B2SMB Institute

What B2SMB Institute does

B2SMB Institute is a private, for-profit professional membership organization founded in 2017 and operated through Synth LLC, headquartered in St. Charles, Illinois. It serves executives, practitioners, and organizations engaged in business-to-small-business (B2SMB) selling — i.e., enterprises that target the fragmented U.S. SMB market — which the Institute defines as a $2.5 trillion addressable market. Its core product is a five-tier subscription membership (Individual $99/month, Advocacy $249/month, Startup $399/month, Corporate $995/month, Premier Corporate $2,495/month), with two additional mid-market tiers (Business and Enterprise) and an annual flagship event (Leaders Forum) priced at $1,995 general admission. Membership reportedly encompasses 5,000+ professionals across 100+ brand members including Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Dell, Verizon Business, American Express, Mastercard, PayPal, Intuit, Shopify, HubSpot, and Square.

The Institute's product portfolio combines community programming (Between2Bs podcast, Between the Lines newsletter, Slack community, Leaders Forum events), curated research (annual Momentum Report, Year in Review, AI2SMB GTM Playbook, State of AI2SMB Report), and specialized sub-communities — Partners Circle (B2SMB partnership development) and the AI2SMB Center of Excellence (selling AI to SMBs, with the addressable AI2SMB market projected at $48.5B by 2026). Technology infrastructure includes the B2SMB 300 Partnership Intelligence Hub, an "intelligent directory" with an agentic front-end powered by Key.ai, and partnership frameworks developed with PartnerStandard Council. Free diagnostic tools (B2SMB EKG, AI2SMB GTM Test, Partner Readiness Assessment) function as top-of-funnel acquisition assets.

The go-to-market model is community-led and event-driven: membership subscriptions form recurring revenue, while the annual Leaders Forum (7th edition in May 2025 in Sonoma; two 2026 events in Napa) drives both event revenue and member acquisition/retention. The organization is bootstrapped — no funding rounds, parent company, or acquisitions are disclosed — and is led by Co-Founder/CEO Dave Walker, with Chair-level leadership for the Partners Circle (Kelly Benish) and Leaders League (Eric Groves), and CGSO Maciek Szczesniak.

Name

B2SMB Institute

Legal name

Synth LLC

Website

https://b2smbi.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

B2SMB Institute is a private professional membership organization that provides peer networking, research, events, and partnership resources for enterprise, startup, and individual professionals engaged in selling products and services to the U.S. small-business market, anchored by tiered subscriptions and an annual Leaders Forum.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Membership Community

NAICS

Business Associations (81391)

akta.pro primary industry

B2B / Industrial Market Research (MPAAALAA)

Keywords

• Professional peer networks
• B2SMB membership community
• SMB go-to-market strategy
• Partnership intelligence platform
• Executive thought leadership

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: Five-tier membership model with monthly and annual billing options across Corporate, Startup, Individual, and Advocacy levels. Revenue is recurring, generated through subscription fees paid by organizations and individuals seeking peer networking, research, and resources in the B2SMB space.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

B2SMB Institute is a private professional membership organization and peer network for Business-to-Small-Business (B2SMB) leaders. It sells tiered recurring memberships (Startup, Corporate, Premier Corporate, Business, Enterprise, Individual, Advocacy) that give enterprise sellers, startups, individual professionals, and SMB advocacy organizations access to peer networking, proprietary research, events, and partnership development programs targeting the $2.5 trillion B2SMB market.

Product overview

B2SMB Institute is a professional membership organization and peer network for Business-to-Small-Business leaders, operating as a five-tier membership platform offering connections, intelligence, and strategies for the $2.5 trillion B2SMB market. The core offerings include: (1) B2SMB Institute Membership — the primary five-tier subscription program (Startup, Corporate, Premier Corporate, Individual, and Advocacy tiers) providing access to peer networks, research, and events; (2) the annual Leaders' Forum flagship conference; (3) the Between2Bs Podcast and Between the Lines Newsletter for thought leadership; (4) the AI2SMB Center of Excellence (CoE) — a dedicated hub for AI sellers in the SMB market; (5) the Partners Circle — an exclusive community for B2SMB partnership development, including access to the B2SMB 300 Partnership Intelligence Hub powered by an agentic interface; and (6) a suite of research publications including the annual Momentum Report, Year in Review report, GTM Playbooks, and the State of AI2SMB Report. Additional free tools include the B2SMB EKG diagnostic and AI2SMB GTM Test. The organization unifies over 5,000 B2SMB professionals across enterprise, startup, individual, and advocacy levels.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Between2Bs: The Institute's official podcast focusing on B2SMB trends, interviews with industry leaders, and discussions on AI2SMB topics
• Between the Lines
• AI2SMB
• Partners Circle
• Leaders League
• Momentum Report

