Baby Bathwater Institute

Baby Bathwater Institute is a private membership community for founders, started in 2014 by Hollis Carter and Michael Lovitch and built around in-person events rather than curriculum. Membership is priced at a single published rate with no tiers, and includes an app-based community called The Tub, brokered one-to-one introductions, small-group advisory calls, virtual sessions, a resource library and half-price admission to the organization's events. Three event formats run through the year: flagships of 100 to 200 people, three or four times a year; masterminds of twelve to twenty-five members; and adventures of twelve to twenty members. The organization publishes minimum business guidelines of US$1 million in revenue, US$500,000 in profit, or US$3 million raised, but frames them as guidelines rather than a checklist and states that members are vetted for character as well as revenue. A rule against pitching applies to members, speakers and the organization itself. Joining runs through a short application, a personal review, a two-way call and then an invitation; the initial term is one year, converting to month-to-month with 45 days' notice.

How it works

Members join for an initial year and use The Tub app between events for questions, vendor vetting and peer advice, along with brokered introductions and small-group hot seats. In person, members choose among flagship events of 100-200 people, small masterminds and adventure trips, all discounted by half against non-member pricing. No pitching is permitted at any event.

Typical member

The organization publishes a member composition breakdown: 65 per cent own seven- to nine-figure business-to-consumer businesses, 25 per cent provide digital services such as marketing, branding and growth, 5 per cent are influencers and up-and-comers, and 5 per cent are investors and mentors.

Baby Bathwater is one of the few groups in this batch that publishes both its price and its business-size guidelines, which makes it easy to evaluate. The design choices are consistent and unusual: one flat fee with no tiers, a hard no-pitching rule that extends to the organizers, and an event calendar built on outdoor settings rather than ballrooms. That combination suits founders who want peer relationships formed socially and dislike stage-selling; it suits poorly anyone who wants structured accountability, a facilitated board or an explicit deal-flow channel. Two caveats. The stated minimums are explicitly guidelines, so the real gate is the two-way call, and prospective members cannot predict the outcome from the published numbers. And member-count figures differ between the organization's own vague phrasing and a co-founder's interview, so the roster size should be treated as approximate.

Editorial analysis by Peer Group Guide editors. It is separated from the record above and follows the editorial policy.