A sober CEO peer group is a confidential, alcohol-free room of chief executives and founders in recovery who meet to work each other’s real business problems. Phoenix Forum is that room: ten vetted members, monthly hot seats, $349 a month. It holds business and recovery at the same table, which most executive peer groups are not built to do.

Leadership is already isolating. Leadership in recovery, inside rooms that assume everyone drinks, is more so. Here is the alternative.

Why does the standard executive peer group fall short?

YPO, Vistage, and the rest are strong rooms, but they are built for the general executive population. The events assume alcohol, and the room does not know what it means to be in recovery. So the sober CEO spends energy managing the social structure and keeps the most important context, how recovery shapes the way they lead, off the table.

Revenue doesn’t fix resentment, and a bigger title does not make a room safe to be honest in. Those are different problems, and only one of them gets solved by joining a more prestigious network.

Pressure reveals defects, and the CEO seat is nothing but pressure. The right room is the one that can name what the pressure is surfacing, not just admire the title.

What does a sober CEO peer group do differently?

The room is alcohol-free by design, so nothing has to be managed. The members are all in recovery, so sobriety is assumed rather than explained. The format is a monthly hot seat: one member brings a real decision and the room digs in. Because the baseline is shared, the conversation goes straight to the substance instead of spending the first hour getting past the surface.

How Phoenix Forum runs it

Ten vetted members, one confidential room, closed under a mutual NDA. Every member takes the hot seat. A Founders’ Compass keeps each person accountable between meetings. There is no revenue or company-size figure on the application; a 20 minute good-fit call decides fit, and we run two rooms so the placement matches the person.

What it costs

Phoenix Forum is $349 a month, about $4,200 a year, with a 6 month money-back guarantee. General executive peer groups run many times that: Vistage $15,000 to $20,000 a year, Tiger 21 around $30,000. None of them are built for a sober CEO. This one is.

What is a sober CEO peer group?

It is a confidential peer advisory group for chief executives and founders who are in recovery. The room is alcohol-free, the members are sober, and the focus is business: real decisions, real numbers, a monthly hot seat. Recovery is the shared baseline that makes the business conversation honest.

Why does an alcohol-free room matter for a CEO?

Because most executive peer groups and their events are built around drinking. For a sober CEO, that means managing every gathering instead of getting value from it. An alcohol-free room removes that tax entirely and lets the room start where it matters.

Is this only for CEOs of large companies?

No. There is no revenue or company-size figure on the application. Phoenix Forum runs two rooms and a 20 minute good-fit call decides which fits you. The common thread is being a founder or operator in recovery, not a specific revenue number.

What does it cost?

Phoenix Forum is $349 per month, about $4,200 a year, with a 6 month money-back guarantee. That is a fraction of what general executive peer groups like Vistage or Tiger 21 charge.

Written by

Andrew Lassise

Founder of Phoenix Forum. Entrepreneur, tech investor, and recovered alcoholic. He started Phoenix Forum because no other peer advisory board held recovery and business in the same room at the same time.