How to Build a Movement, Not Just a Product

Every great company begins as a feeling. Before there is a product, there is a purpose. Before there is a team, there is a shared belief that something deserves to exist. That belief is what turns an idea into momentum, and momentum into a movement.

I have spent my career helping founders build companies that did more than sell something. They stood for something. From a crowdfunding platform that powered the largest relief campaign in history to a decentralized cloud network that challenged Big Tech’s grip on infrastructure, the pattern has been consistent. The companies that endure do not begin with a go-to-market plan. They begin with a go-to-meaning plan.

Movements Start With Meaning

At YouCaring, which later became part of GoFundMe, we were not selling software. We were scaling compassion. Our premise was simple and radical at the time: anyone, anywhere, could turn empathy into action.

When Hurricane Harvey hit, that belief moved faster than any paid campaign ever could. Houston Texans player J.J. Watt launched his relief fund on the platform, and within days it raised forty-one million dollars, becoming the largest crowdfunding campaign in history.

It was not luck. It was alignment.

People did not give because an algorithm found them at the right moment. They gave because they believed in what we believed: that generosity should be frictionless, and that helping one another should not require permission.

That is what movements do. They align emotion with infrastructure. They translate shared belief into collective action. In business terms, they scale meaning.

Products Solve Problems. Movements Solve Tensions.

Most startups are built to solve a problem. Faster payments. Better workflows. Smarter automation.

But the companies that define eras do something different. They resolve cultural tensions.

Airbnb did not begin as a cheaper alternative to hotels. It responded to a deeper tension between globalization and belonging. Tesla did not simply sell electric cars. It challenged the assumption that sustainability and status could not coexist.

In my work with Akash Network, the tension was about power. Centralized cloud monopolies controlled access to compute, shaping who could build and who could not. We were not selling servers. We were giving builders their sovereignty back.

If you want to build a movement, you have to identify the emotional tension your product resolves. Then you have to make your company the story that closes that gap.

Translate Complexity Into Clarity

At AdRoll, our challenge was not technical capability. It was translation. Retargeting was still a black box for most marketers. We turned it into a narrative people could understand and act on.

Within a year, we scaled to more than sixteen thousand customers, became the number one marketing company on the Inc. 500, and helped democratize a category that had previously belonged to a small, well-resourced few.

The same principle applies today to AI, blockchain, and every emerging technology. The founders who win are not always the ones with the most advanced tech. They are the ones who make the future legible before it arrives.

People do not buy technology. They buy transformation.

If you can describe that transformation in a way that people can feel, you do not just get adoption. You get advocacy.

Build a Story That Invites Participation

The most powerful movements are not monologues. They are mirrors.

They allow people to see themselves in the story.

When I worked with Relativity Space, we used narrative to unify a complex idea, AI-driven, 3D-printed rockets, into something emotionally resonant: a new way to build, iterate, and explore. That story did not just attract investors. It attracted believers. Within a year, Relativity became one of the most valuable private space companies in the world.

A company’s story is not what you tell the world. It is what the world tells itself when it sees what you are building.

The key is to leave room for others inside that story. Invite them to help shape it. Let them co-own it.

That is what we are doing with Wondr. We are not building a feed. We are building a participatory system that rewards curiosity and contribution. The more people give, the richer the ecosystem becomes.

A movement grows when people stop being users and start becoming co-creators.

Align the System to the Soul

Movements collapse when the mechanics do not match the mission.

You cannot reward meaning with manipulation. You cannot claim to value community while optimizing for extraction. The system must reflect the soul of what you are building.

At Wondr, we are applying this principle through AI and tokenized incentives designed to reward participation rather than exploit attention. When product architecture aligns with purpose, growth becomes self-reinforcing. You no longer have to push people forward. The system pulls them in.

Build for Believers, Not Bystanders

Your earliest adopters are not just customers. They are your cultural co-founders.

In a world optimized for virality, depth is your advantage. Start by finding the hundred people who believe so deeply in what you are building that they would help shape it, not just buy it. Give them access. Give them agency. Give them a stake.

If they feel ownership, they will bring the next thousand.

The Flywheel of Meaning

Movements do not grow in straight lines. They compound through belief.

Belief leads to participation. Participation creates proof. Proof builds alignment. Alignment fuels evangelism. Evangelism creates momentum.

This is not a funnel. It is a feedback loop. Each phase deepens trust, strengthens narrative, and expands reach in a way that feels organic rather than forced.

From Market Fit to Movement Fit

We talk constantly about product-market fit. But in an era where algorithms act as gatekeepers, the real advantage is movement-market fit. The alignment between what you are building and what the world is ready to believe in.

You can buy awareness. You cannot buy alignment.

That is the difference between noise and narrative, between growth and gravity.

In the End

Building a movement is not about having the loudest voice in the room. It is about creating resonance so strong that silence becomes impossible.

It is about designing products that make people feel seen, systems that make people feel valued, and stories that make people feel part of something larger than themselves.

The companies that will define the next decade will not just innovate. They will inspire. They will not just create markets. They will create meaning.

And when you do that, you do not just build a business. You build a movement.

If this resonated, subscribe at MalyLy.com for more essays on building the post-platform future.

Or join the early Wondr community at Wondr.co, where contribution becomes the new connection.