COMMON

What COMMON does

COMMON (legal entity COMMON Catalyst LLC) is a private, Boulder, Colorado-based creative accelerator and membership community for social entrepreneurs, founded in 2016 by Alex Bogusky, Ana Bogusky, Rob Schuham, and John Bielenberg, with Mark Eckhardt serving as CEO. The company is structured as a three-part model combining a community of social-impact founders, an incubator offering executive coaching and strategic services, and a collaborative shared brand. As of recent disclosures, the community comprises 200+ member companies across 21 countries and 27 industries, and the company claims to have helped generate over $58 billion in cumulative value for member organizations over the last decade.

The underlying technology is intentionally minimal: COMMON is a services and community business, not a software product. The platform is built on Slack for member engagement, a HubSpot-backed website for membership sales, and standard third-party tools (Stripe for payments, Google Analytics and Google Ads for marketing, Twitter and Facebook for remarketing). Core productized offerings include the COMMON Membership Platform (Basic at $99/month and Incubation at $500/month per team member, both billed monthly with a $50 setup fee), Maniacal Business Attacks (immersive strategic consulting engagements), Product Development, Creative Services, and Branding Services, plus a FearLess Report weekly newsletter and the COMMON Pitch international event series held in cities including New York, Cape Town, Santiago, Boulder, and Milwaukee. Sub-brands COMMON Future (climate-adaptation content studio) and the COMMON Foundation (nonprofit arm) extend the parent brand into adjacent verticals.

The business model blends recurring subscription revenue from tiered memberships, episodic professional services revenue from executive advisory sessions ($150 per 50-minute session) and curated project-based consultancy, and brand-building investments via the international COMMON Pitch event series. The company has no disclosed external institutional funding, suggesting it remains founder-owned and bootstrap-financed, and operates with 1-10 employees. Go-to-market combines content marketing (blog and FearLess Report), organic social, paid remarketing, and event-driven community building targeting social entrepreneurs who are unwilling to surrender equity or 3-month time commitments in exchange for traditional accelerator participation.

Name

COMMON

Legal name

COMMON Catalyst LLC

Website

https://common.is

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Business Accelerator & Creative Services

NAICS

Convention and Trade Show Organizers (56192), Business Associations (813910)

SIC

Services-Advertising Agencies (7311), Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Cause/Sustainability & Purpose-Driven Creative Agencies (MPAAAAAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Integrated Full-Service Creative Agencies (MPAAAAAA), Community Management & Creator Community Building (MPAAAHAH), Association & Society Conference Management (Nonprofit, Professional Bodies) (THAHACAA)

Keywords

• Creative accelerator services
• Social entrepreneurship community
• Strategic brand consulting
• Executive coaching programs
• Membership-based incubation

Headquarters

HQ city

Boulder

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, Others, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Basic Membership: Entry-level membership providing access to Slack community, FearLess Report newsletter, support via Slack and Email. Designed for entrepreneurs and businesses at early stages seeking community connection and basic support.
2. Incubation Membership: Premium membership tier including 12 hours of Executive Coaching annually (one 45-minute session per month), access to investment-ready introductions, and heightened brand association with COMMON. Targets established social businesses seeking growth acceleration.
3. Advisory Sessions: Individual executive coaching sessions at $150 per 50-minute session. Provides focused strategic guidance for entrepreneurs.
4. Strategic Consultancy Services: Work-for-hire creative and strategic consultancy services. COMMON curates teams of leading thinkers and creators for client projects including strategy (Maniacal Business Attacks), product development, creative campaigns, and branding.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

COMMON operates a tiered membership-based creative accelerator and community platform that helps social entrepreneurs build socially responsible brands and companies without giving up equity. The company delivers executive coaching, facilitated investor introductions, and access to a global network of creative professionals, complemented by project-based strategic consultancy services including Maniacal Business Attacks, product development, creative campaigns, and branding.

