benjaminhill

2025 Broke Me and Hampton Wide Open I don’t usually write posts like this. Ever. Most founders don’t. It feels safer to share the highlight reel, the wins, the cool logos, the big revenue numbers. But 2025 wasn’t a highlight reel for me. It was a year of collisions: between ambition and reality, between growth and quality, between what I thought Hampton was and what it actually needed to become. It was the year we stopped treating Hampton like a clever idea and started treating it like a real institution. And institutions aren’t built on vibes. They’re built on sweat, and sometimes a little tears. So here’s the truth, the whole year, as honestly as I can remember it. We started 2025 with momentum and no real spine We had fast growth, a passionate team, and a “this is working” confidence. But underneath, the machine was wobbling. Our virtual groups were slipping structurally, energetically, culturally. Our IRL cities were growing, but held together by duct tape from a handful of heroic operators we are blessed to have on our team. We were onboarding new members into a process held together with post-its and personality. And our early group model, which worked at 400 members, was starting to buckle at 1,000. But when growth is good, you look the other way. 2025 didn’t let me look away. The failures hit early. And stupidly. I’m not talking about existential failures. I’m talking about the embarrassing ones, the ones that shouldn’t happen, but did. We genuinely forgot who owned a critical process We launched a new member process using a Google Doc titled “Use This Until We Build Something Real” We shipped an onboarding step that literally contradicted the previous step We found two different teams unknowingly building the same workflow We ran an event where half the RSVPs ended up at the wrong location We tried to run an in-person onboarding… through a Zoom link Now, these were small individually. Together? A signal. They told me: “You’re operating at a bigger scale now. And the systems that got you here won’t get you to the next layer.” I hate hearing that sentence. But it was true. We rebuilt the almost everything from the inside out We tore into every piece of the product: IRL became the core of Hampton We stopped pretending virtual could keep up. We doubled down on cities where founders actually show up. We rebuilt group compositions, and curation methodology It changed everything. Core Groups got a total reboot Top/Bottom 5%. MITs. Reflections Deeper Business Explorations. The famous 3Ms, 3Cs, and 3Ls (iykyk) A real year-one flow. A real year-two model. A real operating rhythm instead of moderator improvisation. A true Hampton way, consistent and powerful for moderators and members. This wasn’t cosmetic. It was structural. The team doubled up on accountability Some people stepped up. Some didn’t. We reorganized almost every major function, sales, events, retreats, member success, ops, marketing. We started bringing on leaders with more experience We sunset roles that weren’t driving impact. We called out communication problems in real-time, even when it felt uncomfortable. (Jori called me out for this one) And the market punched back, hard Costs went up. Lead volume went down. Twitter performance swung like a yo-yo. CAC crept. Retention became an obsession, not just a dashboard line item. But we didn’t hide from the numbers. We rebuilt the funnel, ad by ad, landing page by landing page. We launched our internal OS (TU Doug!) We added activation fees, future price tiers, and a membership model that actually matches the value we deliver. 2025 was the year Hampton taught me how to be an operator again. (With a lot of help from Sam pushing me) We had wins too, big ones NYC hit retention numbers that felt unreal in this industry. Austin began to turn its flywheel. We built multiple IRL groups that feel like they’ll last a decade. We hosted 6 amazing retreats that created life long members We rebuilt pricing for 2026 in a way I’m proud of, thoughtful, honest, sustainable. We're adding structure to our chapter leadership that will compound for years. We started building our Video capabilities and muscle And best of all I joined my first IRL core group and I was blown away. A year ago, my virtual group was ok to good. Today, my IRL group is pacing to be game changing. It's night and day the difference. I couldn't be more excited. But the biggest win? We finally know what we are: Hampton is a real community. Not a whim, not a startup idea a lineage. It's weird to talk in terms like this, but when I look at YPO, EO, Vistage, we are talking about institutions that have been around for 60-70 years. That's my singular goal and purpose. To nurture something that can outlive me and change lives for tens of thousands of members. And personally… this year exposed some big gaps in me I walked into 2025 still operating like a founder, not a CEO. My instincts were all speed, improvisation, and “I’ll handle it.” That works when you’re building the first version of something. It does not work when 1,000+ founders depend on your systems actually… existing. I learned the hard way that a lot of Hampton’s growing pains weren’t “the team.” They were me. Hormozi says: Before you get mad at your team ask yourself: Do they know WHAT to do? Do they know HOW to do it? Do they know WHEN to do it? Do they know WHY they should do it? Is something blocking them? Diagnose first. Then fix the actual problem. It was clear that; I wasn’t giving enough structure. I wasn’t giving enough clarity or communication And I was still solving problems myself instead of building the processes that solve them forever. And without meaning to, I became a bottleneck inside the company I’m trying to scale. The truth is, my skill set is still heavily tilted toward founder chaos, not CEO discipline. I’m weak on frameworks, systems, and documentation all the things that feel slow and annoying when all you’ve ever done is move fast and break things. This is the biggest friction point I have with Sam. He wants CEO excellence, and I'm a founder trying to pretend I know what that is. But if you want to build something that lasts decades, not years, you eventually have to do the unsexy work: SOPs. Process, frameworks (EOS!). Clear accountability. Structure. Redundancies. No founder wants to think about that stuff. But Hampton (and Sam) forced me to stretch into it. To build muscles I’ve avoided for 20 years. To lead with more truth, more candor, more structure, more accountability and a lot less ego. I’m not done learning. But for the first time, I’m learning in the direction that Hampton actually needs. And here’s what I know going into 2026 We’re not trying to be the biggest founder community. We’re trying to be the deepest. The most transformational. The one that actually makes people’s careers and marriages and companies better. The one that lasts. 2025 was the year we earned the right to try. And if you’re building something hard right now something that keeps you up at night, something that exposes every weakness you didn’t know you had I hope this gives you at least one thing: You’re not supposed to have it all figured out. You’re just supposed to keep rebuilding the parts that break. That’s what we did this year. And we’re better for it. Here’s to the next version. - Joe Co-Founder, Hampton