Hampton Community for Founders – My Review After 4 Years
Recently, I was at a store while wearing a shirt that had the Hampton wordmark on it. Someone in line asked me “So what’s Hampton?” Here’s how that interaction went:
“Hampton is a community for founders, so we can help each other grow our businesses”
“Oh, like for startups?”
“Not really – you have to be of a certain size, usually larger than a startup”
“Well what do you guys do in this community?”
“We meet up in person from time to time, just to get to know each other, and beyond that we’re really just there for each other – we help each other out.”
“Oh got it, it’s a secret society. You could have just said it’s a secret society.”
I get why they reached that conclusion. If you can’t explain something in concrete terms like a swim club – “It’s a place where we go swimming” — then it starts to sound mysterious. The simplest place to start is with the people: Hampton members are some of the most relentlessly ambitious entrepreneurs I’ve met. It genuinely feels like they are trying to break the sound barrier in business every day – from folks running their business on bleeding-edge AI, to operators who own “boring” businesses like government contracting and are asking themselves “why can’t this old business be as valuable as a tech company?”. There are some revenue thresholds you must cross to join, but I think the mindset is more important.
The assumption many founders jump to is transactional – it’s “a place to network”, or “to meet other businesses you can sell to”. I’m not saying none of these are true – yes, you can network with other businesses, you may even do business with them, or meet top entrepreneurs – but in my experience as the (exited) founder of an 8-figure company, there’s a depth to membership that isn’t discussed nearly enough.
The membership experience of Hampton has two elements: there’s a Slack workspace for the entire community of 1000+ members (as of 2026), and in-person events. They accomplish two different things. In person, members are generous with their focus and vulnerability. I meet with my core group of 8 entrepreneurs for 3 hours every month, and for that period of time each of those people is the most important person in the world to that group – we aren’t checking phones or answering email. We’re there to hear about the deeper side of running a company – the impact it might have on your family, your finances, or your emotions. We also gather in person just to have fun and get to know each other: retreats, parties, dinners, etc. On Slack, Hampton members are generous with their experience and advice – things that worked or didn’t work in their companies, pragmatic advice (do this, don’t do that), vendor and partner referrals, all the way down to health hacks and favorite products (spoiler: everyone should just buy an Eight Sleep).
I joined Hampton when it was brand new – we had about 100 members. Back then, the community was 100% Slack based with a monthly core group meeting over Zoom. During those early years I noticed it was slightly more transactional than what I’d seen among EO and YPO members, many of whom are close friends of mine. Candidly, the issue was that some (not all) members were holding a mental ledger of “did I make back more than I paid in membership fees”. The culture it needed was “these are awesome people that I care about – how can I help them more?” Hampton’s pivot in the past 1-2 years towards IRL groups changed the dynamic – now you saw the stories and families behind these members, and the mental ledger faded away. After that re-tooling of the community, I found even on Slack everyone was showing up with the frame of “here’s what I’m great at – I want to give it to the group and share it”. Once everyone starts doing this, the community provides more value than you could ever imagine – it is abundance. You get out of it what you put into it.
So here’s my take after 4 years: it had a rocky start (all new things do), but Hampton has been a great community for me as a founder, and selfishly, I’d love to see more founders here in Philly. If you’re a founder around the Philadelphia area, just contact me directly here – I’d be happy to tell you more and welcome you into Hampton. Once you’re in, do the best thing for yourself and the community: share your abilities and time generously – it will come back tenfold.