Product overview

COMMON is a creative accelerator and community platform for social businesses, structured as a collaborative brand model consisting of three components: community, business incubator, and shared brand. The company offers a tiered membership platform (Basic and Incubation levels) providing access to executive coaching, private Slack community, training resources, and facilitated introductions to investors. Services are delivered through specialized modules including Maniacal Business Attacks (strategic consulting), Product Development (apps, websites, platforms, physical products), Creative Services (campaign design, storytelling), and Branding Services (identity development). The company also operates COMMON Pitch, an international event series for social innovators, and COMMON Future, a content studio focused on climate adaptation communications. FearLess Report serves as the company's weekly thought leadership newsletter.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• COMMON Membership Platform Tiered membership platform (Basic at $1,188/year and Incubation at $6,000/year per team member) for social entrepreneurs and businesses, providing access to executive coaching, a private Slack community, training resources, the FearLess Report newsletter, and facilitated introductions to potential funding sources for investment-ready companies.
• Maniacal Business Attacks (MBAs) Immersive strategic consulting engagement that challenges conventional strategy approaches to spark new ideas, business models, and truth-centered market solutions for social enterprises. Delivered as part of COMMON's strategic consultancy services.
• Product Development Services Development of apps, websites, platforms, physical products, or services designed to disrupt the status quo, delivered alongside experienced professionals from the COMMON network. Offered as part of work-for-hire consultancy.
• Creative Services Campaign design and communication services leveraging a global network of thinkers and storytellers to create attention-grabbing content and messaging for social impact clients.
• Branding Services Brand identity development and design services helping businesses create distinctive visual identities that stand out in the market, drawing on decades of design experience from the COMMON network.
• COMMON Pitch Events International event series for celebrating and funding the next generation of social innovators. Events have been held in New York City, Cape Town (South Africa), Santiago (Chile), Boulder (Colorado), and Milwaukee (Wisconsin), featuring participation from notable figures such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Al Gore.
• Executive Advisory Sessions Individual executive coaching sessions priced at $150 per 50-minute session, providing focused strategic guidance for entrepreneurs seeking ad-hoc advisory support outside the membership structure.

Quantifiable outcome

• 76,000 new patients and $200 million in new revenue in 6 months for Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• StripecoreOthersPayment processing partner used to process monthly membership fees. Stripe handles the technical aspects of collecting and managing subscription payments for COMMON memberships.
• Google Ads (AdWords)minorGTM or Marketing PartnerGoogle's remarketing service used for behavioral advertising to reach users who have visited the COMMON website.
• TwitterminorGTM or Marketing PartnerSocial media platform used for remarketing and audience engagement through interest-based advertising.
• FacebookminorGTM or Marketing PartnerSocial media platform used for remarketing and interest-based advertising to COMMON's target audience of social entrepreneurs.
• MediaMonkscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWorld's largest creative digital production company (Splyt) making services available to COMMON members. Collaboration enables members to access high-end digital production capabilities for campaigns and content creation.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Purpose: A purpose-driven creative and campaigns agency that builds social movements for brands and nonprofits. Closely comparable to COMMON's Creative Services and Branding modules for impact-oriented clients, though Purpose is a large commercial agency, not a community platform.
• The Standard (formerly GOOD): Media and community platform for people and brands working on social impact. Comparable as a content/community hub for social entrepreneurs and purpose-driven professionals, with a similar thematic focus.

Emerging players

• Antler: Global early-stage VC and accelerator with a community model. Comparable as a founder community/accelerator with global reach, though equity-based and not purpose-specific.
• Conscious Capitalism: Movement and community promoting conscious business practices. Comparable thought-leadership positioning and community model for purpose-driven leaders, though not an accelerator or paid membership platform.
• B Lab (B Corporation): Nonprofit network certifying and supporting B Corps (social and environmental businesses). Comparable in building a community of mission-driven businesses and providing shared brand/credibility, but operates as a certification rather than a paid accelerator.

Direct peers

• Techstars: Global accelerator network offering mentorship-driven programs and a startup community. Comparable as an accelerator-of-record for early-stage founders, though Techstars is equity-based and not purpose-focused.
• Echoing Green: Fellowship and leadership network for emerging social entrepreneurs. Comparable in target customer (social entrepreneurs) and support model (coaching + community + funding access), but structured as a fellowship rather than a paid membership.
• Y Combinator: The dominant startup accelerator, with a community/membership model serving founders globally. While YC takes equity and runs a 3-month batch, it is the clearest comparison point for a membership-driven accelerator of the type COMMON is building.
• Ashoka: Global network supporting leading social entrepreneurs (Ashoka Fellows). Closely comparable mission to COMMON's social-entrepreneur focus, with a similar community/network model, although Ashoka is nonprofit and fellowship-based rather than paid membership.

Regional players

• Sustainable Brands: Community and conference network for brand sustainability leaders. Comparable audience (purpose-driven brand professionals) and event-driven engagement model, particularly to COMMON's COMMON Pitch event series.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/commonworks
• Facebookfacebook.com/commonworks
• Instagraminstagram.com/commonworks
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/common-is

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Subsidiaries1 record

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 COMMON