Entrepreneurs Organization (EO): What It Is, the $1M Gate, Chapter Dues and the Forum, on One Table

By Andreas Pettersson, Founder, Leaders ADAPT

The Entrepreneurs Organization is the easiest of the big three CEO peer organisations to get into and the hardest to read from the outside. The gate is public, $1 million in revenue. The forum is public, 6 to 10 founders once a month. The price is scattered across chapter pages, and the two things that decide whether it works for you, the quality of your forum and the terms for leaving, are not published at all.

At Leaders ADAPT I run a different kind of room, a virtual CEO mastermind capped at 14 members with no revenue gate, so read this as an operator's profile of a competitor: what EO publishes, what it does not, and who it fits. Every number is linked to the EO page it came from, read in October 2026.

What is EO? The 12 fields on one table

Entrepreneurs Organization is a member led global network of founders, founded in 1987, whose core product is a confidential monthly Forum of peers moderated by a trained fellow member. It is not chaired by a paid professional and it is not a coaching firm.

The CEO peer group index puts these same fields beside 31 other organisations, which is the fastest way to see where EO sits on price and gate.

The forum: six to ten founders and a peer in the chair

The Forum is EO, and everything else, the chapter dinners, the global events, the learning days, sits around it. EO describes it as 6 to 10 members led by a trained peer Moderator, meeting monthly, and the membership page says 8 to 12. EO does not publish how long a forum runs. A long time member writes that forums meet monthly for four hours, and a 2012 EO press release describes three hours of moderated discussion in New York.

Forum training is an eight hour workshop, which is the whole of the moderator's formal preparation.

The moderator is the point to understand: there is no Chair paid per seat, as at Vistage, and no franchisee who owns the territory, as at TAB. A member who took the training runs the room, unpaid. That keeps the cost down and the incentives clean, and it also means the ceiling of your forum is the ceiling of whoever happens to be in it. If you want to know how a member moderated room differs from a chaired one in practice, the forum group page walks through the format, and EO vs Vistage sets the two side by side.

Members are divided on whether the format has aged. The same member blog that recommends EO without reservation carries a comment from a 20 year forum veteran who calls the traditional, basic forum approach dated. Both are member opinion. Both are probably true of different forums.

The $1M gate, and the Accelerator below it

The EO requirements are short: at least US$1 million in gross annual revenue, and a title of founder, co founder, owner or controlling shareholder. A venture backed company can qualify instead with US$2 million in private funding or US$5 million in public funding and at least 10 employees. EO publishes no age limit, which is the gate that keeps most 46 year olds out of YPO, see YPO requirements. A hired CEO with no ownership does not qualify, however large the company.

Below the line sits EO Accelerator, for owners and founders with US$250,000 to US$999,999 in revenue. It is a two year programme at US$1,750 a year excluding local chapter fees, built on four full day learning events a year plus 8 to 12 accountability group meetings of two to four hours, with the learning days facilitated by EO members. Remaining fees are credited toward EO membership on graduation. For a founder at $600,000 it is the most direct published path into a forum structure anywhere in the index.

What EO membership costs, chapter by chapter

Entrepreneurs Organization cost has three layers and only the first two are set globally. The global initiation fee is a one time US$3,500. Global dues are US$2,470 on the apply page and US$2,630 on 2026 chapter fact sheets, due July 1 and prorated when you join.

Then the chapter sets its own dues and its own initiation: EO Silicon Valley lists US$3,307.50 plus US$2,000 chapter initiation, EO Baltimore US$3,170 plus US$2,000.

Add Baltimore up and year one is about US$11,300: 3,500 plus 2,630 plus 3,170 plus 2,000. Year two drops the two initiations. For comparison, Vistage runs about $19,060 in year one and YPO's Southern 7 chapter $21,560, both unpacked on the Vistage cost and index pages. EO is the mid price option of the three, and the only one of the three whose price you can mostly assemble from its own pages.

Two things EO does not publish: a dues increase schedule and any cancellation term. The global dues gap between US$2,470 and US$2,630 on two EO pages suggests increases happen. Nothing says when, by how much, or what notice you owe if you leave.

What EO does not publish, and what I run differently

I have been a member of other masterminds, not EO, and I will not name which. What they had in common was that they stayed pleasant. Good people, good intentions, and a room that never quite said the thing everyone could see. I left each of them with warm contacts and the same blind spots I arrived with.

That is why I run my own room hot. Members are pushed to confront each other directly, and the five feedback prompts in every hot seat include what the presenter is not seeing. Politeness is the default state of any peer room, and a format has to actively work against it.

EO's format, as published, relies on a trained member moderator and a protocol built on shared experience rather than advice. That can produce a hot room or a warm one. The published pages do not tell you which you will get, and neither will the chapter until you have paid the initiation.

Ask to sit in on one forum before you join. Ask who moderates and what they ran. Ask what happens when a member stops showing up.

Entrepreneurs Organization FAQ

What is EO?

EO, the Entrepreneurs Organization, is a global, member led network of founders and business owners founded in 1987, with nearly 20,000 members in more than 220 chapters across 80 or more countries. Its core unit is the Forum, a confidential monthly group of 6 to 10 members led by a trained peer moderator, plus chapter and global events.

What are the EO requirements?

The published EO requirements are at least US$1 million in gross annual revenue and a title of founder, co founder, owner or controlling shareholder. Venture backed companies can qualify instead with US$2 million in private funding or US$5 million in public funding and at least 10 employees. EO publishes no age limit and no general employee minimum.

How much does EO membership cost?

EO membership cost has three parts. A one time global initiation fee of US$3,500, global dues of US$2,470 on the apply page or US$2,630 on 2026 chapter fact sheets, and chapter dues set locally, such as US$3,170 plus a US$2,000 chapter initiation in Baltimore. That Baltimore example comes to about US$11,300 in year one.

What is EO Accelerator?

EO Accelerator is a two year programme for founders with US$250,000 to US$999,999 in annual revenue who do not yet meet the US$1 million gate. It costs US$1,750 a year excluding local chapter fees, runs four full day learning events a year plus 8 to 12 accountability group meetings, and credits remaining fees toward EO membership on graduation.

What is an EO Forum?

An EO Forum is the small confidential group at the centre of membership, 6 to 10 members on the forum page and 8 to 12 on the membership page, meeting monthly and led by a trained peer moderator who is also a member. EO does not publish the meeting length. Members describe three to four hours. Forum training is an eight hour workshop.

Does EO publish its cancellation terms?

No. EO publishes that dues are annual on a July 1 fiscal year and prorated when you join, but no cancellation notice period, refund policy or contract length appears on the pages read in October 2026. The global dues figure also appears as two different amounts on two EO pages, with no published increase schedule.

Who EO fits, who it does not, and what to do next

The Entrepreneurs Organization fits a founder past US$1 million who wants a peer run confidential forum, a large global events network, and a mid range price. The published facts support exactly that. It does not fit a hired CEO without ownership, a founder who wants a professional in the chair, a business under US$250,000, or anyone who needs a published cancellation term before signing.

Whether it is worth the money in your city is a separate question, and the is EO worth it page takes it on with member accounts. Before you apply, read your chapter's own page for the dues, then ask for a guest seat at a forum.

What did the last room you sat in refuse to say to you?

Compare it with a room built to say it.