their communities. Engagement (especially offline engagement) has a real impact on the bottom line. As more and more work happens online, the human factor in business has never been more important.

Can you share some tips on how to get startups covered in the news?

Be genuine.

Tell us something interesting we should know about you?

I didn't have a smartphone until 2015.