Small Giants Community

The Small Giants Community is a membership organization for leaders of privately held companies that follow the model set out in Bo Burlingham's 2005 book Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big - firms that choose depth, culture and independence over scale. It was formed in 2009 by Burlingham and Paul Spiegelman, and is structured as an L3C, a hybrid between for-profit and non-profit. Unlike most organizations in this category it is open rather than selective: anyone may join a free tier, with paid Individual membership at US$275 a year and Company membership at US$1,200 a year covering an unlimited number of seats. The paid tiers add a member directory, forums, an annual benchmarking scorecard, event recordings and early access to programmes. Deeper commitments are priced separately: a Leadership Academy at US$12,500 a participant, a year-long Journey programme at US$15,000, a one-to-one Sounding Board mentorship over a twelve-month commitment, and an annual Summit capped at 250 people with tickets from US$1,650 to US$2,265. Ownership passed from Paul Spiegelman to Jean Moncrieff in 2025.

How it works

Membership starts free and can be upgraded at any time; paid memberships are billed annually and can be cancelled at any point. Members use an online portal with a directory, forums and a resource repository, take an annual scorecard that benchmarks their company against the community, and attend virtual events. The cohort programmes are separate and application-based: the Leadership Academy runs on an annual January intake, the Journey programme consists of six two-day excursions across a year, and Sounding Board pairs a mentee with a tenured member for structured monthly one-to-one meetings over twelve months.

Typical member

The organization describes members as ranging "from solo founders to growing companies to established purpose-driven organizations", covering founders, C-suite executives and rising leaders. Company memberships bring whole leadership teams into the community. Published member quotes come from operating executives at privately held United States firms.

Small Giants is the outlier in this batch on both price and gatekeeping. At US$275 a year for an individual it is an order of magnitude below any peer-advisory body, and the door is deliberately open: the pitch is that you join free and pay only when you want more. That makes it a poor comparison for anyone seeking a vetted peer room, and a good one for anyone who wants access to a values-aligned network without a screening process. Selectivity reappears in the paid programmes, where the Leadership Academy and Sounding Board involve an application and interview. The organization's L3C structure and its explicit ideological position - growth is not the goal - set it apart from organizations that sort members by revenue. Note that the community changed hands in 2025, so long-run continuity claims should be checked against the current team.

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