Dreamers & Doers is a private collective of extraordinary entrepreneurial women [1]. It provides its members with thought leadership opportunities, authentic connection, and access [2] that aims to “turn mutual support into a competitive edge” [3]. Founded by Gesche Haas in 2013 [4], they’ve forged their own path, forgoing the VC-backed flamboyance of its billion-dollar competitors. In doing so, they’ve bootstrapped their way to over 900 paying members with an all-remote team, creating a passionate community that shows you can create a valuable business by sticking to what feels right to you.
In this deep dive, we cover how the community got started, how it grows, functions, and makes money.
After leaving college, Gesche ended up working for a hedge fund for a few years [5] before a few short stints in roles at venture-backed startups [6]. Soon though, Gesche wanted to start her own thing and founded Trailblazer Ventures, a startup studio which planned to launch multiple products [8].
That entrepreneurial journey came with feelings of isolation and loneliness. In response, she started meeting up and working with friends. “Early days was literally me and one other girlfriend going for brunch and spending 6 hours brunching and working,” says Gesche [7]. That group grew to five, then ten.
“I was shocked how big of a difference it made. We helped each other with roadblocks, openly talked about fears, while continuously encouraging each other… each one of us would go out of our way to help each other, increasing our cumulative success” [9].
These brunches would eventually become Dreamers and Doers, but at that time, “It didn't have a name,” says Gesche. It “was literally just getting brunch” [1].
Gesche kept organizing the brunches but the format of events evolved with the addition of intros and sharing rounds where members discussed recent struggles and wins [12]. They added a Facebook Group [10] and before long multiple branches of the group had emerged beyond its New York base, in eight other cities globally [4].
Interestingly, the community didn’t start out as female-focused. We didn't say ”‘oh, we want to create this community for women’. It kind of just happened,” says Gesche [7]. Their events were always co-ed [12] but more women gravitated to the group over time.
“It evolved to be more women-focused organically with us having a harder time finding other peers,” explains Gesche. “None of the communities that currently existed fully covered all of our specific needs as entrepreneurial women” [3]. She saw this as an opportunity to differentiate the group and to also drive greater impact. “If there isn't a focus on it being female-founded, the default is male in many cases,” observes Gesche [5]:
“I think it's important to create a space where we can be in the majority because that allows us to make a bigger… systemic difference.”
Still, Gesche didn’t exactly know what she was building towards, but she felt compelled to keep working on it — ”It was the one thing I couldn't stop working on… Dreamers and Doers was my kryptonite,” admits Gesche [6]. Around a year in she was spending so much time on it that she needed to make a choice [5]. She gave up on the other product ideas for Trailblazer Ventures and decided to go all-in [1].
This wasn’t without much stress and questioning her life choices, though [6]. After all, she’d gone from a ‘proper’ Hedge Fund job to running this Facebook group thing, which still wasn’t making any money. The concept of a paid community wasn’t as commonplace in 2013 as it is now. Perhaps buckling to the pressure of building something more expected, the initial plans looked very different: a VC-backed social network.
They hired a CTO, planned to create their own platform, and even applied to Y Combinator [1]. Initial press for the concept pitched it as ‘if Zuckerberg and Sandberg had a baby’ [11]. That’s an ‘eww’ on many levels, but something about the path felt wrong to Gesche.
One of the main sticking points was the ‘growth at all costs’ expectation that comes with taking on outside funding [6]. “It just felt so wrong,” says Gesche [5]:
“So with that… we scrapped our plans, our tech solution, and instead leveraged existing technology. We also monetized early to prove out that what we were building was actually wanted.”
They considered a few different routes: a nonprofit, a partnership, a sponsorship model, or a membership. “We decided for a membership model because we wanted to be accountable to the women in our community first and foremost,” she explains [13]. Since the majority of members were in New York City, they also considered a physical venue. However, they didn’t want to add to their capital requirements of bootstrapping the business and ended up doubling down on the Facebook group [17].
