"You don't need another mastermind. You need people who get it."
A curated roundtable for founders building $1M–$10M ARR — sitting across from peers who've already survived the scaling decisions keeping you up at night.
The specific loneliness of scaling a company while raising a family.
These aren't composite personas or marketing copy. They're real things real founders said in the first month of Convene — anonymized, but otherwise unchanged.
I've got a board, an advisor, and a therapist. None of them have ever had to decide whether to hire a VP Sales at $2.4M ARR while their co-founder is burning out.
— Bootstrapped SaaS founder, 4 years in
On the limits of traditional support
My wife asked me last Tuesday if I was still in this family. I said yes. I'm not sure I believed myself. The company was at $7M and I'd missed three school pickups that week.
— Second-time founder, Series A declined
On the calendar winning
Everyone in my network is either raising money or celebrating raises. I'm profitable, growing 40% YoY, and I feel completely alone in the decisions I'm making.
— Technical co-founder turned CEO, $3.8M ARR
On the bootstrapped loneliness
I promoted my best engineer to head of product six months ago. She's miserable, I'm miserable, and I don't know how to undo it without destroying the relationship.
— Founder, B2B SaaS, 18 months post-product-market fit
On the org decisions nobody talks about
You've been carrying these alone. There's a room where you don't have to.
Not features. Commitments the group makes to each other.
Convene isn't a platform with a login screen. It's a standing agreement between eight founders who've decided that showing up for each other is worth protecting.
"The monthly session alone is worth twelve months of conference attendance. You're not networking. You're being held accountable by people who know your actual numbers."
— Member, $6.2M ARR, bootstrapped
Peer Board Sessions
Three hours. Eight founders. One person brings a live decision. The rest have context, experience, and no agenda.
No slides, no pitches, no guest speakers. You bring the decision you've been sitting with — the one you haven't said out loud yet. The group has been there. They respond with what they wish someone had told them.
Founder Retreats
Two days somewhere worth showing up for. Structured mornings. Open afternoons. The kind of conversations that happen when phones are face-down.
Past retreats: a rented farmhouse in the Hudson Valley in October. A lake house in Montana in June. The format is light. The conversations aren't.
Private Thread Access
A private channel where the question 'has anyone else done X' actually gets answered by someone who has — usually within the day.
Not a Slack graveyard. A focused thread where members ask real questions and get real answers from people who've made those calls. The SNR is high because everyone here has skin in the game.
Who gets in. Who doesn't. Why saying no matters.
The value of Convene depends entirely on who's in the room. We review every application and decline the majority. That's not gatekeeping — it's the reason the conversations are worth having.
$1M–$10M ARR, building intentionally
The scaling decisions are real and the stakes are high — but you still have the leverage to make them deliberately.
Founder still in the room
Not a CEO who's handed off. Someone who still carries the product, the team, and the weight of the decisions simultaneously.
A life outside the company worth protecting
Family, health, something. Founders who've decided the company doesn't get everything — and are working out how to hold that line.
Raising a fund or actively seeking acquisition
The incentives diverge. A founder optimizing for exit talks differently than one building for the next decade.
Looking for leads, partnerships, or a co-founder
Convene isn't a network. If the primary reason you're here is deal flow, you'll get the most out of a different room.
Not ready to be honest about what's hard
The value here is proportional to your willingness to be specific about where you're stuck. Polished founders don't get much out of it.
The application process itself is the first filter. It asks you to be specific about what's hard. If that feels uncomfortable, Convene probably isn't the right room right now — and that's okay.
This is the first conversation.
No pricing on this page. No calendar link. We read every application and reach out personally. The question at the bottom is the most important one.