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You may recognize Sophia Amoruso as the name behind iconic brands such as Nasty Gal and Girlboss. Her resume is packed with impressive accolades and career achievements — from scaling Nasty Gal to a $100 million company to being named one of Forbes’ Richest Self-Made Women — that have led her to the position she’s in now: helping a new generation of business owners. 

Sophia is now the founder and CEO of , a digital entrepreneurship community and membership-based platform for founders, creators, and solopreneurs at all levels. She’s also the founder and investor at an early-stage venture fund investing in companies that help people start and build businesses.

Here’s a snapshot of Sophia’s current business success: 

• Exceeded $5M in course and membership sales 
• Has over 3,500 members in Business Class 
• Helped businesses go from zero to over $100K in sales

Having achieved stellar success and navigated the challenges of entrepreneurship along the way, Sophia is ready to share what she’s learned and help entrepreneurs see similar success. 

“I’ve scaled my impact by inspiring people over the years, but actually sharing what I know is a really powerful thing,” says Sophia. She adds, “For anybody who has accumulated knowledge, experience, and unique insights that you can share with a community as a coach or through a course, a digital product makes sense.”

The Challenge: A Siloed Business

Sophia started Business Class in the fall of 2020 as a cohort-based course that launched twice a year. After signing up for the course, members get lifetime access to eight hours of course content, over 80 hours of video interviews with entrepreneurs like of FUBU and Shark Tank and of Away, and over 300 interactive worksheets. 

She initially chose 51���� to host her course because of the platform’s thoughtful and professional online course features. 

“51���� was always the beautiful jewel box where the [course] content lived,” she says. “The video content, the brand, and the colors look good and don’t look like an afterthought.”

There is also a community component of the Business Class membership called The Lounge. This is where members can collaborate, learn from one another, and share feedback in a private social network. While both components contributed to the business's success, they were originally housed on separate platforms with The Lounge living on Mighty Networks. However, having two logins and being on two different platforms created friction and made Business Class and The Lounge feel like different experiences.  

Sophia knew she needed to combine both elements into one platform to give members a more seamless experience.

‍The Solution: Going All in on 51����

When 51���� launched Communities, Sophi