After two years of bootstrapping and burning through personal savings, Dreamers and Doers became a profitable business [9].
3 years in, they were still seeing great traction. “Half of the women listed on Forbes 30 Under 30 over the past three years have been part of the network. 65% of members engage with the community on a daily basis,” Gesche told CNN in 2016 [16].
Gesche admits that things were “Not very strategic in the early days” [14]. Although, they did run polls and host dinners to try gain feedback. The problem was it wasn’t very clear. When they asked folks how much they’d pay for it, they’d say a few dollars [14].
For years she questioned whether she was doing the right thing [15]. Ultimately, though, Gesche trusted her instincts. In the decade-plus since launching, it has become a solid business with almost 900+ paying members that has generated millions of dollars. They’ve helped make their members even more successful, too. With “individuals actually quitting their jobs to start companies because they had the courage to do so, to joining forces and cofounding companies, to sponsoring, investing in each other,” highlights Gesche [18].
The Dreamers & Doers community has two parts - a free, private ‘Jobs and Careers’ Facebook group of 36,000 members and a paid community. Although, Gesche says that 99% of their time is spent on the latter [10].
The exclusivity of the paid membership is a key element—it being presented as a private, highly-curated community. “We curate both for personality and pedigree,” says Gesche. Members “need to be values-driven and impressive” [5].
The paid community now runs on Circle, having switched from Facebook around April 2021 [10], and online is now their primary focus. They dropped the brunch aspect early on, although, “We do have occasional offline events,” says Gesche. “But we're very intentional about that being secondary and that the purpose of those is to enhance the online connections for various reasons” [10].
Access, authentic connection and visibility are the 3 core pillars of the Dreamers & Doers offering [1].
Visibility
PR is a key part of their offering. It’s something they prioritized early on because they “found that sometimes as a woman, needing external validation can be more important than for most men… if you want to get investors, partners, sometimes even believing in yourself” [14]. They decided to lean into that pain point, which many of their members experience, and created an editorial team whose job it is to create visibility for members. So all members get access to their PR Hype Machine™ service, giving them regular PR coverage “for a fraction of the price than it would be for a PR agency” [14].
Unlike a PR agency, they don’t go around pitching stories. “Our offerings are intentionally distinct from what a PR agency or publicist may cater to.” Instead, they’ve build up an extensive set of partnerships with publications that prioritize covering women and underrepresented entrepreneurs [22]. These include “very high caliber partners, ranging from Nasdaq to Thrive, to BlogHer, to Create & Cultivate and various others,” explains Gesche [14].
Partners aren’t just limited to publications but companies and brands with aligned goals, too [1]. The result is over 300 articles in publications like CNN, Forbes, the Huffington Post, and Bloomberg [1], featuring over 2,000 member stories [20]. While they are sometimes individual profiles of a business or member, many of the articles are lists and roundups featuring multiple members. They also help members get podcast and public speaking opportunities as well [14].
The result is a successful and efficient system for everyone involved. Members get more regular and predictable media exposure than with traditional PR, while publications get access to the inspiring stories of a diverse set of impressive women. It has helped members to land investments and show momentum through regular PR wins [23], and “just by making them more visible, it changes the landscape for everyone,” says Gesche [21].
Their productized take on PR is proving to be so successful they’re trialing it as a standalone service [3]. They’ve soft-launched a PR-only offering [24] that is currently available by invite-only and isn’t mentioned on their website. The benefit is that for people only interested in PR and not the community, then they don’t have to onboard members who don’t intend to take part. Plus, the PR service is more easily scaled than the community. They could add many new PR clients without detrimentally impacting the community experience.
