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The Business of Connection with Mallory Contois of Old Girls Club

December 18, 2024·42 min·1 clip

In one word, what is your purpose? Lifting.

Mallory Contois, community lead at Mercury and founder of Old Girls Club (1800-person virtual community), discusses how true community differs from marketing tactics. She emphasizes that community requires viewing connection as a product with empathy-first design, sustained over years. After 2.5 years running OGC solo, Mallory recently hired her first employee—a mental shift from treating it as hobby to business. She explains why three attempts to segment the community into cohorts failed (people wanted access to the full group) and why leaders must commit to minimum 1-year timelines. Her core insight: community and marketing sit too far apart organizationally; bridging them via product thinking creates unfair advantages.

As heard by us

Community work, stripped of polish, and made useful by candor.

This conversation treats community as work, not branding. Katie McBride sits down with Mallory Contois, a generalist community builder, operator, investor, and advisor who leads community at Mercury and founded Old Girls Club, a virtual community for women and non-binary people…

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Why you'd press play

Listen if you want a candid, community-minded conversation about experimentation and learning fast.

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