As others mentioned, you can't stop them from doing this. It's a cutthroat game where companies will try to poach customers however they can.
Best defense is making your customers so happy they won't switch, but tactically:
- Create a private Slack/Discord for paying customers only (harder for them to infiltrate)
- Move community to a platform with anonymous usernames (Something similar to Reddit-style forums or Discord with display names)
- Add some soft vendor lock-in -- a bit evil but sometimes necessary - just maintain the balance between retention and not being user-hostile
On a positive side, if a VC funded startup is this desperate to poach your users, you're clearly doing something right.
Best defense is making your customers so happy they won't switch, but tactically:
- Create a private Slack/Discord for paying customers only (harder for them to infiltrate) - Move community to a platform with anonymous usernames (Something similar to Reddit-style forums or Discord with display names) - Add some soft vendor lock-in -- a bit evil but sometimes necessary - just maintain the balance between retention and not being user-hostile
On a positive side, if a VC funded startup is this desperate to poach your users, you're clearly doing something right.
- from fellow wannabe bootstrapper