Connection
Dreamers & Doers runs over 100 events each year. They’re “mostly virtual, and it's a mix of educational and connection focused events,” explains Gesche [24]. Most of the events feature members presenting their work [25]. They aren’t about “putting them on a pedestal,” says Gesche. “Everyone goes around and shares a recent struggle and a recent win because it humanizes everyone and suddenly you're bonded, but also you feel better about yourself” [7]. Many of their events are recorded and they have a video archive of past events, D&D on-demand, with 100+ videos [26]. They also facilitate advisor drops, where they help members with a common problem and relevant experience to connect [3].
The events are supplemented by a member directory and a perks portal, which features member companies. The goal is to “Make it easy for members to partner, hire each other, buy from each other and become friends,” explains Tatiana Figueiredo, a community consultant who worked with Dreamers & Doers on the migration to Circle and is a member, too [25].
Access
The last part is access, which comes in various forms. The team has relationships with a network of advisors and mentors and they help facilitate access to them and relevant thought leaders [1].
Sometimes they send gifts to members, too. “We want to reward our members for just being wonderful,” says Gesche [3]. “So we do that whenever a member goes above and beyond to support others”.
Dreamers & Doers currently charges $2,500 per year or $750 per quarter. However, the pricing has changed significantly over time.
“I had a lot of guilty feelings at the beginning, charging, because everyone's used to it being free,” says Gesche [13]. But thankfully she allowed herself to see the value she was creating for members and that by not charging she was doing members a disservice. After all, it was only by charging that the community became sustainable and could improve over time. “We can do so much more by allowing it to be the full value that it can be. So charging is good,” says Gesche. Plus, “People show up differently if they pay a certain price” [13].
Pricing was initially voluntary but became required soon after [24]. Nevertheless, these guilty feelings seem to have played a part in the initial price of the community being low. For example, in December 2019, annual membership was $850. However, they’ve increased prices once or twice a year since, up to $3,000 annually by May 2024, but recently reduced it to the current $2,500 price.
Prices are only increased for new members [24]—existing members stay at the rate charged when they joined. “Our reasoning is that our old members are the members that have really allowed us to get to where we are right now, where we can offer more and more,” explains Gesche [27].
It’s estimated that 60-90% of members, as business owners or corporate employees, write off their payment for tax purposes or expense it [3]. Even so, the cost of the annual membership alone is still far less than a month of a typical PR agency’s retainer [10]. Consequently, “We've had people who've been members for… the entire time,” notes Gesche [10] and “we have very high retention” [23].
Dreamers & Doers is available only to women. By women, they clarify that means “inclusive to all women and non-binary individuals… regardless of biological gender, preferred pronouns, or given names” [19].
When it comes to members, they’re aiming for “Quality over quantity,” so members have to apply and every application is reviewed by a membership committee. However, they don’t list specific member requirements and take on new members once a quarter. Gesche explains their approach [1]:
“The reason we do that is so that we can make sure it's a really game changing experience because it's such a high touch community, and we want to make sure that we can welcome members, that they feel welcomed, and that we can deliver certain offers to them right when they join.”
Applications are never closed but they have quarterly submission deadlines for when they’ll be reviewed [14]. The process is deliberately quite involved. Initially, you couldn’t apply directly - you needed to be referred and given a password, which would enable you to fill out an application. That would be screened and if they thought there could be a fit you were then sent the full invitation [13].
Now you can apply directly, but it’s still a long process. They ask several open questions on the application form, so applicants need to be thoughtful about their submission. The process runs on Typeform, across multiple forms - an initial one that explains their values [3], which you need to confirm your alignment with before you can progress to a second form. Here are some of the main questions [28]:
As you can see, they’re testing for motivation and alignment with their values. The questions are broken up with member quotes and photos to keep the energy up while progressing through the form itself.
Another way they test for motivation is by including payment as part of the signup process. They don’t charge right away, but asking for payment info upfront really helps to weed out less committed applicants [14]. This also makes for a nicer onboarding process because they’ve gotten the awkward payment bit out of the way [24].
