Circle, the community platform behind more than 30,000 businesses, including those built around Jay Shetty, Oprah, Mel Robbins, Tim Ferriss and Johnny Harris, has promoted Sheel Shah to SVP of Ecosystem, a newly created role that consolidates the company’s partnerships, media and community teams under one leader.

Shah joined Circle eight months ago after roles as Chief Growth Officer at audiochuck, the media company behind “Crime Junkie,” growth and consumer revenue lead at Hearst Magazines across titles including “Oprah Daily” and “Men’s Health,” a strategy and operations stint with Colin & Samir, and building BuzzFeed’s first commerce business.

“We have a front-row seat to a massive shift in how businesses are growing online, and the fastest-growing companies are borrowing from the creator playbook: building authority, earning trust through authenticity, and turning an audience into a lasting business,” Shah said. “Content may be the entry point, but the real opportunity is to build a business around your expertise with products, memberships, community, and multiple ways for people to participate. Bringing partnerships, media, and community together lets us help more creators and entrepreneurs make that leap.”

Alongside the promotion, Circle is opening its own community to anyone building a digital business, not just its paying customers. The offering will include workshops and AMAs led by Circle’s creator partners, smaller cohort groups organized by shared work (business coaches grouped with other business coaches, seven-figure YouTubers with other seven-figure YouTubers), dinners, in-person meetups and an annual retreat. Alexis Teichmiller, previously Circle’s Brand Partnerships Lead, has been promoted to Head of Community Growth to run the initiative.

In a LinkedIn post announcing the changes, Shah framed the moves against a broader shift in how people monetize an online following. “Brand deals are getting some creators paid, but it doesn’t build you equity, because a following isn’t a business,” he wrote, adding that Circle is positioning itself as “the platform for something bigger: helping people turn what they know, who they know, and what they’ve built into an actual business they own.”

Circle’s own research has tracked a similar shift among the businesses it serves. In the company’s “2026 Community Trends Report,” released earlier this year, 67% of surveyed community builders said members join or stay because of shared identity and values, and 69.4% said community would play a larger role in their overall business strategy going forward. Circle described the current leadership change as an extension of that pattern to its own growth strategy.

Shah said the expansion comes from a position of stability rather than urgency, noting Circle has built “a very healthy $60M+ ARR business” even as he called the current growth environment “uniquely hard.”

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