High-ticket event / mastermind business
Run a high-ticket live event or mastermind for founders or professionals, monetized via $5K+ ticket prices.
The idea, in plain language
Run a high-ticket live event or mastermind for founders or professionals, monetised via $5K+ ticket prices, with MFM and Greg Isenberg splitting the playbook and Koerner contributing the cold-email-agency acquisition layer. Quoted numbers run from Jonathan Courtney's $6,800/seat Summer Camp mastermind (30 seats) and his $5,800 playbook folder, the HoldCo Bros' $90K/month cold-email agency target, Carolyn Childers's $80M ARR Chief.com women-executive mastermind, the $61K MRR Kleo waitlist, the $20M MRR TrustMRR wave-surfing playbook and the $80M ARR Chief.com no-social-media strategy. The customer is a founder, executive or high-income professional who values in-person proximity, peer accountability and curated content; monetisation is ticket sales, sponsorships, paid membership, retreats and adjacent physical products. Startup capital is dominated by venue, F&B and marketing — the videos stress that a 200-person sold-out room at $1,000-$10,000 a seat is a $200K-$2M gross with 50-90% margins once the venue is paid for.
Where the sources agree
- Premium IRL is back: Jonathan Courtney's $6,800 Summer Camp, Antonio Neves's Man Morning and Carolyn Childers's Chief.com all sit on scarcity, true-fan audiences and natural upsell.
- Masterminds are the recurring model — Chief.com at $80M ARR is the largest documented case; Tiger 21 (cited elsewhere) at $20M+ ARR is the peer-group reference.
- Build the audience or community first, event second; the videos warn that an event without a pre-existing audience is a venue rental, not a business.
- Sponsorships stack on top of tickets once attendance crosses 100-200 — HustleCon's sponsor math and Greg's 'White Whale Fund' pitch both treat sponsors as the second revenue lever.
- Operator tooling is its own micro-SaaS opportunity (the timer app example, the registration layer) — but the videos consistently say the tool is downstream of the audience, not the other way around.
Where they differ
- MFM and Greg Isenberg split the conversation roughly 50/50; Koerner contributes only the cold-email-agency outreach layer (ixJ89BIJ_Lo's $90K/month target).
- Carolyn Childers's Chief.com playbook (KVFetFmiFuw) is the documented $80M ARR no-social-media B2B women-executive mastermind; Antonio Neves's Man Morning (SqgFjmig28g) and Jonathan Courtney's Summer Camp (Vt0ZV9JTXRo) are operator-level plays with named ticket prices.
- Alex Hormozi's $100M-net-worth-by-31 interview (4KfuQwB5rIs) is motivationally adjacent but does not present an event business; the MrBeast Camp MFM episode (aRHLhDkkGY4) is anecdotal only.
- Koerner's $90K/month cold-email-agency playbook (ixJ89BIJ_Lo) and the masterclass episode on finding freak-you-out customers (S4JeVMhaXME) treat masterminds as a customer-acquisition surface, not the product.
- The 9 killer $10M+ ideas brainstorm (EjjI5oLW-R4) pitches several event-shaped concepts (reverse vacations, rap-battle UFC hybrid, giant claw machines, Mexican Benihana, kid beepers) but none with operator math.
- Several videos (Hormozi, DTC debate, the MrBeast retreat, the career-regrets episode) are personality or motivation profiles that appear because they touch the founder-audience cluster, not because they document an event business.
What each source says
IsenbergBlueprint to Build a $1M SaaS From Scratch
Rob Hoffman breaks down six customer-acquisition playbooks from his SaaS portfolio: waitlist (Kleo ~$61K MRR, Mentions ~$20K MRR), wave-surfing trend-jacking (TrustMRR), language/geo arbitrage (Teachizy), AI search SEO (Tally), signal-search (LocalRank) and high-ticket ads (MailScale).
Watch on YouTubeMFM9 killer $10M+ business ideas in 56 minutes (take notes NOW)
Sam Parr and Shaan Puri run through nine $10M+ business ideas, including reverse vacations, a rap-battle/UFC hybrid, giant claw machines, butter dispensers, kid beepers, Mexican Benihana, bulk custom gifts, Slop Stop and roommate-to-work experiences.
