Meet Daniel Chae of LA in Common

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Chae.

Hi Daniel, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
LA in Common started in September 2023 as a casual way to gather people. There’s this notion in LA that it’s hard to meet people, and the jury’s still out—I think everybody would say it depends. But after hosting events and posting quite a few TikToks, the people who actually found community all started saying the same thing: you have to be consistent, you have to be intentional.
In the beginning, LA in Common was really just a social angle. I wanted to bring people together to meet new friends and see where it went. We gathered hundreds of people for wine hangouts. We had this series called neighborhood dinners where we’d set up dinner reservations and invite people from like a 5-mile radius—even that seems like a lot given LA’s relationship with traffic.
We were almost a victim of our own success. In those early days, we’d just gather people socially, and a lot of the themes centered around food and drink. Over time, I realized that food and drink is just one facet of community. You need multiple facets, multiple things that bring people together. That was door number one.
Door number two: I started examining who kept showing up to these events. We called them regulars—the consistent attendees. I’d ask them what kept them coming back. A lot of their answers centered around the types of people they were meeting. Not necessarily other foodies or people they could just hang out with—though those things were certainly true—but good people. People they found stimulation from, people who gave them this sense of wonder. I don’t really know how else to put it.
Door number three was diving deeper into this concept of “good people.” But what does that actually mean? Good people can mean a lot of different things. I had to look at myself first: who are the people I love being around personally? A lot of my time goes to people who are not just ambitious but kind. Driven but empathetic. Not chasing the bag at all costs.
And of course, food and drink is involved. It would be crazy to me if you live in LA and don’t enjoy food and drink. LA is such a great food town.
Ultimately, LA in Common is now focused on gathering good, kind, empathetic yet driven people who are just good human beings. People who enjoy eating and drinking, who love breaking bread, who love sharing in conversation—whether it’s super businessy or not. We tend to lean non-businessy. We’re very anti-transactional, which I think is our unique print on LA.
That’s how we got started. That’s the general ethos. Today, we’re about two and a half years in, and we’re a peer accelerator for kind, gritty entrepreneurs, builders, founders, and freelancers. Our defining characteristic is that we’re anti-transactional. We want to be anything but transactional. We want to be highly relational and look people in the eyes as we talk to them.
I talk a ton about shifty eyes in LA. That feeling of someone looking past you or through you at a networking event can be one of the worst things you experience while socializing. LA in Common, through and through, is a peer accelerator. It’s a community. That’s how we choose to identify ourselves.
In concrete terms, we offer weekly standups and regular in-person coworking sessions that create a rhythm to keep you consistent without the pressure. You build in your own time with like-minded people. We host monthly gatherings and make thoughtful introductions to connect you with people who are just as ambitious as you—and they actually follow through. Members ask for advice, collaborate on projects, get inspired, or just cheer each other along. We also have accountability pods that turn intention into consistency.
Our members span industries and identities—content creators, social club founders, storytellers, tax consultants, health and wellness brands, community organizers, board game creators, supper club savants, podcasters, secondhand goods pop-up creators, independent artist showcase creators. Some are full-time, some are part-time. All are building for impact.
If you want to grow alongside thoughtful, ambitious people who understand your world, you’ll feel right at home here.
Our vision is a world where good people can build sustainably. Our mission is equipping mission-driven builders with the community, strategy, and systems they need to sustain and scale their impact.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
This really takes me back. One of the first things that comes to mind: I went into all this with no business plan. I had a couple seasoned entrepreneurs tell me to write up a business plan, and I kind of just shook them off thinking, “I’ll figure it out as I go.” But for anyone trying to start anything, it’s so worth your time to come up with a plan—at least as an initial hypothesis—so you know where you’re headed.
This could have been a lot smoother of a road if I had some sort of plan. But also, I didn’t need it to be super structured and buttoned up. I actually enjoyed the experimentation and those bumps in the road.
The 18 months I was full-time on LA in Common were some of the most trying months of my life. Not even mentioning the financial side of things—I was pretty good about how I was going through savings and the revenue we were generating from events in those early days. What stressed me out more was the uncertainty of where LA in Common was going. At times as an entrepreneur, you feel so helpless to affect this thing you’re growing.
Especially in the events business and leveraging social media to share your events, you feel like you’re really catering to unpredictability. You’re at the mercy of social media algorithms and people’s schedules. That was tough.
When I think about struggles along the way, I think of clarity. There was a lack of clarity in those early years because we didn’t really know what we wanted. When I say “we,” I mean me and people who were trying to get involved—I couldn’t really give them a straight answer.
Classic questions like “What is our business model? Who are we trying to reach?”—I wish I had answered those early on. But I also didn’t feel like I had enough context to actually make that decision. Even if I had a business plan, it would have almost certainly changed multiple times. We’ve gone through so many pivots in terms of who we wanted to serve, who we wanted to attract and gather.
The lack of clarity along the way really showed. I never felt like we had trouble getting people to events. When we had clarity, the events we created really resonated with people. When we didn’t have clarity, it would show through in our branding and our marketing.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?

