A Deeper Look at Circle Eclipse with Circle CEO Sid Yadav

**Sid Yadav** (0:00)
How do we go from providing people with a set of tools, and all of those tools exist in one place, but it's still a lot of work to figure out and administer. How do we go from that to having this really clean ecosystem where someone can show up, and we get them to the right outcomes with the least amount of friction?

**Jay Clouse** (0:32)
Hello, my friend, welcome back to another episode of Creator Science. My guest today is Sid Yadav, co-founder and CEO of Circle, the community platform that powers the lab and thousands of other creator businesses, big and small. Creators like Tim Ferriss, Dr. Becky, Jay Shetty, and maybe even yours too.
Circle is absolutely foundational to my business, and I haven't actually had that much one-on-one time with Sid, so I was excited for this conversation. Sid has been building in the creator economy since before that term even existed. He was an early tech blogger, the third employee at Teachable, and today he leads a company of nearly 300 people.
This conversation comes at a really interesting moment because Circle just unveiled Circle Eclipse, their biggest product launch in the company's six-year history. In this conversation, Sid breaks down exactly what Eclipse is, where it lives in the product, what it means for creators who are already on Circle, including some hints at where the member experience is heading next. If you listen to the end, Sid gives his single most important piece of advice for community builders today, and it's the thing he says he sees people get wrong most often. We'll get to that full conversation with Sid right after this.
This episode is brought to you by Circle, and if I'm being honest, much of the Creator Science business is brought to you by Circle. That's because Circle is the platform powering the Lab, our membership community for professional creators. The Lab is the beating heart of our business, which means Circle is absolutely essential. So many of you listening to the show are already inside the Lab and have experienced Circle firsthand. I was actually a beta user of Circle back in 2020, and obviously I'm still using it today. I can't imagine hosting the Lab anywhere else. And that's because it's truly a tool that continues to evolve and listen to its customers. Let me tell you why I love Circle. It's the most user-friendly, admin-friendly, and fully featured community tool on the market. That's my very strong, very honest opinion. Even if someone has never been in a Circle community before, they have no problem quickly learning how to use it. And that is one of the most important aspects of any community tool. And Circle grows with you. It's dead simple to get up and running, but it's so robust that as you need more and more control and specificity, Circle provides it. In particular, their built-in automations just keep getting better and better. Learn more and start your own free trial of Circle at Circle.so. That's Circle.so.
This month, I am hosting the biggest event I've ever put on, and I would love for you to join me. It's called the Membership Summit. It's all about teaching you how to build a membership that works in 2026 I'll walk you through why many memberships fail in year one, the factors that decide whether someone renews or not, and together, we'll build a 30, 60, 90-day roadmap for your membership. It's all based on everything I've learned running the lab for the last five years. The lab earns about $500,000 per year, and I'm going to teach you as much as I can over these three days. The event starts on June 23rd and runs through the 25th. Register for free at membershipsummit.com. That's membershipsummit.com.
Sid, welcome to the show. Good to hang out in person at Press Publish last week. Now, I feel like we're overdue for this. Excited to chat about all the new things on the horizon for Circle, but also just get an hour to pick your brain because I think you sit in a really interesting position on top of this platform that a lot of listeners of the show use. You get to see how people are using it in unique and diverse ways. I think there's a lot we can learn here.

**Sid Yadav** (4:00)
Thanks for having me on. I feel like we are way overdue, by the way. How long have you been on Circle? It's been like four years, five years?

**Jay Clouse** (4:06)
I mean, I was a beta user, so depending on what number of account Matt and Pat had at SPI, I used that.

**Sid Yadav** (4:15)
Wow.

**Glenn Washington** (4:15)