Elephant DNA

This past summer, I introduced the concept of the Elephant startup – a new archetype that maps to the behaviors and traits of the most interesting companies operating today. The gist is this: Elephants turn their customers into members and their companies into communities.

I didn’t expect Elephants to go viral, but it did. Hundreds of you wrote in, commented and scheduled chats to dive deeper on the implications of the framework. One founder told me, “I’ve been building this exact kind of company – an Elephant – for four years – I just didn’t have a name for it,” others pressed me to unpack the model and create more of a playbook, and others prompted me with nudges and challenges to help me refine my thesis.

What’s clear is that many of us – founders, investors, operators at startups, creatives – are eager for new language that corresponds to the kind of companies we are building and want to build. These companies aren’t driven by the same motivations and characteristics as the previous generation of unicorns. And, crucially, the language we use to describe these projects deeply affects both how we think about what we are building, and the outcome of the work itself.

While the Elephants piece outlined the traits of these companies, the most important missing question is: what really drives them? A deeper understanding here will help us more accurately diagnose mature Elephant companies today, as well as spot the next cohort. 

Elephant companies have three key traits: 

• they’re community-driven

• they’re purpose-led, and 

• they’re built in public

For the purposes of this piece, we’re going to zero in on the first trait. How do they build a loyal community of members? What drives people to have a cult-like connection to a certain company? How can you (as an investor, founder, journalist, etc.) identify these companies from a distance?

Unpacking Elephant DNA

Here’s the formula. 

Elephants are founded on one DRIVER, and one KEY VALUE. 

First, let’s make sure we are clear on what constitutes the drivers:

There are three main DRIVERS, each of which provides a lever by which customers can be drawn in closer, as members of a community:

1. IDENTITY (who you are)  

2. CAREER (what you do for work)

3. OBSESSIONS (what you do outside of work)

Identity drivers: these key traits that are core to who you are. Examples include: new motherhood, addiction, geographic location / community, being a member of the LBGTQ+ community, the sibling of someone with disabilities, and many more. 

Career drivers: quite literally, what you do for work. That could mean writing code, waiting tables, making art, teaching children, investing in companies – almost anything you can think of. 

Obsession drivers: these are your unpaid passions – everything from fitness and painting to birdwatching, gaming, astrology, sports and more.

Once you’ve identified the key driver associated with the company in question, you’ll then identify the one KEY VALUE underpinning the company’s mission. 

KEY VALUES are those deep-seated beliefs that you’ve always prioritized in your own life and often want to see more of in the world. They may range from creativity, accessibility, and equity, to connection, financial freedom and intellectual curiosity.

To complete the formula, you just combine one driver with one key value. Once you have it down, you’ll start to see elephant companies everywhere. 

Notable Elephants at Every Stage

Late-Stage Elephants

• Figma - designers (career driver) + collaboration (key value)

• Discord - gaming (obsession driver) + connection (key value)

• Strava - running & cycling (obsession driver) + community (key value) 

Adolescent Elephants – but growing fast

• Whatnot - collectibles (obsession driver) + financial freedom (key value) 

• Hugging Face - AI developers (career driver), accessibility/open source (key value)

• Angel City Football Club - sports (obsession driver) + equity (key value)

Baby Elephants (all in the Park Rangers Capital portfolio)

• EarlyBird - family & friends of children (identity driver) + financial freedom (key value)

• The Juggernaut - South Asian culture (obsession driver) + diversity (key value)

• Humans Anonymous - mental health advocate (identity driver) + connection (key value)

Applying the Model

Of course, no model is perfect. Each of the companies above, and all the companies you might be considering building, joining, or backing are driven by a diverse array of inputs and motivations. 

The real difference is that elephants are dominated by these drivers and these key values in everything they do, and they’re unafraid to share their elephant DNA externally by building in public.

We believe this model is a great formula to ensure you’re on the right path to building the ultimate moat: an obsessive community of members. If you don’t have these two foundational elements in place (driver + key value), it will be nearly impossible to build an elephant company. 

Always in search of elephants

At Park Rangers Capital, we meet with founders every day who are somewhere along their Elephant journey – whether they already embody the framework above, or are just “elephant-curious”. Our goal is to invest in, and support founders who are at the frontier of this movement and usher in a new archetype of what great companies look like in the years ahead. If your vision aligns with the Elephant thesis, don’t hesitate to reach out here, email me at [email protected], or DM us @parkrangerscap on all socials.