A silent epidemic is currently hiding right under our noses.  Little do we know, they are seen in boardrooms, home offices, and kitchen tables across the country, where people privately bear the burden of their struggles.  One peer group at a time, Cam Mochan, co-founder and Chief Evangelist of Peer Group Tools, has been trying to improve that for more than twenty years now.

What began as a private study of the world of entrepreneurial peer groups grew into a technological tool designed to fuel authentic human connection. The best way to find answers, or gain support with challenges you may be facing, is sharing with others on similar journeys.   Through the eyes of Cam Mochan, this is how Peer Group Tools came to be.

Twenty Years in the Room Where It Happens

The two groups at the start of Cam's story are YPO (Young Presidents' Organization) and EO (Entrepreneurs' Organization), which are unfamiliar to most non-entrepreneurs.  These are international organizations that link CEOs and company owners in chapter-based communities worldwide.  Some of the most well-known business executives in the world are members of YPO, and many YPO members started their peer group experience in EO, which is exactly what Cam did. However, what takes place in the tiny groups is what sets these organizations apart.  Members of each chapter are divided into small groups known as forums, each comprising roughly eight individuals.  These forums typically meet in person  once a month for four hours. Forum meetings cover a wide range of topics, including business strategy, personal health, family issues, and major life decisions. Cam has spent more than 20 years as a member and leader of both.

"Being an entrepreneur, a business owner, a CEO -  somebody who's running an organization is oftentimes a lonely experience," Cam explains. "Everybody who reports to you assumes that you have all the answers, that you know where you're going, you have enough money, you have the right plan. And the truth is, most people don't. They're figuring it out in real time, and they don't have a place to share ideas, get support, get feedback."

What a peer group does, Cam discovered, is break that isolation. "You take eight people that feel alone in their businesses, and you put them in a room together, all of a sudden they don't feel alone. They're all at the tip of the spear, at the top of their organization. But when you bring them together, they're peers. And they can start to share: this is what's working for me, this is what's not."

The 97% Problem

After 10 years, Cam left EO with a goal.  He was aware that the great majority of American entrepreneurs needed access to peer groups since he had personally witnessed their life-changing potential.

The data from these companies is startling.   Just 3% of American companies have annual revenue in excess of $1 million annually.  This indicates that 97% of entrepreneurs, and business executives, which are the vast majority of people who launch and lead businesses, take chances, and create something that are completely excluded from organizations like EO and YPO.

So Cam helped build something for them. He founded an organization called Ascendeur, which ran peer groups for entrepreneurs operating below that million-dollar threshold.  The content and process were intentional and structured all modeled on the best of what he'd experienced in EO and YPO. The biggest challenge was everything was delivered manually, through volunteer peer group leaders, with a set of cobbled-together solutions. 

A Conversation That Changed Everything

While sharing the challenges of running Ascender with his YPO forum, fellow forummate, Brandon Giles asked, "Why do you want to run these things manually? Why don't you build a platform to help manage them?"

It was the kind of question that seems obvious in hindsight but takes the right person at the right moment to ask.

As Cam gave it more thought, he came to the conclusion that there was no tailored digital solution for managing peer groups.  Sure, there are Paper forms, Google Docs, Dropbox files, Doodle polls for scheduling, and Slack or WhatsApp for communication in between meetings, all being used by groups.  Having a one stop-shop for peer groups would be a great idea for more impactful group experiences.

"For the twenty years that I've been involved in peer groups, it's crazy," Cam reflects. "We're talking about super smart, super busy people and their meeting updates and post meeting notes were on a printed-out form, written out by hand. Or some people would put them into a Word doc and upload to a Google Drive. There was really no great way to capture this valuable information, and there was no single platform for running a peer group."

A Market Much Bigger Than Anyone Imagined

As Peer Group Tools was designed and built, the team began to realize how impactful this platform can be.  Peer groups aren't just for entrepreneurs, but a powerful model for any community of people who share experiences and want to grow together.

Cayuga, an alumni association connected to Cornell University, was an early client that showed the potential of peer groups. Positive feedback was coming from the university, for the staff have never been more connected until they started using PGT.

The platform has since expanded to serve men's peer groups, Harvard Business School alumni cohorts, YPO next-gen groups for the adult children of YPO members, and more.  Even Cam's own family has used the platform for intentional family meetings.  It goes to show how a simple concept such as PGT can make such a huge impact in everyday life.

"Peer groups should not be the exclusive domain of business executives and entrepreneurs," Cam insists. "Everyone could benefit by sharing their journey with others on a similar path ."

More Than a Business Tool - A Response to an Epidemic

The whole concept of Peer Group Tools isn't purely entrepreneurial.  It strives to be personal and human.

Cam talks openly about isolation, a problem he observes occurring nationwide.  The suicide rates among veterans are shocking.  The same is true for first responders.  Over the past fifteen years, middle-aged men's suicide rates have doubled and quadrupled.  Although social media promises a sense of connection, it frequently provides the opposite.

"Life when done well is still hard," Cam says. "Life when not done well is super hard. And not done well, alone, is sometimes catastrophic."

Peer groups hold more potential than what people think.  They help set an environment for people to open up with the real and honest conversations of what they're dealing with rather than the filtered version of themselves they portray online. Something changes when you're in a room with seven other people doing the same thing.  You understand that you're not alone and other people have been in your shoes. 

Cam recounts moments from his own peer group history, sharing the experience of family troubles, navigating health crises, and making some of the hardest business decisions of his life.  These weren't conversations he could have with his team or his board.  They happened in his peer group, held safely by people who showed up for him the same way he showed up for them.

The Vision: Making Peer Groups as Common as Book Clubs

Cam describes four forces of personal growth that he believes every person should have access to: mentors, coaches, counselors, and peer groups.  Setting aside the first three, the fourth force, peer groups, remain dramatically overlooked, despite offering the best of all three combined.

"Everybody knows what a book club is," he says. "You can join them. They're social, they're fun, they're easy to start. Peer groups should operate the same way. Our tool and our business is basically around evangelizing and supporting people that want to be in peer groups."

Peer Group Tools is building an operating system that can bring peer groups to scale.  Not by making them simple, but by providing common and new technology to keep the human based connections PGT strives to push out.

A Platform Built on Personal Conviction

What's striking about Cam Mochan's story is that Peer Group Tools didn't come from a trend identified by a product team.  It came from twenty years of showing up to meetings, adopting the idea of working together and making a difference while doing so.

"I'm at my peer group meetings to help others," Cam says, "because everybody else in the room is there to help me.” Cam hopes Peer Group Tools can help more people help each other. “There’s no reason to do it alone and Peer Group Tools makes connecting in meaningful ways simple.”