Scalable Systems for Growth Through Community
Led by Laís de Oliveira, Hacking Communities exists to transform how individuals and organizations connect, grow, and thrive.
With over 15 years of global experience across startups, executive education, urban innovation, and entrepreneurial ecosystems, Laís de Oliveira is a global community architect, founder, and writer. She is the author of Hacking Communities and founder of Nest & North, where she helps leaders and changemakers clarify their voice and build relevant communities through creative storytelling. Laís previously led global growth at Startup Grind and Startup Genome, advised the Malaysian government on grassroots innovation, and scaled operations across 70+ U.S. cities as Head of North America at Timeleft.
A former founder with a successful exit, she brings a rare blend of GTM strategy, brand storytelling, and human-centered design to every project she touches. From advising founders and CEOs on scaling intentional communities, to building infrastructure that supports human connection, she brings systems-thinking, agile execution, and a deep belief in people to everything we do. Whether you're building a business, a movement, or a moment that matters—Laís is your partner in crafting experiences that drive results and meaning.
Trusted by Teams, Leaders & Partners
Publications
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Hacking Communities: Cracking the Code to Vibrant Communities by Laís de Oliveira is a heartfelt and strategic guide for anyone seeking to build authentic, trust-centered communities in a world shaped by disconnection and digital overload. Instead of offering sterile checklists, this book feels like a journey home — a powerful metaphor Laís uses throughout the book to describe community as a place where people feel safe, seen, and free to be themselves.
Why Read It?
Because loneliness is an epidemic, and communities are the antidote.
Because belonging isn’t built with likes and follows, but through trust, rituals, and real human connection.
Because you're not just creating a group — you're cultivating a living system that grows organically, like a dandelion spreading seeds.
Core Frameworks Inside:
The AHA Values – Authenticity, Humility, and Abundance as the cultural foundation of thriving communities.
Community Lifecycle – From Seed to Flying Seeds, each stage helps leaders design growth that is relational, not just numerical.
5Ps of Community Design – People, Purpose, Participation, Programming, Platform – a simple yet deep model for intentional structure.
Engineered Serendipity – Based on Collision Theory, this method helps spark meaningful encounters through density, frequency, and catalysts.
Closeness Circles – A model for scaling trust through transparent, layered proximity (Core, Inner Circle, Network, Crowd).
User Contribution Journey – Guiding members from attraction to legacy, mapping how people grow with the community, not just in it.
Laís combines personal stories (from Brazil to Kuala Lumpur to San Francisco) with systemic thinking, psychology, and practical tools to transform how we approach communities — not as projects, but as ecosystems of shared humanity.
✨ If you’re a community builder, startup founder, cultural architect, or simply someone who believes that connection is the future, this book is for you.
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Portuguese Version of Hacking Communities, released in partnership with a major publisher in Portugal and Brazil.
Book Reviews
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“Most people who talk about community building want to romanticize it, or worse, they want to make it into a series of actionable “steps” without heart. Laís de Oliveira explains the required actions in amazing detail, but she does it with a sensitivity and a wisdom that can only come from experience (...) Every page gets better and better. If you care about people, read this book”
– Roy H. Williams, Author of the bestselling trilogy: Wizard of Ads
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"An accessible and tactical guide to building community. As if Lais, in her work building up StartupGrind and other communities, wasn't enough of a reason to buy the book, her research-based approach to spark and scale communities is so clearly laid out in the book, within the first few pages I was already writing down notes of what I could be doing."
– Zvi Band, Entrepreneur and Author of Success Is in Your Sphere: Leverage the Power of Relationships to Achieve Your Business Goals
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“It's both: practical and heartwarming. Besides rich personal experience told in a raw and authentic way, you can expect to find well-researched insights into community building… get ready for actionable know-how on how you can hack a community around your product, company or an idea.”
– Natasha Zolotareva, Journalist, International Media Specialist and Writer at Entrepreneur.com
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"Required reading for anyone looking to build communities. Part raw accounts from the journey of building communities -- from Malaysia to San Francisco -- part actionable guide for building communities; this book is a fantastic read. Highly recommended."