All applications are reviewed by their internal team along with a few trusted advisors [24]. The goal of the application process is to curate members, seeking out those who are “impressive and values-driven,” says Gesche [10].
They deliberately don’t have specific requirements like revenue earned or years of experience, because they find members don’t always fit exactly into such boxes. They also enjoy the flexibility and diversity that results [10]. Nevertheless, they know exactly what they’re looking for: “People that you want to be around, that are givers, that are thoughtful” [10]. If there’s any doubt about a prospective member they’ll reach out to mutual connections for references [14].
Once accepted, members are onboarded in cohorts once a quarter. Cohorts range from 30 to 60 at a time [2]. It usually kicks-off with one of two group welcome calls, giving “an overview as well as a way to get to know them and each other” through a round of introductions [26]. Then a month in, they offer a one-on-one call with the membership manager. Those calls are around 30 minutes and cover an overview of their offering and a quick tour of Circle. Around 1 in 4 take them up on it. They also send check-in emails, provide access to the membership manager, and can begin joining their ongoing series of events [26].
The community space is structured like this:
Everyone is part of the 'Collective' space. Then there are some special interest groups and location-specific groups that people can opt-in to [26].
“A lot of communities just take a backseat. The moderator is just never around,” says Gesche. That’s not how they do things at Dreamers & Doers. “There's lots of micromanaging,” admits Gesche. “Once in a while, I'll have to message someone and coach them a little bit… and sometimes we've had to obviously remove people” [5].
Dreamers & Doers’ growth has been slow and steady. “We intentionally don't want to grow super fast,” says Gesche [3]. “For communities specifically, it's dangerous to grow too quickly” [17] and they prioritize building a “a calmer company and a calmer life,” says Gesche [3].
The goal then is to grow in a sustainable way so that “we can still make a difference in ten years and not just burn out in two years” [17]. That’s a subtle nod to the trajectory of many competing communities that have burst onto the scene over the years. Flush with VC cash, they grow and die quickly. This is something Gesche and the team have been keen to not emulate. Ten years later, Dreamers & Doers is still going from strength to strength.
Growth is around 5-10% per year, almost entirely through word of mouth. As a result, despite its global footprint, over half of its members are in New York where it all began and where that word of mouth is strongest [1]. Based on public mentions of its member size, we can estimate a growth trajectory that looks like the following:
LinkedIn is its biggest source of new members. Since members are proud to be a part of the community they list it on their profiles. It’s something they encourage, providing members with a page explaining how to do it. “So we make it easy for them,” says Gesche. “But it's our members who decide to want to show it off” [14].
Another chunk of members comes from direct member referrals. It’s more likely you’ll be accepted that way, too: “If someone gets referred from an existing member, we give it a lot more weight,” Gesche admits [14].
“We’ve invested nothing in traditional marketing,” she says proudly. All of its growth has come from its members [2]. While they have the resources to do so they’ve chosen to invest them elsewhere. “What we do instead is we focus all our resources on providing a really good experience that then has members referring other members” [13]. This has meant they’ve grown more slowly than they could have, but “I dare to say that it would come at the cost of long-term growth,” says Gesche [27]:
“If we doubled our size, it would change the culture of the community, because suddenly half of the people in our community have never been part of it. So doing it gradually is crucial for us.”
That considered, long-term view of the community applies to its thinking around community engagement as well. When it comes to events, for example, “only a certain percentage of members actually attend,” says Gesche. Their business-running members are “Just so busy… It's never a goal of ours to [try and get] all our members to attend” [14].
The same goes for discussions, too. “It's pretty quiet in there!” says Tatiana [25]. Instead, they cultivate more in-depth responses. “Member posts tend to be longer and more thoughtful” and may “come days later from members who log in just a few times a week,” Tatiana explains [25]. You might not “get a comment within a minute”, says Gesche, but when you do, “It changes your life. That’s the difference” [26].
