The YEC council
A board of directors for your life.
YEC is an application-only peer council where founders act as each other's board, placed by stage: YEC Next under $1M in revenue, YEC Core at $1M+.
Networks collect contacts, but councils solve problems.
Where you are on the climb
YEC Fellows
For members who have outgrown Core. By invitation.
YEC Core
For founders at $1M+ in revenue.
$3,500 a year, or $400 a month
See YEC Core
YEC Next
For founders under $1M in revenue. A coached twelve-month program.
$5,000 a year, or $550 a month
See YEC Next
Established 2012Publishing under your name, including Inc.
At the table
What happens at the table.
A seat here is not a directory or a feed; it is a small circle of peers who act as a mirror and tell you what they see.
Asks and gives
Bring a real problem. Get real help. Offer the same when it is your turn. Hiring calls, vendor referrals, warm introductions, candid feedback, all from people with nothing to sell you.
Held in confidence
A small group of founders who show up honestly, hold what is said in confidence, and make the hard parts a little less lonely.
Tables in person
Small, member-hosted dinners and gatherings. The kind of evening where one conversation resets how you think about the next year.
Sessions with operators
Live conversations with people who have done the specific thing you are working through, recorded in the Replay Library for the weeks you cannot make it.
Your visibility
Your answer, under your name.
Placements through YEC and its partners, including Inc. Expert panels put real questions in front of you, your answer runs under your name, and it reaches readers who come for signal.
Expert panel, published on Inc.
The Often-Overlooked Financial Metrics That Indicate Company Health
“A shorter CCC translates to a more efficient company that quickly turns its investments into cash, improving liquidity and reducing the need for external financing.”
Jack Perkins · Founder and CEO, CFO Hub
His answer on the cash conversion cycle, published on Inc., October 2024. Read it on Inc.
Expert panels from your first month in YEC Next. A YEC editor reads each answer and may polish it, or send it back to you with a note, before it goes to the publication. Write for the YEC blog under your name from day one. Two published bylines and 75% attendance by the end of month 6 open placements through YEC and its partners, including Inc.
The mission
We are the council where leaders grow fast enough to keep pace with what they’re building.
The conditions
YEC creates the conditions.
The work
The community does the work.
The outcome
The people at the table become your council.
The name does real work
YEC, defined.
Young.
A mindset, not an age.
Curious enough to learn, humble enough to listen, and ambitious enough to keep evolving. Age is not a requirement. Where you fit depends on your company's stage, not age.
Entrepreneur.
You already are one.
We will not condescend by defining it. The council is for the operators actually in the arena: founders, co-founders, CEOs, builders carrying the weight of what they made.
Council.
Wise peers, alongside you.
Not above you and not below you, but a sounding board that reflects you back to yourself and says what it sees. A council without the mirror is just a networking group.
The four legs
What holds the table up.
The table you could not get to
Founders and operators you would never land a meeting with are here as peers. Not gated behind a sales call. At the same table, on the same footing.
Seen whole, not by output
The part of you below the waterline gets a witness. You are known for more than your last result, which is the only way real counsel becomes possible.
You give as much as you take
Value compounds because everyone is building it. The member who only extracts does not last. The council protects that, on purpose.
Nothing here is accidental
Who sits at the table, and how the table works, is chosen with care. Intention is the difference between a council and a crowd.
What a seat is, and is not
You are not buying access to a list.
What you are not buying
- A bigger contact list or a busier inbox.
- A feed to scroll and a logo wall to admire.
- A stage to perform success from.
- A shortcut that skips the work.
What you are buying
- A small circle of peers who tell you the truth.
- A mirror for the things you cannot see alone.
- Counsel from people who operate where you operate.
- A place to take the mask off and still be respected.
Selectivity as care
The bar exists because the people at the table built it.
Selectivity is not a brag but the care we take to protect the people who already earned their seat. The review is honest in both directions, and the standard is the same for everyone, including the people who set it.
Earn your seat, and keep it by showing up.
Built next
Growing as the council grows.
We would rather under-promise here. These are being built with the members at the table, in the order they actually need them.
City tables
Local circles in founder cities, for the relationships that need a zip code.
Focus groups
Small cohorts built around one challenge, with the accountability to move it.
Sprint groups
Less discussion, more action. Goals, timelines, and check-ins that hold.
Monthly topics
One focused conversation across the whole table, instead of random posting.