Hey Product Hunters, I'd like to offer something special to any of you who apply to join FounderSociety. Please leave a comment on this thread and let me know if you have requested an application on our site (foundersociety.co) so I can make sure my team takes good care of you during the application process.
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@ryanpaugh Had a related quick Q--can we move to Twitter DM?
From the founders of YEC (@ryanpaugh and @scottgerber), Founder Society is dedicated to connecting, accelerating, spotlighting and mentoring the next generation of rising stars in entrepreneurship.
@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!
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@ryanpaugh congrats on this! I love how you and @scottgerber have created excellent communities for entrepreneurs—and I'm honored to be a part of it through the YEC. :)
@v4violetta Feel free to email me at ryan@foundersociety.co. Maybe we have something in the works that would be a great community for you to be a part of :)
Just wanted to extend a thank you to @stvmcg for sharing FounderSociety today. If anyone has any questions feel free to reach out to me at ryan@foundersociety.co.
@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.
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@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.
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@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.
@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.
@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.
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