Products and services

• B2SMB Institute Membership A five-tier professional leadership community membership providing top-to-top peer connections, partnerships, market intelligence, and strategies for the $2.5 trillion B2SMB market. Tiers include Startup ($399/month or $4,188/year), Corporate ($995/month or $9,995/year), Premier Corporate ($2,495/month or $24,995/year), Individual ($99/month or $795/year), Advocacy ($249/month or $2,388/year), Business ($949/quarter), and Enterprise ($1,699/month).
• Leaders' Forum The Institute's annual flagship in-person conference for B2SMB executives, focused on winning, keeping and growing SMB customers at scale. The 7th annual Leaders Forum (LF25) was held May 14-15, 2025 in Sonoma, CA; 2026 forums are planned for Napa on May 13-14 and October 7-8. General admission is $1,995, with first-time attendee (Newbie Bird) tickets at $997.50.
• Between2Bs Podcast A weekly podcast featuring B2SMB practitioners, thought leaders, SMEs, influencers, journalists and advocates discussing AI2SMB, SMB market trends, GTM strategies, and partnership insights. Featured guests include speakers from Dell, Microsoft, Verizon Business, Intuit, HouseCall Pro, Salesforce, and SCORE.
• Between the Lines Newsletter An exclusive newsletter providing direct Institute observations drawn from continuous engagement with the B2SMB market, published as a three-part series format covering market patterns, trends, and strategic insights for B2SMB leaders.
• AI2SMB Center of Excellence (CoE) A first-of-its-kind community and hub for AI sellers focused on the SMB market, combining peer-to-peer networking, shared learning and leadership growth for AI2SMB practitioners. Provides lighthouse events, thought leadership, GTM playbooks, and real market growth resources powered by the Key.ai networking platform.
• Partners Circle An exclusive community elevating B2SMB collaboration and bridging innovation with impact. Offers partnership events, partnerships intel, shared growth via AI2SMB collaboration, access to the B2SMB 300 partnership intelligence hub, live/virtual meet-ups, research, insights, playbooks, and a dedicated partnership matching platform powered by PartnerStandard Council.
• B2SMB 300 Partnership Intelligence Hub An exclusive 'intelligent directory' of 300 B2SMB Enterprises spanning Finance, Operations & Sales/Marketing categories, featuring pre-qualified partnership targets, market intelligence, and contact information, supported by an agentic interface. Contains 30 categories, 1000+ links, and 50+ prompt templates. Access restricted to Partners Circle Members.
• GTM Playbooks Best practices and best-in-class strategies and tactics sourced from across the B2SMB network and knowledge base, including the AI2SMB Go-to-Market Playbook, partnership playbooks, and co-marketing guides developed with PartnerStandard.
• Momentum Report The Institute's annual research report assessing the forces shaping the Small Business market, published as a three-part series. The 2026 edition examines how SMBs are moving faster than B2SMB sellers can keep up, covering AI adoption, business formations, payment technology, embedded finance, and tax law changes.
• State of AI2SMB Report A research report providing hard data on AI adoption amongst SMBs. Key findings: 92% of SMBs plan AI investment, 37% plan to use AI in 2025, 70% of SMBs feel unready for AI, and 49% fewer SMBs are adopting AI than expected. Published as part of the AI2SMB CoE resources.
• Year in Review, Year to Pursue Report An exclusive annual report providing a fact-based and thoroughly-sourced lookback on the prior year (2024), highlighting major B2SMB trends and developments, coupled with a playbook of forward strategies, tactics and resources for the coming year (2025).
• B2SMB EKG (Free Diagnostic) A free confidential diagnostic assessment containing 16 key indicators that reveal trouble with go-to-market strategy for B2SMB, helping members evaluate their SMB business results and identify areas of concern in their GTM approach.
• AI2SMB GTM Test A free 5-question diagnostic assessment to help B2SMB sellers identify strengths and gaps in their AI2SMB go-to-market playbook, evaluating readiness for the AI2SMB market projected to reach $48.5B by 2026.
• Partner Readiness Assessment A free 10-question diagnostic helping B2SMB partnership executives assess their readiness for partnerships in the dynamic AI2SMB marketplace, evaluating partnership development preparedness.
• Strategic Partnership Intelligence & Guides Market insights, collaboration trends, and opportunity mapping for B2SMB partnership executives, including partnership development guides developed with Bernhard Friedrichs of PartnerStandard covering co-marketing, technology integration, and allied distribution frameworks.

