Confidential Peer Groups for OG Execs
OG Forum is a curated, cohort-driven experience for executive-level OG members that provides persistent peer-driven growth, contextual guidance, meaningful relationships, and opportunity for on-demand, real-time problem solving. Think of it like your “personal board of directors.”
Why confidential peer groups?
There is a need for space within our community where complex, confidential conversations can happen in an even smaller and deeper setting than OG-Live. We recognize that senior leaders benefit tremendously from having a personal board of directors to glean perspective and insights when dealing with complex challenges. Less about tactics and more about complex interpersonal dynamics and strategic dilemmas with a high degree of depth and vulnerability.
The Program
- Curated cohort of 8-10 senior OG members (e.g. COOs at VC-backed startups)
- 10 intentionally-structured discussion sessions across 12 months
- Peer-moderated (backed by training, expert co-moderation at the start, and ongoing on-call support)
- All session scheduling and coordination handled by OG. Just show up and connect.
- Exclusive discount for OG Summit
- Placement priority for future OG forum groups
OG Forum Norms
An explicit set of agreed upon norms is a critical part of shaping the OG Forum experience. Knowing the rules of a room makes all participants more at ease to participate openly and get vulnerable. We’ve intentionally chosen norms that create an experience primed to surface challenges, insights, accountability, and drive meaningful personal growth.
Strictly Confidential
We agree to maintain the highest levels of confidentiality. Vulnerability and introspection lead to high growth and strong relationships, but cannot exist without a bedrock of trust.
Relentlessly Present
The magic of Forum isn’t just what we take for ourselves, it’s the presence we give to others. We agree to show up consistently, on-time, and to be fully immersed (e.g. Zoom is full screen, no other windows open, phone in airplane mode).
Growtime > Showtime
We agree that we’re here to grow, which means letting go of our egos, digging into the parts of ourselves that need work, and surfacing the challenges that hold us back.
Experience > Advice
While counterintuitive at first, rather than leading with advice-giving, we agree to use curiosity, compassion, vulnerable sharing, and open-ended questions informed by our own personal experiences to support others members through their challenges.
Cohorts Currently Open for Application
Founder Forum (Application due April 13th)
COO Forum (Application due April 13th)
XFN VP Forum (Application due April 13th)
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the format of each forum session?
Meetings are typically two-hours long, broken into one-hour segments with a short break in the middle. The segments methodically change over time, but essentially fall into three categories:
- Inquiry: Cohort-specific questions to build member bonds through perspective sharing.
- Spotlight: A chance for one forum member to channel the power of the entire group towards a particular challenge.
- Updates: A space for forum members to share recent highs, lows, and lessons learned.
Who leads the forums?
One of our core principles is that forums are peer-led. In our experience, this enables a level of intimacy, ownership, and bonding that makes for a truly elevated and sustainable experience.
Having said that, we leverage facilitation experts to train the cohort and the designated peer moderator, and we leverage those same experts to co-lead the first couple of sessions to ensure things get off the ground smoothly.
Why does joining a forum have a cost?
There is a base-level investment OG makes to enable matching, onboarding, training, facilitation, and program management across the 12 months.
How do you ensure a strong match between forum members?
We leverage a matching process that incorporates member preference for a variety of attributes including seniority (e.g. VP), function (e.g. Finance), and company Stage (e.g. Series A). We also consider member preference on format (e.g. virtual, hybrid, or in-person).
This matching process results in each forum having a “common core” (e.g. COOs at venture-backed startups) to ensure there is a high-degree of commonality from the start.
Beyond that, everyone shares in common being an OG member – with all the values, trust, and shared context that entails.
What is the application process?
Since OG members have already been pre-vetted via the OG application process, the intent of the application is not to function as a screening device, but rather a mechanism that serves to (A) validate interest (B) reinforce OG Forum pillars and (C) gather information that will serve the forum process later on (e.g. collecting bios)
Is this virtual or in-person?
With time, we intend to offer a variety of forum types, including in-person and hybrid (i.e. meeting in-person quarterly, virtual for the rest). Initially, the first batch of OG Forum cohorts will be virtual-only – though by offering a discount to OG Summit, we’re hoping to encourage members to meet in person this spring.
Will I know who is in my forum ahead of time?
Your forum members will be revealed post-application. We do a quick conflict check to make sure there aren’t any issues with the people we’ve placed in your cohort.
What happens after 12 months?
One of three things: 1) If you decide not to continue, you graduate from your OG forum and move on, 2) If you’d like to mix things up, we match you with a fresh new forum that suits you for the next year, or 3) If most of your existing forum would like to continue for another year, and you want in, we reinvigorate and refocus the forum with some impactful programming and support, and work together to fill any vacancies with additional members.