They’re confident that members get value from the PR service and other resources so they don’t feel a need to force engagement [14]. “Some people seem like lurkers, but get so much out of it,” says Gesche. “Does that mean they're less valuable or less loyal than the person that engages a lot? We don't think so” [29].
Serving all its members with both community and PR services is a big undertaking. For the first couple of years, it was all Gesche. However, you might not have realized that as a member because Gesche used to fake an additional team member. Such was the pressure she felt for this thing to appear bigger than it actually was, “I would send out emails from another email account,” admits Gesche. “So it was technically a one-woman show trying to pretend to be a two-woman show” [24].
Thankfully she was able to hire some real help. Now the team is around 8 people covering editorial and community staff in full and part-time roles [17]. Gesche remains hands-on [24] in the community and facilitates a lot of the PR relationships, too [10]. Other key contributors over the years include Head of Community, Nicole Hartwig, long-time Membership Manager, Hannah McCauley, and Editorial Lead, Adrian Granzella Larssen [10].
“Communities are just so operations-heavy,” says Gesche [3]. This is especially true of a community that’s as highly curated as Dreamers & Doers. “Being high touch, being relatable, being high caliber,” is tough to hire for, and “I think people underestimate how emotionally draining it is to run community,” says Gesche. So the community hires have been some of the most difficult to make [14].
They work with a few advisors and consultants, including Christina Salerno, a member who also runs the operations consultancy Magical Teams, which helps them with hiring [10].
The team is all remote [1] and multi-skilled - they’ve deliberately invested in training so that “Multiple people can cover multiple roles” [14]. Gesche explains how that works [24]:
“Every time we train someone new we create a training guide… So maybe it takes slightly longer to train that person at that time, but then we have a guide because someone else might eventually take over that role.”
Working with members of the community, like Tatiana or Christina, is one way they live their values and help lift each other up as a community. That approach goes for the tools they use, too.
For small group conversations and intimate events like their Speed Connections events, they use Gatheround [26]. Gatheround, a video software company that was recently acquired by Donut [30], was founded by a Dreamers & Doers member. As was Orbiit, the member matching platform Dreamers & Doers uses to schedule calls between members [29] that was acquired by Hivebrite [31].
Since the beginning, they’ve also used Mailchimp for their email newsletter [29], The Digest, which shares PR and grant opportunities for female entrepreneurs [32]. Their website runs on Wix.
The bulk of the community, though, runs on Circle. Having used Facebook Groups for the first 7 years, by 2021 it had run its course. In its annual survey Facebook was the leading source of criticism with members having concerns about its functionality as well as ethics, too [5]. They discovered Circle and “knew it was going to be the one,” says Gesche [5]. It fulfilled their requirement of “a platform that would allow us to do intimacy at scale” [29].
They did a call for early adopters, with folks filling out a Google form to opt-in. Then once they had ironed out the kinks, everyone else moved over [26]. And they’ve been happily running on it ever since.
As a result of its success, Dreamers & Doers has received multiple acquisition offers. "Deep down, I do not want to sell it," says Gesche. It'd be like "selling a group of my friends" [3].
So there you have it - that’s how Gesche and team built Dreamers & Doers into a million-dollar community ✌️
Your community, your rules
Dreamers & Doers is a refreshing reminder that you can run your community and business in any way you want. Work on the problems you want to fix with the people you want to work on them with. So long as you’re accepting of the trade-offs, how you do things is up to you.
There’s no one right way to grow a community
Slow and steady is what worked for Dreamers & Doers. As a result of that approach, they’re still thriving ten years on while many of their competitors are not.
Create value for members in whatever form they need
Low churn results from creating value for members. That value might result from community engagement, but it can just as well come from the services you offer, too. So long as the value is there, you don’t need to resort to hacks or force things to happen. Although that might sound simple, it doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Gareth has spent 15 years in founding marketing roles at community-led startups. He shares his learnings through deep dives.
