Thinkable Plus already made a practical case through booking benefits. Premium and meet-and-greet tickets offered their own forms of access. Founders Circle needed a reason to join that those purchases could not satisfy.

The annual fee was introduced privately. The public page had to establish enough value to earn an application, while the application had to prepare a useful sales conversation. The copy needed to make people want the membership and help the team understand who was ready to consider it.

I led with direct access to the speaker and the member’s place in the conversation. Across six landing-page routes, I developed different arguments for joining: “The front row is only so close” distinguished the experience from a better ticket, while “Bring the question your own field cannot answer” appealed to curiosity beyond someone’s professional world. I moved the detailed benefits into a secondary view and worked with the team to separate the Founders Circle and Thinkable Plus pages, giving each offer space to make its own case.

Across successive application revisions, I developed questions that made the follow-up more informed. Questions about expertise, interests and motivation established what someone hoped to find and contribute; “If invited, would you be in a position to seriously consider joining this year?” distinguished present readiness from interest in a future intake. I also reframed the financial qualifier around a year of membership using spending bands to assess expectations without publishing the fee.

Distinguishing interest in full membership from an individual dinner gave the team further context for the conversation. I carried the same judgement through the private invitation and member-account copy, keeping each stage relevant to the decision someone was making.

Founders Circle launched on 30 September 2026 with its own landing page and application-led joining process. My work connected the acquisition messaging to qualification, the private invitation and the member experience, with further screening updates deployed in October.