The Founders Club

The Founders Club is a vetted membership community for founders scaling seven, eight and nine-figure businesses, launched in 2023 by Chris Meade of CROSSNET and Aaron Spivak of Hush Blankets. It has grown quickly: the club counts more than 1,700 members across twelve North American chapter cities, and Forbes reports around three thousand applications a month.

Who joins

The thresholds are published, which most communities in this category do not do. Applicants must be the founder or owner of an active business with at least US$1 million in annual revenue, or qualify through US$2.5 million raised or exited, or US$3 million in professional-services revenue.

The membership skews younger than most groups in this directory. Forbes describes members generally in their twenties and thirties, many of them e-commerce and agency founders like the two men who started it. Chapters run in New York, Austin, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Toronto, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago and Vancouver.

How access works

Application, then multi-step vetting on revenue, motivation and character. The founders say openly that people whose goal is to sell to members are screened out. A nomination route exists for candidates put forward by existing members.

The membership fee is not on the site. Forbes reported US$5,000 a year in 2024, a figure that may have moved since. Retreat tickets are priced separately and published, at US$3,000 to US$4,500 depending on room type.

One thing to weigh: the club runs a formal sponsorship programme, including a preferred-partner status that recommends chosen vendors to members through the app, email and events. That is disclosed rather than hidden, but a recommendation reaching you through official channels sits alongside a commercial relationship.

What members get

The club claims more than 150 member events a year. The core formats are monthly masterminds of eight to twelve founders, private dinners of twenty to fifty, a flagship Founders Forum summit run twice a year, an annual winter retreat in Mexico and a weekly virtual speaker series, plus men's and women's growth workshops under a mind, body and business banner.

For a family office reader, this is not a wealth community and does not pretend to be one. Its relevance is the same as Hampton's: members are at the point where a business turns into personal wealth, and the raised-or-exited track means recently liquid founders sit alongside operators. Compare it with Hampton, which is smaller and stricter on thresholds, and the Entrepreneurs' Organization for the same shape at global scale.