Which CEO peer group should a Miami founder join? It depends on three things: whether you want professional facilitation or peer-led format, what you qualify for, and what problem you are hiring the group to solve. Choices go wrong when founders skip that third question.
The three kinds of group, and why the difference matters
Chair-led advisory boards. A trained, paid facilitator assembles a non-competing group, runs the meetings, and typically coaches you one-to-one between them. Vistage and C12 work this way. You are paying for the curation of the table and the discipline of the process.
Member-led forums. The organization vets who gets in; the members run the meetings themselves using a protocol. EO Forum and YPO forums work this way, and Hampton sits between the two models with moderated groups. You are paying for the network and the badge as much as the monthly table.
Communities and cohorts. Open or lightly vetted networks built for connection, events, and introductions: Refresh Miami, Grow305, and cohort programs like Endeavor ScaleUp or Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses. Valuable, often free, and structurally different: they are networks rather than confidential advisory tables.
The most common mistake we see is a founder joining a community and expecting advisory, or joining an advisory board when what they wanted was a network. Decide which problem you are solving first and half the options eliminate themselves.
The Miami options, side by side
Structured groups first. Facts verified July 2026 against each organization's official pages; where an organization does not publish pricing, the table says so rather than guessing.
| Group | Format | Who qualifies | Cost (published, July 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vistage (via Vistage Florida) | Chair-led board of 12 to 16 non-competing CEOs, full day monthly, plus monthly one-to-one coaching with the Chair | CEO groups positioned for companies at roughly $5M+ revenue per vistage.com, with separate small-business and key-executive programs below that | Not published. Third-party reports (FirstPageSage, Long Angle) place CEO groups at roughly $15,000 to $25,000 per year |
| EO South Florida | Member-led Forum of 8 to 10, monthly, plus chapter events and a global network; 318 members locally | Founder or controlling owner, $1M+ revenue, join before age 50 | Published: about $6,371 per year combined dues, plus about $6,000 one-time initiation |
| YPO Miami | Member-led forums of about 8 to 10 inside a chapter, plus a 38,000-member global network | Top role, roughly $16M+ sales, 50+ employees or $2.75M+ payroll, join under age 45 | Published by the chapter: about $10,870 per year, plus about $19,790 one-time |
| Hampton (Miami core groups since late 2025) | Moderated core groups of 8, meeting about 10 times a year, digital-first network | $3M+ revenue, or $3M raised, or a $10M+ exit | Not published. Member-reported around $8,500 per year (Long Angle) |
| C12 South Florida | Chair-led full-day monthly forum plus one-to-one, curriculum-driven, explicitly Christian | Christian CEOs and owners | Not published; dues-based monthly membership. Note: Miami-Dade coverage is thin today; the chapter centers on Palm Beach |
| TIGER 21 Miami | Monthly peer group focused on wealth, portfolio, and life after the operating role | $20M+ net worth | About $33,000 per year (stated on TIGER 21's own site) |
| Leading Peers (Weston) | Small structured CEO advisory boards serving the Miami market | CEOs and owners | Not published |
| 305Founders | Three pathways: Vistage peer advisory chaired by us, the Founder Blueprint operating system, and Performance Edge sales systems, plus private Founder Breakfasts | Miami founders and CEOs, by application | Discussed openly in a private conversation before any commitment |
And the communities, which solve a different problem: Refresh Miami (12,000+ member tech and startup community, events free to low-cost), Grow305 (vetted networking events for $3M+ revenue founders, no membership fee), Endeavor Miami ScaleUp (selective six-month cohort for high-growth Florida founders), Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses at Miami Dade College (free cohort education for $75K+ revenue businesses), and EO Accelerator for founders below EO's $1M line. If you are pre-revenue or pre-$1M, start in this list rather than the table above.
Sources, all checked July 2026: vistage.com and vistageflorida.com · EO South Florida chapter fact sheet · YPO Miami membership page · joinhampton.com · joinc12.com and c12southflorida.com · tiger21.com · leadingpeers.com · grow305.com · mdc.edu/10ksb · endeavormiami.org. Unpublished-price attributions: FirstPageSage and Long Angle (Vistage range), Long Angle (Hampton).
The Table Test: six questions to score any group
Score each question 1 to 5 for any group you are considering, from a hard no to a confident yes. The scale is at the end.
1. Stage proximity. You want peers within roughly one stage of your revenue and complexity. A $30M operator in a table of $1M founders is mentoring, and a $1M founder among $30M operators is spectating. Neither is peer advisory.
2. Facilitation model. Chair-led groups buy you process discipline and a coach who knows your whole picture. Member-led forums buy you a wider network and cost less. Be honest about whether you will do the work without a professional holding the standard.
3. Non-compete seating and confidentiality. One member per industry, enforced, and signed confidentiality. Without both, you will bring the polished version of your problems, and the group is worth little.
4. Airtime math. Twelve to sixteen members gives breadth; six to ten gives depth. Divide meeting hours by members and you have your realistic share of the table's attention.
5. Attendance culture. A peer group is only as strong as its attendance. Ask what the commitment is, how it is enforced, and what happens when someone stops showing up.
6. Sit in before you sign. Talk to a current member. Ask to observe a session where the rules allow it. Ask exactly what the dues include, and what leaving looks like. Any group that resists those questions has answered them.
Reading your score: 24 or higher, join. 18 to 23, probe the weak answers before you commit. Below 18, keep looking, whatever the brand. No group in this guide, including ours, clears the bar for every founder.
Which one is right for you?
You are under $1M revenue: the paid boards are not your best money yet. EO Accelerator, 10,000 Small Businesses, Refresh Miami, and Endeavor ScaleUp will give you more per dollar, mostly free.
You want the global badge and network: EO if you are past $1M and under 50, YPO if you clear its size bar under 45. Both are member-led; know that going in.
You want facilitated advisory with coaching built in: Vistage is the established model, and it is what we chair. C12 if you want the same structure with faith at the center. Hampton if you want a moderated group with a digital-first network.
Your question is wealth rather than operations: TIGER 21 is built for that conversation.
You want connection and market awareness: Refresh Miami and Grow305, and you can hold a confidential board seat at the same time. Most established founders do best with one of each, because they solve different problems.
You want the peer table plus the operating system plus the sales engine addressed together: that combination is what we built 305Founders to be, and it is the only reason to pick us over the organizations above. If you only want one of the three, one of the options in the table may serve you better, and we will say so in the private conversation.
The group you choose matters less than the table you land at. Judge the ten people you will sit with as carefully as the logo on the door.
- Decide the problem first: confidential advisory, a vetted network, or open community. They are different products.
- Chair-led (Vistage, C12) buys facilitation and coaching; member-led (EO, YPO, Hampton) buys network and costs less; communities (Refresh, Grow305) buy connection, often free.
- Only EO and YPO Miami publish their pricing. Treat every unpublished number as a question to ask directly.
- Stage proximity, non-compete seating, confidentiality, and attendance culture decide the value, whatever the brand on the door.
- Judge the ten people at the table before the logo on the door.
Not sure which problem you are solving? Ten minutes on the Leadership Scorecard will show you where the pressure is: the founder, the operating system, or the growth engine. That answer is the first question in choosing any table.
