Why Convening May Be Your Greatest Asset

A few weeks ago, I sat down with Raj Suri, Co-founder of Lyft and now Tribe, on The One Away Show.

Raj is also thee host of the Founders In Arms Podcast (subscribe if you haven’t)!

I left the conversation thinking less about AI and more about people.

That surprised me.

On paper, this should have been a conversation about technology, platforms, and the future of AI and software. And we did talk about those things. But underneath all of it was a deeper question I haven’t been able to shake:

What happens to human relationships when intelligence becomes infinite?

We are entering a world where content is abundant, answers are instant, and everyone has access to the same tools. AI can generate strategies, write articles, summarize books, automate workflows, and imitate expertise at scale.

As all of that accelerates, something else happens in parallel.

Humanity itself becomes differentiated.

Not intelligence, information, or production.

Presence.
Taste.
Trust.
Belonging.
The ability to make someone feel understood.

Those become scarcer. And scarce things become valuable.

That’s part of why Tribe stood out to me. Most people hear “community platform” and think about Slack channels, Discord servers, or another feed competing for attention.

But the way Raj talked about Tribe felt fundamentally different. 

In some ways, it reminds me of Reddit. Communities organized around shared interests, identities, passions, and curiosities. Spaces where people gather because they genuinely care about something specific.

But more human.

Also as a user, who runs the Arcbound Hiking Collective (join here), I can attest to this sentiment. It’s not another WhatsApp group to me where I’m talking to people 1:1. It’s a place where people can join together around shared interests.

Which inherently is less performative, and less optimized, around the size of my following. 

More intentional.

What Tribe seems to understand is that in the future, people will not just search for information. They will search for trusted environments. Places with context, identity, and emotional reality. 

Spaces where they feel seen rather than processed. That matters because the internet has conditioned us to confuse visibility with connection.

We have audiences, followers, impressions, and distribution at a scale never seen before in history. Yet many people feel increasingly fragmented and disconnected.

Everyone is producing, but fewer people are actually relating.

Over the years, I’ve become obsessed with the idea that relationships are the true infrastructure underneath almost everything meaningful in life and business. 

Real relationships built through repeated trust, vulnerability, generosity, emotional memory, and consistency over time.

That belief shaped Arcbound.

Because in trust-driven industries (mortgage, insurance, real estate, wealth management), people choose people long before they choose companies.

AI will only amplify that reality.

When everyone can create polished content, the differentiator becomes whether people believe you, remember you, and trust you enough to invite you into their decisions, communities, and lives.

That’s not to say content isn’t important. It definitely is, but the need is great for something “more”. That something more, requires intentional offline connection, to make one’s online presence, more believable.

That cannot be automated.

I think that’s why community is becoming more strategic than ever before. The best communities are not just places to communicate. They are ecosystems of trust. They create continuity, shared language, repeated interaction, and identity in a world that increasingly lacks all four.

People want belonging, trusted circles, and environments that feel emotionally real in a world increasingly filled with synthetic interaction.

Technology may scale communication, but community scales trust.

And maybe that’s the irony of where AI is taking us. The more artificial the digital world becomes, the more valuable deeply human spaces become.

That’s why I think what Raj and Tribe are building matters.

Not because people need another platform.

But because people are searching for places where they can connect around shared interests, ideas, identities, and ambitions without everything turning into performance theater for the algorithm.

And the people who matter most in the next decade may not be the loudest voices online with the largest followings. 

They may be the people who know how to convene trust and create environments where others feel understood, challenged, inspired, and less alone.

Because in a world where AI can generate almost anything, being deeply human may become the rarest signal left.

Community Notes

1) If you’re curious to find a tribe around your interests, or start a tribe, look no further than tribechat.com

2) Subscribe to The One Away Show, to hear Raj on tomorrow’s release talk about his vision in real time

3) Jerry White, a long time friend, recently released his book and new website. HUMANE LEADERS DON’T WAIT FOR CHANGE. THEY BECOME IT, SEE IT, AND DO IT. Whether you are an aspiring leader, a nonprofit changemaker, or a philanthropist seeking meaningful impact, BE SEE DO offers a practical compass for turning vision into meaningful change.