This is me and the co founder from my first business, pictured in a coffee shop owned by one of our clients.. We had just signed a really big contract (big for a couple of 22 year olds, anyway).
We looked excited. But inside, I was feeling immensely isolated. We ended up running the whole company out of cash 18 months later.
I knew I wanted to be a founder, but I clearly wasn’t ready. So I moved to Philly to work at a small startup. It was the best decision I could have made. In three years I learned how to sell, manage people, forecast, and handle money. We grew to more than 15 employees and crossed a million in revenue. It was the coolest feeling ever.
The more I sold to founders building real companies, the more I realized how common my story was. Building a company is tough. Founder after founder told me the same thing: since the day they committed to entrepreneurship, they haven’t had a core group who wanted the same things out of life as them.
I remember asking the founder I worked for why he never went to networking events in the city. He said, “They all suck. They let anyone in, and you never really meet anyone. You just talk to a lot of people.” He was right. None of those events were built for founders to be vulnerable or real. Half the time you didn’t even need to be a founder to get in.
Back when I was building my first company, I didn’t want a room with 100 people just to say I was there. I wanted the right room, with the right people. A space where I could say what was really happening and not feel lesser for it. People I could trust to run high-impact decisions by.
That’s when I decided to start Thrive. It’s turned into the coolest thing I’ve done by a mile. It’ll be a big deal one day I think.
- Eric Harrison
Where We Are Now
Our members are doubling and even tripling their revenue. They’re making the right hires, landing clients through referrals, and in some cases, even finding co-founders. Two people met through Thrive, teamed up, and grew their company past a million in revenue.
Being around founders you believe are smarter than you is an absolute cheat code. It’s like having a living library of real experience at your fingertips. You’ll have their cell phone numbers. You’ll know about their families and personal lives. You’ll share financial goals, insecurities, and passions. These are the kinds of relationships where you don’t have to pretend.
Thrive includes founders who have bootstrapped to seven and eight figure exits. Founders who have raised capital and built technology that changes lives. Founders whose products create real, local economic impact. Founders who use their profit to fund charities and causes they care about.
The common thread isn’t what they’ve built, it’s who they are. Ambitious, generous, humble. The kind of people you’re proud to be in a Core Group with.
Where We’re Going
Every founder group that scales faces the same temptation. They grow too fast, loosen the standards, dilute the value, and lose what made it feel special in the first place.
We’re not interested in building a 10,000 person Slack or hosting webinars with celebrity founders. That kind of interaction doesn’t change anyone’s life.
Our focus is to be the most valuable source in the world for intimate founder conversations. No matter how large Thrive becomes, the rooms will always feel small, vetted, and intentional. Members will grow with their Core Group for decades, or as long as they’re a founder.
The goal is simple: for every founder in Thrive to jump into their Core Group and have the best conversations of their month.
That’s what real community feels like. It’s what I would have given anything to find when I was building my first company. And it’s what I’ll spend my life making sure the right founders can experience.
The Questions That Actually Get Asked
“I built a business that employs people, supports families, and looks successful by every external measure, but it’s not the business I was inspired to build. Is it selfish to want something different now?”
Q
“I built this with my cofounder, but we no longer want the same life, the same company, or the same pace. The business works, people depend on us, and every conversation feels like it could blow everything up. How do you confront that without destroying the company or each other?”
Q
Q
“I raised prices on new clients, but I’m still locked into underpriced legacy contracts that dominate revenue. How do you unwind bad pricing decisions without blowing up cash flow?”
“The business no longer feels risky to me, but my family is still living like it could disappear tomorrow. How do you help them update their sense of safety without forcing it?”
Q
“The business needs me out of the weeds to grow, but stepping back feels like gambling with something I spent years building. How do you actually let go when the downside feels personal?"
Q
Q
“I hired a Head of Sales four months ago. They’re my highest payroll expense and pipeline hasn’t materially changed. At what point do you cut this, and how do you know if the failure is them or the system I put them in?”
“I’m working more now than I did at $300k a year because the business is fragile without me. How do you redesign a company so it doesn’t collapse the moment you step away?”
Q
“We crossed seven figures, but my take-home is lower than it was at half the revenue. How do you figure out whether you’re overstaffed, underpriced, or just running the business wrong?”