Watch on YouTubeKoernerHow to Start a $90K/Month Cold Email Agency
Sam Thompson on starting a cold-email agency: tools and tactics for campaigns from 100 to 10 million emails using AI, leveraging influencers to sell high-ticket products with no upfront cost, plus case studies (Neon Bears viral products, a perfume vending update).
Watch on YouTubeMFMMFM #171: How to Generate Millions from Paid Events (Bootstrapped)
Sam explains step-by-step how he grew HustleCon from zero into a profitable paid conference business, sharing ticket pricing, sponsor math and the techniques he used to keep costs low; also brainstorms 'accountability coaching for X' as a new product.
Watch on YouTubeMFMFrom Broke At 26 To $100 Million Net Worth By 31 (Alex Hormozi Interview)
Alex Hormozi recounts going from broke at 26 to $100M net worth by 31, his supplement brand, how he gets big commitments up front, his 5 AM-to-4 PM schedule and his direct-sales playbook.
Watch on YouTubeMFMWhy Direct-to-Consumer Companies Are Awesome to Own | My First Million #217
Shaan and Sam debate owning direct-to-consumer ecommerce businesses, including ad spend, purchase multipliers, Whoop and Allbirds, Loot, bitcoin, a breathwork app, an event better than SoulCycle and a ranch retreat for deeper connections.
Watch on YouTubeKoernerHow to Find Customers So Big That They Kinda Freak You Out
Episode on masterminds as a business strategy, AI-powered creative prospecting, the White Whale Fund concept, a Best Buy cold-email story, Odeko's coffee supply chain platform and artisan/niche marketplaces.
Watch on YouTubeKoernerWhy Dog Electrolytes Are the Next Million Dollar Idea
Chris and Nik riff across topics: Capital Camp and the value of premium networking events, dog electrolytes as a product idea, Kmart's last-ditch ad, nutrition-label inaccuracies, YouTube channel ideas, Google's AI impact and evaluating the purchase of a UI/UX agency.
Watch on YouTubeMFMI Spent 48 Hours With MrBeast To Learn Business From Him (#355)
Sam Parr, Shaan Puri and producer Ben recount Camp MFM, a retreat where MrBeast was a guest, sharing inside stories about MrBeast's kamikaze commitment to production, future MFM events, Kobe stories and a participant named Duke.
Watch on YouTubeIsenbergMake $1M+ in 2026 with this Trend (IRL is back)
Jonathan Courtney explains how going against the AI grain by running premium in-person events has turned his digital-business audience into higher-margin IRL revenue (his 'Summer Camp' mastermind sold 30 seats at $6,800 each); he walks through frameworks for spinning up sold-out physical events.
Watch on YouTubeMFMIf you have career regrets in 2026, watch this.
Shaan and Sam on career regret and how to dodge it in 2026: data on the share of people who hate their job, 'insane determinism' as a way to focus, finding the work that fascinates you, the underrated value of peer groups and being fearful when others are greedy.
Watch on YouTubeIsenbergThis legend gave away 3 crazy cash-flowing business ideas
Jonathan Courtney walks through several $1M-$10M ideas: an AI-powered brown-noise sleep device, a more sophisticated male adult-toy brand, non-spiritual retreats and an infoproduct around digital/phone addiction; closes on the value of masterminds for entrepreneurs.
Watch on YouTubeMFMHow To Make $80 Million ARR From A Mastermind Business
Sam interviews Carolyn Childers, co-founder/CEO of Chief.com, on building an $80M ARR women-executive mastermind/subscription community, why the company has no social-media presence, other opportunities for this model and what a 'vetted community' actually looks like operationally.
Watch on YouTubeIsenbergThe IRL Tribes That Could Change Your Life
Antonio Neves (Man Morning Newsletter and community creator) joins Greg on building IRL mastermind groups from nothing, the grittiness required to break into the most selective tribes in startupland, why proximity is a tool and a Q&A with the Man Morning community.
Watch on YouTubeMFMTony Robbins Changes My Life (48 Minute Coaching Session)
No take is available for this episode.
Watch on YouTubeside-hustle-school#60: Marketing Consultant Creates Private Retreats
The episode covers a Tennessee marketing consultant's quarterly high-end retreat business, including how she positions and prices the experience.
Listen on Side Hustle SchoolTools people use for this
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