Curation | Guest Mix | Member Matching | Intimate Room Design | Network Building | Retention by Design
A network is just a list until someone curates it. I design rooms where 25 people who do not know each other walk out feeling like they just joined something, then build the system that keeps them coming back. By closing the door deliberately, you create the room.
A regional network of 300+ community partners had drifted out of sync. Trainings felt institutional and dry. New partners ramped slowly. The default approach was to treat it as a logistics problem. The harder truth was that no one was hosting the network. Without a host, even a community of believers becomes a directory.
Treated the network as a year-round gathering, not a calendar of meetings. Designed 10+ live and virtual events per month, including trainings, webinars, and coordinator gatherings of up to 250 people, opening each with intention instead of housekeeping. Built an AI-assisted onboarding flow in ChatGPT and Salesforce that priming new partners before their first event, so they arrived with context and curiosity. Curated regional gatherings around the actual pain points partners surfaced, not the org chart agenda. Hosted with generous authority: protecting partners from federal complexity, equalizing voices across academic, financial, indigenous, and non-profit leaders, and connecting partners to each other instead of just to the IRS.
22% growth of the regional partner ecosystem. 30% reduction in new-partner ramp time. 25% lift in pre-event partner outreach engagement. A network that had been a directory became a community that produced together every month.
Tech Stack
Launching an invite-only founder gathering in a city saturated with networking events. The standard formula, drinks plus a stage plus a stranger, does not retain anyone, least of all founders. The room had to feel like a temporary alternative world, not a transaction. On top of that, A/V and catering can fail in the moment, and one bad night kills the entire program.
• Conducted 50+ one-on-one member interviews before each gathering to map each room's chemistry, identify gaps in the community, and design the guest mix and pacing accordingly. • Sourced boutique venues and negotiated contracts with spaces that avoided corporate stiffness, then directed sensory and aesthetic choices (lighting, seating, dietary curation) to set the mood before anyone walked in. • Built AI-assisted member matching so the right founders sat next to each other rather than leaving connection to chance. • Hosted with generous authority: protecting members from the small frictions, equalizing the room across status and tenure, and connecting guest to guest until host-to-guest ties were the minority. • Engineered live A/V and catering contingency plans so when something failed (and something always did), the guests never felt it.
85% retention across the program, with members who initially came once now showing up every month. Seed investment doubled on the strength of the experience itself. Founders who have heard every pitch in New York keep saying yes to this one room. Investment secured for the 2027 season.