You Shouldn't Navigate This Alone
A private, curated cohort of founders all navigating the same inflection point — scale, succession and exit. Confidential. Honest. Under Chatham House rules.
Not Networking. Not Therapy.
The Circle is something different. It's a structured peer environment for founders who are at a critical stage — people who understand what it feels like to carry the weight of a business and are looking for honest, experienced perspective from others in the same position.
There's no performance required. No pitching. No hierarchy. Just founders talking to founders — under the same rules of confidentiality.
The loneliest moment in business isn't when it's failing. It's when it's about to succeed — and you realise there's no one around you who has been through it.
The Conversations No One Else Has
The Circle focuses on four areas that matter most to founders at this stage — the ones rarely addressed anywhere else.
How to grow without destroying yourself in the process. Managing energy, delegation and the psychological weight of leading a business through accelerated change.
What exit actually feels like from the inside — the emotions, the uncertainty, the decisions you'll face that no adviser will prepare you for. Shared experience from people who have done it.
As the business changes, so does your role. The Circle explores what it means to lead differently — stepping back from operational control while staying genuinely invested in the outcome.
Identity, purpose and what comes next. The hardest conversations — what happens when the business is no longer the centre of your professional life — are the ones The Circle is designed for.
Everything discussed within The Circle stays within The Circle. Participants are free to use the information and insight shared — but the source remains confidential. This is what makes honest conversation possible.
Built for Founders at the Inflection Point
The Circle is not for everyone. It's for a specific type of founder at a specific type of moment.
The Circle joins at Stage 2 of the Project August methodology — when the business is actively being prepared for exit and the real work begins.
Founders and owner-managers of SMEs in the £1m–£5m turnover range, navigating growth, succession or an approaching exit.
People who want to talk plainly — not perform. The Circle is built on the principle that real progress comes from real honesty, not polished presentations.
Interested in Joining The Circle?
Get in touch to find out when the next cohort opens and whether it's right for you.