From Platform to an Ecosystem: "You Don't Have to Choose"

Written by Kristina Todorova, Founder and CGEO of the Co-created Hub.

Traditionally, I end each year with an article and social media posts reflecting on lessons learned over the course of the year. This year, I chose something different.

I slowed down.
I stepped away from content creation.
I spent time with my family.

And I decided to reflect on and write a piece that encompasses the past three years of building the Co-created Hub, and summarises what I personally stand for, and what this platform will focus on in 2026.

Our Journey

Since launching the Co-created Hub, we’ve reached almost half a million people around the world -  424,269 to be precise. What matters most to me is how this reach was created.

No paid ads.
No marketing budget.
No growth hacks.

Almost 50% of our organic visibility has been driven by the Inspiration Blog Series - a body of work dedicated to educational content, founder stories, and deeply human conversations about growth, leadership, and purpose.

When I first launched the blog series (in 2021, when the Hub didn’t exist in its current format but as a digital coaching platform), my goal was to offer self-coaching content to people who might be going through challenging times in their lives or businesses. So that they could benefit from hearing someone’s story and receiving tips, for free, on how to create positive change, irrespective of one's circumstances.

Once upon a time, I was that person. I could not afford to hire help. I ended up selling a few handbags I had bought during my corporate days and found a way to fund energy healing, but I didn't have a reliable income at the time that was substantial enough to pay for ongoing help. 

The blog grew to thousands of monthly visitors within a month of its launch.

Then, in 2023, I rebranded to the Co-created Hub and integrated the community aspect into the platform, offering a safe space for fellow founders where they could connect, exchange services and resources and support each other while using the platform to drive visibility to their businesses. Again, launching the community pillar was inspired by a very personal moment in my life – a burnout leading to a severe mental health disorder, and personal setbacks that led to our family business going bankrupt and losing my father to a heart attack in the summer of 2024. 

Externally, I was an award-winning coach, building a startup and working full-time as an L&D Department Head in a fast-growth scaleup (scaling rapidly, with 1b of funding). Internally, I felt more alone than ever and I used to say to myself that “if this is what success is, I do not want it.“

I performed in public. I even gave keynotes. And I cried in private. This was what led to rebranding my platform to the Co-created Hub and creating a private community where we did not need to perform as founders, but could be open and vulnerable without losing credibility – exactly the opposite – where trust was built through authenticity, value exchange, and collaboration.

2025: The Transition - From Platform to an Ecosystem

2025 was a pivotal year. My dad's departure completely shifted my mindset and priorities. 

The private, invite-only community model wasn't allowing me to reach and help more people live, so I decided to launch something entirely new, deviating from the invite-only founder container and creating the Co-created Network - a media-for-good network offering only live, two-way experiences dedicated to streaming growth-focused events and bringing people together – to connect, to converse and learn in real-time.

No passive consumption.
No performative thought leadership.

No learning from self-proclaimed gurus who are selling you a dream without having faced the challenges that everyday people face or being transparent about their growth journeys. 

Instead - real conversations. Real connection. Facilitated by a collaborative community of entrepreneurs who understand the challenges they help others navigate because they have experienced them too.

By partnering with gifted founders and seasoned entrepreneurs, we launched 8 transformational channels that act as ecosystems, each hosting monthly live experiences designed to support holistic personal, leadership, and business growth.

Since the release of the channels in October 2025, we have reached 80+ people internally, inside the Co-created Network membership, through our complimentary access passes, and almost 100,000 people externally (99, 271) through the educational content shared on the platform. 

Despite the fact that there were just a handful of articles released in 2025, the blog continued to be a steady pillar of growth. This reaffirmed something I’ve always believed: when content is created with integrity, depth, and service at its core, it finds its people.

Our articles began to appear on the first page of Google completely organically, and featured businesses reported that our blog helped them generate leads and business collaboration opportunities. I even monetised some of our blog categories to spotlight businesses and help them drive revenue. 

Why this work matters to me beyond wearing the founder hat

The Co-created Hub began its life in 2021 as a digital coaching platform offering free self-help resources before evolving into what it is today. At its core, the vision remains the same - simply connecting people with the people and resources they need, while growing businesses through the platform. 

Whilst the core of it remains the same, the way we deliver this vision has and will continue to expand in 2026. So that we can:

• support people in remembering their innate power; the power to transform any experience that tests their resilience into an opportunity for growth and positive change.
• help founders and leaders learn conscious self-mastery, through community, in a safe space, and by having access to services, resources and experiences they need  - whenever they need them.
• help early-stage businesses grow -  in reach, revenue and impact.
• help larger businesses optimise performance more holistically and shift business culture so that purpose, positive impact, revenue and team well-being are not just tick-box PR words but interconnected pillars that drive meaningful, sustainable growth on all levels of the business.
• and help entire communities to be formed and supported for positive societal change to occur globally (this is more of a long-term aspiration for when we begin to expand beyond technology and into also offering in-person experiences).

We are living through a mental health pandemic.

We are disconnected from ourselves and others despite being more (technologically) connected than ever.

We’ve built systems that reward public performance over inner alignment and stability, monetary gain over meaning, and curated identities over authenticity.

Too often, success is pursued at the expense of well-being, family, and the people who help build our businesses. But why? Who are our role models?

Something needs to change. We can do better as a global society. We must do better for our future generations.

And that change is up to us to create. It starts with each and every one of us individually and - it starts internally first. 

We do not have to choose between performing at our peak level and being healthy, between family and success (if this is what we want), between revenue and positive impact.

Through this platform, I am committed to continuing to offer resources that can help you connect with yourself (and others) on a deeper level, and learn to live, build, connect and create success in alignment with your Core Self - with who it is that you are as consciousness and a human being.

Although sacrifice may, at times, be a necessary part of the journey toward growth and success, lasting fulfilment is created by deeply understanding ourselves and bringing consciousness into our choices, challenges, and direction.

Looking Ahead: 2026

With the launch of the Co-created Hub app next year, my intention remains the same - to reach millions of people globally and provide tools, practices, and resources that genuinely support them in:

• Going inward and reconnecting with themselves.
• Building resilience and inner strength.
• Navigating the ups and downs of life and business with clarity and compassion.
• Developing founders and leaders who lead with both mind and heart.
• Growing and scaling businesses that enhance well-being, sustainability, and collective impact.

This platform exists to remind people that success does not have to come at the cost of their humanity.

That collaboration is more powerful than competition.

And that while artificial intelligence can and will support our collective evolution, it will never replace what gives true meaning to our lives: human-to-human connection. It also cannot replicate our connection to Source - our innate, heightened intelligence that exists beyond the limits of the rational mind. And I am on a mission to help those of you who are interested in this type of work to explore and strengthen this connection.

Business Talk: Opportunities to Get Involved in Our Growth Journey

Since day one, I have launched, funded, developed, and grown the Co-created Hub from scratch. Along the way, I’ve declined multiple investment opportunities - not because growth isn’t important, but because fast scale without genuine impact has never been the goal.

As we move into this next chapter, I am open to aligned funding conversations with angel investors and VCs who believe in scaling media-for-good networks and conscious ed-tech platforms - without compromising the soul of the work.

I’m also looking to bring a Chief Operations Officer on board (largely equity-based) - someone who feels called to help steward this vision and support us in reaching 1M+ people in 2026. This work is about building something that truly supports people - from founders to enterprise teams and beyond.

If that resonates, you’re already part of this story, and you can connect with me directly to have a chat at [email protected].

To wrap up this blog post - I would like to wish you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2026!