Gina Bianchini built Ning to 100 million users, then founded Mighty Networks to let creators build communities and courses outside social media algorithms. She argues the internet needs designer-created culture focused on real member connections and transformation, not algorithmic feeds.
I grew up in the orchards and track houses of Cupertino, California. As a kid, I watched Apple go from a startup to a powerhouse. I saw firsthand what was possible when a community of builders and tinkerers and engineers came together to understand a rapidly changing world and build something new together. It gave me a unique window into the power of a community and the positive impact technology could have on what we do, how we create what we believe is possible, and how to build something with amazing value that people are excited to pay for. Then, in 2007, I found my calling. I led a team that launched a software platform called Ning, which gave people a way to create their own social networks. These were social networks that creators built and owned. They brought members together around interests and passions and goals, but with a twist. It was their branding, it was their choice of features, it was their members. The creativity and connections that emerged from ning attracted nearly 100 million people around the world and had a profound impact on me. I saw the potential for a new Internet culture and a different relationship that we could have with technology that I brought to Mighty Networks. With Mighty, we are designing a world where you can host a community where courses and memberships in your own space, under your own brand, away from the algorithms, the distractions and the noise of social media. But you're not just building a community, a course or a membership. Our platform is unique in that you are able to create your own culture, a culture that you can design to get members results in transformation. They just can't get on their own. Your members can meet other members in totally new and fresh ways. They can quickly find people they have the most in common with and go on quests together that you set up through online courses, challenges, experiences and collaborations. This is just not possible anywhere else. It's exciting and an opportunity we believe can usher in a new era of the ways that we can bring people together, the ways we can have an impact and use the Internet for a bigger purpose. I love that together with tens of thousands of successful hosts on Mighty, we are proving that we can build a different Internet culture, one that we can be proud of.