Quantifiable outcome

• Market served: $2.5 Trillion B2SMB opportunity
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers21 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• PartnerStandard CouncilcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partnership with PartnerStandard Council (led by Bernhard Friedrichs) to define verified partnership standards and best practices for B2SMB collaborations. Provides frameworks and methods for partnership development including playbooks on co-marketing, technology integration, and allied distribution.
• Key.aicoreTechnology or IntegrationAI2SMB networking platform powered by Key.ai, connecting enterprises with AI startups, LLM platforms, and AI service providers. Serves as the connection point for AI2SMB Center of Excellence community.
• AlignableminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for 'Voice of the Customer' live SMB panels at Leaders Forum events. Alignable provides local small business panelists for direct dialogue between B2SMB sellers and prospective buyers.
• Krishna Gandikota (Salesforce Agentforce)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFeatured keynote speaker at LF25 discussing Agent-first transformation of Salesforce and SMB customers. Represents AI2SMB product development collaboration perspective.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Gartner: Gartner is a broad incumbent research and advisory firm that, like B2SMB Institute at a vastly larger scale, monetizes B2B functions through tiered subscriptions, flagship conferences (Symposium/ITxpo) and peer community access; it represents the mature ceiling for content-plus-events business models.
• Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO): EO is a global peer membership organization for entrepreneurs running paid forums, learning events and an annual summit; it parallels B2SMB Institute's model of monetizing peer exchange among a defined business audience at scale.

Direct peers

• MarketingProfs: MarketingProfs runs a B2B marketing professional community with paid training, certifications, virtual events and an annual conference—structurally similar to B2SMB Institute as a membership-based learning and community network for B2B practitioners.
• Pavilion: Pavilion (formerly Revenue Collective) is a private membership community for B2B revenue leaders that operates with tiered dues and runs flagship conferences and cohort programs—the closest model analog to B2SMB Institute's paid-membership, event-driven community playbook.
• AA-ISP (American Association of Inside Sales Professionals): AA-ISP is a long-running membership association serving inside-sales and sales-operations professionals with conferences, certifications and peer chapters—an established analog of B2SMB Institute's role-as-community-organizer for a sales-adjacent profession.
• Content Marketing Institute: Content Marketing Institute operates a paid B2B community with an annual conference (Content Marketing World), research publications and training programs—a comparable content-and-events monetization model anchored on a defined B2B profession.
• Vistage: Vistage operates paid peer advisory groups for CEOs and senior executives, combining membership dues with facilitated peer sessions and annual summits—the most established model of enterprise-paid peer communities against which B2SMB Institute's tiered offer can be benchmarked.
• Chief: Chief is a private membership network for senior female executives that pairs annual dues with curated peer groups, summits and content. Its tiered subscription plus flagship event model closely mirrors how B2SMB Institute prices and engages its enterprise audience.
• Women in Revenue: Women in Revenue is a vendor-agnostic membership community for revenue-operations and sales professionals, with paid tiers, recurring programming and an annual summit—comparable to B2SMB Institute as a peer-to-peer professional society organized around a B2B function.

Emerging players

• RevOps Squared: RevOps Squared is an emerging RevOps peer community offering membership programs and events for operations leaders; it competes for the same B2B operations audience B2SMB Institute courts through its Leaders League and Partners Circle programming.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/B2SMBInstitute
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@b2smbinstitute187
• Facebookfacebook.com/b2smbinstitute
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/b2smbi
• Instagraminstagram.com/b2smb_institute

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about B2SMB Institute