At its core, LA in Common is a community for purpose-driven builders.
A bit of backstory: we began because there was a need. I was tired of working in isolation and compromising my well-being for my mission. It seemed like everybody wanted to put profits over people, and that’s the hill I’m going to die on—people are so important. People over profits in terms of business practices. It’s just something I really believe in, and I don’t know if that’s a widely held belief, if I’m honest.
For me, I was always seeking out meals and honest conversations. Over time, it became clear that LA in Common was the solution to not just bringing like-minded people together, but holding space. That’s something I’m really proud we’ve created.
We’re essentially a peer accelerator. We’re a strategic ecosystem and a cultural home for kind, gritty, mission-driven builders—especially people of color. Our entire existence is geared towards helping build a world where good people can build sustainably. We deliver support without ego, structure without pressure, and growth without losing yourself.
LA in Common, through and through, is all about relationships. It’s all about genuine relationships. You could say that’s what we specialize in—we hold consistent space, and we don’t try to pressure people into going. At its core, LA in Common is a paid community subscription. Entrepreneurs and founders pay a fee to get in—it’s $79 a month if anyone’s curious.
If you’re a new member and you join LA in Common tomorrow, it’s a pretty high-touch application process. You fill out an application with very thoughtful questions around not just what you’re building, but why you’re building and what your needs are as an entrepreneur. It gets at the personal side of who you are—not just as an entrepreneur, but as a human being.
Members will tell you: one of the coolest aspects of LA in Common is that when there’s a need, chances are someone within the community knows somebody or something that could help you. But beneath that, a lot of our members talk about how it’s cool that we can just be friends, too. There’s a lot of like-mindedness in how we all build friendships, how we connect with each other. We all have a value for breaking bread and just spending time with each other. It’s very anti-transactional that way.
When I think about what sets us apart relative to others—especially startup accelerators or accelerators bringing lots of entrepreneurs together—it can feel like such a quantity game. I’m so proud of how we focus on quality and relationships and being present with each other. That whole notion of shifty eyes? We’ve eliminated that within our community.
If there’s one thing I want your readers to know, it’s that we just really love people. We love relationships. We love being present. It’s funny because I feel so detached from entrepreneurship and business sometimes. I would just say that we’re a community of builders. At the end of the day, we’re focused on building profitable businesses. But I also don’t think it has to be either/or. I think it’s both. It’s this combination of we love people, we value relationships, and at the same time, we also want to build sustainable, profitable businesses.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
This is an interesting question. I’m trying to think—if I’m not me and I’m somebody else, what would they find surprising about me?
The first thing that comes to mind: I don’t think this shines through right away, or maybe it does and I’m just lacking the self-awareness. But I have this undying loyalty to people. I don’t know if you pick up on that within meeting me, but for me, loyalty is so important.
Loyalty within community creates this really neat effect of high commitment. When you have loyalty within a community, you can leverage that to really build trust. I don’t know if it’s surprising, but I think it’s a defining characteristic that you don’t necessarily see right off the bat. If you meet me for lunch or coffee or whatever, I don’t think you’re going to think, “Wow, this person is just so loyal.”
I think you see it in my consistency over time. Just checking in on people. Genuinely caring. Whether it’s a layoff or death of a loved one or things that happen personally to our members—for me, it’s just checking in. I want to care. I want to hold that burden with you.
That’s kind of what comes to mind.

Pricing:

• Our membership is $79/month!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.laincommon.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laincommon/
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/laincommon