Founder Society - An invitation-only organization of entrepreneurs

@mubashariqbal Good question that I get a lot. It's difficult to answer without coming off as ageist (which we genuinely are not trying to be). The best answer I can give you is that when we started FounderSociety and its sibling YEC (yec.co) we were trying to connect with our peers to make being a young entrepreneur a less lonely place. People in our same age group seemed to have similar life challenges as us so that became our focus. I do believe that depending on your age you experience different challenges as an entrepreneur. That said, we are also building new professional organizations as we speak without the 40 and under age requirement. I hope that's a good answer :)

@mubashariqbal @ryanpaugh You realise people over 40 may have already been through the challenges the younger ones are facing and know well how to handle them?

@drcongo I don't disagree with anything you're saying. This is something we discuss regularly as a team. Who knows... one day we might lift the age requirement. That said, in the meantime we do offer our members access to experiences businesspeople that are not members through our community. For example, we have the founder of Kiva doing a discussion with our members next month.

@ryanpaugh @drcongo Yes I understand that. But to say that everyone over 40 has all the answers, and doesn't need help seems strange to me. Why exclude people just because of their age. Many people come to entrepreneurship later in life, and could do with just as much help as they youngsters getting out of school.

@ryanpaugh Thanks for the reply. I can see where you're coming from and maybe adding some of this explanation to the website would nice. "Next generation" to me doesn't mean young, and I guess was just a little surprised to see the age limits.

@ryanpaugh @scottgerber @stvmcg How is this different from the rest similar closed groups for entrepreneurs?

@bogomep Great question! There are many great entrepreneurship orgs out there that have been around for decades that we respect and admire (EO, YPO, Vistage), but we believe the entire org model needs a re-boot. There are a lot of things we do differently, but the main idea is that we take a more concierge-level approach to helping our members. For example, every member has a concierge team that helps provide on-demand access to resources based on current business challenges. Another example, is the editorial concierge team who helps our members craft well-written content that we help them publish on media outlets (Forbes as an example) to position themselves as an expert in their industry. Also, our business services concierge is a vertical of our team that helps members save $ on things from accounting/finance needs to office supplies and everything in between. It's a very personal experience for every member. Feel free to email me at ryan@foundersociety.co and I can connect you to a member of my team for a quick phone call to ask more questions. Hope this helps!

@ott_max Where are you based in Europe? We plan on heading your way in a few years, but in the meantime maybe I can connect you with some great entrepreneur groups in my network.

@ryanpaugh Munich, Germany. Maybe you have something in your network.

@ott_max @ryanpaugh Yes you should come to Amsterdam :)

@bramk @ott_max Do you guys know about WeWork? They just opened up locations in both cities. I set up our offices out of their Boston building and it has been great. Even if you don't need physical space they're a great community to get to know. They have regular events that are open to the public. I'll send some more suggestions later today.

@ott_max @ryanpaugh mehh, the place in Amsterdam is like a claustrophobic fishtank haha ;)

@ryanpaugh Had a related quick Q--can we move to Twitter DM?

@nafisto Sure!

@ryanpaugh I applied!

@ghobs91 Thanks. Looks like you have a call w/ Jess on Wednesday. I let her know you found us via Product Hunt.

@ryanpaugh let me in please

@mattarevalo Check your email for next steps :)

@kurtybot Please keep in touch with us anyway. CommunityCo, the business I co-founded, is always working on new ways to bring ambitious entrepreneurs together using the same community building philosophies we used to create FounderSociety. Follow me on Twitter for updates or contact me directly anytime at ryan@foundersociety.co.

@dshan Thanks Derek! The main difference between YEC and FounderSociety is the business stage of the entrepreneurs. Through building YEC we had the opportunity to speak with so many amazing entrepreneurs that didn't meet the criteria, but we wanted to help. FounderSociety is our community for providing earlier-stage entrepreneurs with many of the same benefits and resources we have assembled through building YEC.

@melik_shah Thank you! Appreciate your support.

@tjmapes You will hear back in the morning. Thanks for your interest and it was nice speaking to you via email earlier.