Two rooms. Neither held the whole story.

When Andrew Lassise started building his business in recovery, he noticed something nobody named: he lived in two separate rooms, and they could never meet.

In his home group, people knew his real story. The fear under the ambition. The wreckage before. How he stayed sober and stayed honest every day. That room was for recovery. It served its purpose. But when he closed a significant deal, the room wasn’t built to process it. When he needed to decide who to fire or which investor to take, the room couldn’t hold that conversation. Business-level problems felt out of place.

In the business world, Andrew showed up to YPO dinners, conferences, mastermind retreats. Smart people solving real problems. He learned things, made connections. But every event had a bar. Every dinner assumed wine. Every networking function expected him to perform sobriety instead of be present in it. He could never bring his full story. The decisions he made, how he led, why he chose what he chose: all of it had to stay hidden.

“Your business grows to the level of your honesty. I was only honest in one room at a time.”

The third option didn’t exist. So he built it.

In 2023, Andrew asked a simple question: what if there was one room where both sides showed up together? Not a recovery meeting with business grafted on. Not a mastermind that tolerates sobriety as lifestyle. A room where your recovery was the requirement, the shared truth, and the reason it was safe to be fully honest.

He called other founders in recovery he knew. Different stages of business. Different industries. Different years sober. He asked if they felt the same split. Every one of them said yes.

The first Phoenix Forum cohort launched with eight founders. Two hours, once a month, over Zoom. The first hour: hot seats. Every member names what’s keeping them up at night, the room works it, you leave with a commitment eight people track. The second hour: the Founders’ Compass. One member per month shares their full story. The business, the recovery, the decisions they’re weighing. The questions only this room holds.

By month three, something shifted. People weren’t starting from zero each time. The context was already there. Things got said that had never been said anywhere else. Not because the room demanded confessional honesty, but because it made it safe to be fully present. No one was performing.

“I’d been waiting my whole career for a room like this to exist.”

Founding member, agency owner

How it runs now.

Phoenix Forum runs two cohorts. Both small by design: ten members each. Both meet once a month. Same format. Same NDA. Every meeting stays confidential.

Members span industries: agency, SaaS, professional services, e-commerce. Revenue ranges from early to eight figures. Years sober range from two to twelve. What they share is not a number. It’s a commitment to recovery, a real business, and a willingness to be fully honest about both in the same room.