The Zip Community: Built by practitioners, powered by peers

For years, Zip customers and practitioners have been connecting in side channels, WhatsApp groups, and conference meetups. The conversations were already happening; comparing notes, swapping fixes, finding solidarity in a tough job. What was missing was a shared space where all that energy could live and grow.

Today, we’re opening the doors. The Zip Community is now live.

Why community matters today

In so many ways, we’re more ‘connected’ than ever, and yet often feel more isolated. Siloed teams. Endless Zooms. Comment sections full of people dunking on each other.

Procurement and finance professionals often operate like lone wolves, trying to keep up with an industry that moves incredibly fast. What worked last year might not work this year; you need a place to bounce ideas, sense-check decisions, and compare notes with people operating in the same realities.

Think of your favorite café or bar. No, not the closest one, but the one where they know your name and where you feel like you belong. That sense of familiarity and trust is the energy we’re aiming for with the Zip Community.

“The reason why I wanted to join the Zip Community is because procurement is growing very fast and no one should deal with it by themselves.” _{– Irina Poliakov, Director, Head of Global Procurement, AppsFlyer}

How to build a community for practitioners

We didn’t just slap a name on a workspace and call it a community. We started with the people already doing the work.

I joined Zip to rebuild this community from the ground up. The reason I took on this challenge was simple: Zip’s customers truly loved the product. As a community manager, that’s already half the battle. All that’s left is to take that energy and give it a proper home.

So the first things we asked were, “Where do you get stuck?” “What would make you show up?” “What would make this feel worth your time?”

Based on what we heard, here’s what followed:

• We ran a 10-week pilot with 100 members.
• Members chose Slack as their daily home.
• We tested formats: AMAs with Zip’s founders, peer match-ups, design workshops, and a Zip Forward planning session.
• We layered in moments that mattered: Women in Procurement night in San Francisco, a rooftop meetup in LA, two packed EMEA gatherings, and a candid webinar with superstar thought leaders like Susan Walsh and James Meads.
• We closed the pilot with in-person wrap events on both coasts, because the ROI of a good hang is real.

Every detail was shaped by member feedback, from programming to cadence and yes, even the swag.

What you’ll find inside the Zip Community

Here’s what the Zip Community offers from day one.

• Thought leadership: real stories and expert insights
• Community forum & education: private Slack with AMAs and workshops
• Events: in-person meetups and virtual sessions that take online relationships offline

And swag designed with our community, brought to life by our award-winning design team. You won’t find better swag in B2B (that is my official guarantee). 

Membership is curated so conversations stay high-signal and respectful.

It's a strictly no-sales zone; if you want to pitch something, take it to Shark Tank. You'll find small-group peer matchups for those messy cross-functional challenges that don't have clean solutions. 

The Zip Community maintains a human, editorial voice where practitioners come first and polish comes second—it can get messy, but in the best way! Members get early access to our flagship research, and Zip customers have direct product feedback loops to help shape what we build next.

The promise is simple: built by practitioners, powered by peers.

“This community is extremely inclusive. There's humanity here. Everyone comes together and gets to share their ideas regardless of their title.” _{– Cindy Yan, Procurement Leader, formerly Coinbase}

Here’s what’s next for this community of practitioners

If you’re in procurement or finance and want a room where the advice comes from people who’ve actually done the work, we encourage you to apply to join.

We’ll see many of you at DPW Amsterdam on October 8th, and we're planning our biggest gathering of the year at Zip Forward on October 21-22. It's this cycle of online to in-person and back again that makes communities really work. Bring your questions, bring a story to share, grab some of that good swag, and meet your people.

That’s what we’re building with the Zip Community. It’s a place to show up, add value, and give more than you take. That’s what I’ll be doing. I can’t wait to see you inside. 

Apply to join today: https://ziphq.com/community