Hampton costs $8,500 a year.
And honestly, that's the easy part. The hard part is the door: you need $3M+ in annual revenue, $3M+ raised, or a $10M+ exit to even be considered. They used to let founders in at $1M in revenue. Demand got so silly they tripled the bar. Acceptance rate sits around 8%.
So if you're a bootstrapped founder doing $5K to $80K a month, reading about Sam Parr's private network and thinking "that, but for my stage"... you're the person this article is for.
Quick context on me: I paid $13,000 for a mastermind when my SaaS was doing $15K to $20K a month. Stupid decision, right? Six months later I was at $75K a month. So I'm a believer in paying to be in the right room. I later sold that SaaS and started a founder community myself, which I'll disclose properly below.
Here are 7 Hampton alternatives, ranked by one filter: would I pay for this with my own money, at the stage most of my readers are at?
Why founders go looking for a Hampton alternative
Three reasons show up every time:
- The bar. $3M in revenue or a $10M exit rules out something like 99% of bootstrapped founders. Hampton is built for people who already won a round.
- The price. $8,500 a year is real money at $20K MRR. That's a contractor, a year of tools, or 2 months of runway.
- The mix. Hampton skews to funded and exited founders. If your questions are "how do I get from $10K to $40K MRR without ads", you want peers living that exact problem, not people managing wealth.
Quick picks if you're in a hurry:
- Bootstrapped SaaS at $5K to $50K MRR → Profitable Founder Club
- SaaS-specific, big community, cheap → MicroConf Connect ($499/yr)
- Location-independent, any business model → Dynamite Circle ($697/yr)
- $1M+ revenue, want the classic forum format → EO
- $0 budget → Indie Hackers
Now the full list.
1. Profitable Founder Club
Full disclosure: this one's mine.
I built Profitable Founder Club because the $13K room that changed my business had one flaw: almost nobody in it ran a bootstrapped SaaS. The format worked. The peer match didn't.
Who it's for: SaaS founders between $5K and $50K MRR pushing to $100K MRR. That's the entire filter. No agencies fishing for clients, no coaches collecting logos, no "aspiring" founders (no shade, I was one once).
How it works:
- Bi-weekly calls where we solve 3 member problems per session, hot-seat style
- A monthly Q&A with a founder already past $100K MRR
- Each batch capped at 20 founders, so everyone actually knows everyone
Compared to Hampton: you're getting the small-group, no-pitch, real-numbers dynamic without needing $3M in revenue first. The trade is scale. Hampton has 1,000+ members and a decade-deep network effect coming. We have 20 people per batch who all share your exact problem.
If that's your stage, apply below. If you're past $250K MRR or post-exit, Hampton is honestly the better fit, and numbers 2 to 7 cover everything in between.
Apply to Profitable Founder Club
2. MicroConf Connect
MicroConf is Rob Walling's world: the original conference and community for bootstrapped SaaS founders. Connect is the year-round online version.
Price: $49 a month or $499 a year. Application required, and they approve new members once a month.
What you get is a vetted, pitch-free Slack-style community, mastermind matching (they place you in a small group of founders at your stage), and the event pipeline: MicroConf US, MicroConf Europe, local meetups.
The mastermind matching alone is worth the fee. A lot of people pay $499 just to get placed with 3 or 4 peers and then live in that small group.
→ If Hampton's appeal is "a curated group of 8 that meets monthly", MicroConf Connect is the closest bootstrapper version at 6% of the price.
3. Dynamite Circle
The Dynamite Circle (DC) has been running since 2011, started by Dan Andrews and Ian Schoen of the Tropical MBA podcast. 1,000+ vetted founders: SaaS, ecommerce, agencies, media.
Price: $697 a year, aimed at founders doing $100K+ a year. DC BLACK, their private tier for $1M+ founders, runs $5,500 a year and is the most Hampton-like product on this list: small curated groups, facilitated calls, high bar.
The DC's culture is "profitable and location-independent", the polar opposite of blitzscaling. Their DCBKK conference in Bangkok is the event a lot of bootstrappers plan their year around, and they run in-person chapters in 100+ cities.
→ Best pick if your business isn't SaaS-only or you travel a lot.
4. Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO)
EO is the institution: founded 1987, 18,000+ members, 65 countries.