– Arnobio Morelix, Co-Founder & CEO at Sirius Education, Author of Rebooted: An Uncommon Guide to Radical Success and Fairness in the New World of Life, Death, and Tech
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“The reason why it is possible using Oliveira’s strategy to hack a community is precisely because she doesn’t focus on strategies and tactics for building community. She wants to help you, the person building the community, grow into the mindset of being a community builder … This (book) is to understand how to build communities intrinsically. We’ve needed this in the space. It’s beautiful prose and it’s highly introspective. It’s tremendously artful and it deserves a read. It deserves two reads. Four reads. It deserves a lot of reads.”
– Samantha “Venia” Logan, Founder at Socially Constructed Online
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"This is an incredible book about how to build organizations that are based in trust and founded in a sense of purpose. Many leaders build this web of safety consciously into their business and Lais does a great job at breaking down how high impact leaders intentionally build safety, acceptance and belonging into their organization. Interspersed throughout the book are anecdotes from thought leaders such as Brene Brown and classic 20th century writers. I loved reading this book and as a founder of a quickly growing organization, learned a lot from it."
Verified Reader (on Amazon Reviews)
About Laís de Oliveira
Laís de Oliveira is a seasoned entrepreneur and executive with over 15 years of global experience in community building, business management, and innovation.
Laís de Oliveira is a seasoned entrepreneur and community strategist with more than 15 years of experience designing ecosystems of connection, belonging, and growth across continents. Her work spans the intersection of entrepreneurial ecosystems, civic innovation, and systems thinking, grounded in the belief that strong communities start with shared identity and intentional design.
Throughout her career, Laís has founded and led successful ventures, executive education programs, and global communities for startups, nonprofits, and government agencies. She’s known for turning vision into action: creating scalable systems that foster participation, loyalty, and impact. Her work spans industries including tech, education, real estate, and social innovation, always rooted in community as a catalyst for growth.
Having lived and worked in Mauritius, Argentina, Chile, Malaysia, the United States, Portugal, and Brazil, Laís brings a rich international perspective and a deep understanding of cultural nuance.
Background Story
Laís began her entrepreneurial journey as founder of 8spaces.co, a hyperlocal marketplace for underutilized commercial spaces, which was later acquired by FlySpaces—marking her first successful exit and igniting her passion for spatial design and community infrastructure.
Her work as APAC and Africa Community Director at Startup Grind took her to over 80 cities, launching local chapters in Buenos Aires and Kuala Lumpur and supporting thousands of founders in building local startup ecosystems. In parallel, she helped key Malaysian Government organizations to design Malaysia’s national startup strategy as a Community Strategy Consultant. Later, as Community Director at Startup Genome, she advised cities on innovation policy and ecosystem development. In 2021, she founded and led On Deck’s Community Builders Fellowship, a pioneering peer-learning program for nearly 300 community leaders, executives, and founders.
Most recently, Laís served as Head of North America at Timeleft, where she scaled U.S. operations from 40 to 70+ cities, built a distributed team, and launched strategic partnerships with over 2,000 venues. Her leadership helped nearly double monthly revenue and brought Timeleft's mission of serendipitous social connection to urban centers across the country—earning press from outlets like the Today Show, CBS, NPR, and Vox.
Her global insight, cross-cultural fluency, and executional rigor make her a trusted partner in turning bold visions into grounded, scalable systems: whether building companies, movements, or intimate experiences that shift culture.
Since 2018, through Hacking Communities, she has advised mission-driven organizations on community architecture, go-to-market strategy, brand narrative, and experience design.
Today, Laís continues her work through Nest & North, guiding storytelling-driven journeys for leaders navigating identity shifts, and co-creating spaces where care, creativity, and ambition coexist. A mother, migrant, and multidisciplinary builder, she brings heart, clarity, and momentum to communities ready to grow with intention.