YPO and EO Are Amazing — But Here's Where They Fall Short

I've been a member of both Entrepreneurs' Organization and Young Presidents' Organization for nearly two decades. I believe in these organizations deeply. I've made lifelong friendships. I've grown as a leader. I've found accountability, vulnerability, and peer wisdom.

I love EO and YPO.

And I want to talk about where they fall short.

What These Organizations Get Right

First, the case for why I'm a devoted member:

Peer accountability. Once a month, I show up and report on my goals and challenges to people who know me, who care about my success, and who aren't paid to help me. That's powerful.

Vulnerability is normalized. In my forum, we talk about real stuff. Stress. Doubt. Fear. Business challenges. These are rooms where being human is not just allowed—it's expected.

You're among your people. Everyone in the room has led a business. Everyone understands the unique pressures, the loneliness, the weight of decision-making that comes with being an entrepreneur.

It's structured growth. Many forums use curriculums. You're not just venting—you're working through frameworks, books, and experiences systematically.

It's a brotherhood/sisterhood. These aren't transactional relationships. You're in trenches together for years. You celebrate wins and hold people through crises.

All of this is real. And all of it is crucial.

The Blind Spot

Here's the gap I noticed, especially as my own company grew and my marriage became my central focus:

EO and YPO serve the entrepreneur. They don't serve the couple.

Even though 48% of entrepreneur marriages end in divorce.

Think about this. The research is stark. Entrepreneurship is one of the highest-risk categories for divorce. The lifestyle is brutal: a founder works 63 hours a week on average. They're constantly making high-stakes decisions. They're stressed. They're traveling. They're mentally and emotionally consumed by their business.

And their spouse? Often at home, managing the household, raising kids, often feeling abandoned or resentful.

EO tries to address this with spouse forums. But spouse forums are for spouses. They're not for couples. The entrepreneur and their partner are in separate rooms, often not connected, never working on the relationship together.

So you have a structure where the founder gets accountability, vulnerability, peer learning, and growth—and the spouse gets... a separate group.

That's not a solution. That's a band-aid.

The Specific Problem

Here's what happens: the entrepreneur is in their forum, becoming more self-aware, more vulnerable, more growth-oriented. They come home more actualized, more aware of their flaws, more committed to improvement.

Meanwhile, the spouse has been at home, not in a peer group, not in a learning environment, just managing the chaos of holding a family together while an entrepreneur builds a business.

There's a mismatch.

Even worse, sometimes the entrepreneur brings their new growth and vulnerability into the marriage, but their partner hasn't had the same journey. They don't understand the frameworks. They don't have peer support. They haven't been pushed to grow in the same way.

The couple is misaligned, even though one half is getting better.

I've seen this pattern dozens of times among friends. Successful founders whose marriages fall apart despite their own personal growth. Why? Because growth is individual, not relational.

What's Actually Needed

What's needed is a space where couples work on the relationship together, not individually.

Where the founder and their partner both show up, both get vulnerable, both apply research-backed frameworks, and both experience peer accountability around the health of their marriage.

Where the entrepreneur learns that their spouse isn't just a support system—they're a business partner in life. And where the spouse isn't just managing the household—they're co-creating a shared vision.

Where both people get to be in the room, heard equally, supported equally.

This is exactly why we created In It Together.

How In It Together Is Different

Our forums function like EO/YPO forums, but for couples. You show up with your partner. You work through frameworks together—Gottman research, love languages, Enneagram types. You get vulnerable together. You report on your relationship goals together. You get peer accountability and wisdom together.

We bring together couples who are committed to thriving, not just surviving. Couples who want their business success to actually translate into relationship success.

The entrepreneur still gets to be who they are. But now they're doing that growth work with their partner, not separately.

And the spouse? They get the same accountability, vulnerability, learning, and peer support. They get to be a full participant in the growth of their marriage, not a supporting actor.

This Isn't Criticism. It's Completion.

I want to be clear: I'm not criticizing EO or YPO. I'm in both. I benefit from both. But I'm also honest about what they do and don't address.

They're designed for individual entrepreneurs to thrive.

We're designed for couples to thrive together.

Both can exist. Both should exist.

My marriage matters as much as my business. For years, I invested way more in the business than the marriage. I had accountability for business goals. I had peer support for business challenges. I had frameworks and systems for scaling a company.

But the marriage? I left that to chance. To hope. To "just try harder."

That wasn't intentional. It was just a gap nobody was filling.

Now we fill it. And I've seen couples transform when they get the same structure, support, and resources for their marriage that they get for their business.

That's the promise of In It Together.