Price: around $3,500 initiation, then global dues plus your local chapter's fees. Most members land somewhere between $4,000 and $7,000 a year all-in, depending on the chapter.
Requirement: you own a business doing $1M+ in annual revenue. High, but a third of Hampton's bar.
The core product is Forum: 8 to 10 local entrepreneurs, monthly meetings, strict confidentiality, and a protocol where nobody says "you should". Members only share "when I faced this, here's what I did". Sounds like a small thing. It isn't.
The catch for SaaS founders: your Forum will be a gym owner, a logistics company, an agency. Great for perspective on hiring and cash. Weaker for "my churn jumped 2 points".
5. Founders Network
Founders Network has been running peer mentorship for tech founders since 2011, with 25+ local chapters.
Price: application-based annual dues, roughly $600 to $1,200 depending on your stage.
The smart part is the stage tiers: Bootstrap, Angel, and Series A+. You get matched into a peer advisory group with founders at your level, plus a perks pool of credits and discounts that can cover the dues by themselves early on.
It leans more venture-track than anything else on this list except Hampton itself. If you're bootstrapping on purpose, the DC or MicroConf crowd will feel more like home. If you might raise someday, this is your pick.
6. Indie Hackers
The free option, and still one of the best rooms on the internet.
Indie Hackers is the forum Courtland Allen started in 2016: founders posting real revenue numbers, launch post-mortems, and build-in-public updates. There are also local meetup groups in dozens of cities.
Price: free.
What you give up versus a paid group is curation and commitment. Nobody is vetted, nobody owes you a monthly call, and advice quality swings wildly. It's a feed, not a forum in the EO sense.
But as a place to lurk, learn, and find 2 or 3 peers to start your own free mastermind with? Unbeatable at the price. I broke down how to do exactly that in my guide to starting a mastermind group.
7. Vistage
The corporate route, included so you can see the whole map.
Vistage is the world's largest CEO peer advisory organization: local groups of 12 to 16 executives, a paid Chair who facilitates, all-day monthly meetings, 1-on-1 coaching.
Price: about $1,380 a month plus a $2,500 initiation. Call it $16,500+ in year one, nearly double Hampton.
It's built for CEOs running $5M+ companies with real org charts. If that's where you're heading and you want the full breakdown, I ranked 7 Vistage alternatives the same way I ranked this list.
The Bottom Line
Hampton is a great product with a door most of us can't walk through yet. That's fine. The move isn't to wait until $3M. The move is to get into the right room for your current stage, because the room is what gets you to $3M faster.
My honest routing:
- $5K to $50K MRR, bootstrapped SaaS → Profitable Founder Club
- Bootstrapped SaaS, want a bigger network → MicroConf Connect
- Not SaaS, or location-independent → Dynamite Circle
- $1M+ revenue → EO (or start knocking on Hampton's door)
- $0 budget → Indie Hackers, then build your own group of 4
Whatever you pick, do the math on it like an investment, not a subscription. I wrote up what masterminds actually cost if you want the numbers.
FAQ
How much does Hampton cost?
$8,500 a year. On top of that you need to qualify: $3M+ in annual revenue, $3M+ in funding raised, or a $10M+ exit. The acceptance rate is around 8%, and Sam Parr and Joe Speiser still review applications themselves.
What is the cheapest Hampton alternative?
Indie Hackers is free. Among paid options, MicroConf Connect at $499 a year and Dynamite Circle at $697 a year deliver the best community-per-dollar for internet founders. Both vet members, which is most of what you're paying Hampton for.
Is Hampton worth $8,500 a year?
If you qualify, probably yes. A curated group of 8 peers at $3M+ scale, plus a network where you can ask about comp, acquisitions, and wealth without posting publicly, is hard to replicate. The question is rarely "is it worth it", it's "are you their customer yet". Most bootstrapped founders aren't, and that's what this list is for.
Do I even need a paid community under $50K MRR?
Need, no. But this is the stage where peer groups pay off hardest, because you're making decisions weekly (pricing, positioning, first hire) that someone 12 months ahead of you has already made. I went from $15K to $75K a month within 6 months of joining mine. Before you pay anyone, run through the 12 questions I'd ask before joining a mastermind.
