An ascendeur is a tool used to climb mountains. It’s also a mashup of “ascend” and the -eur ending of “entrepreneur.” However, the pronunciation sounds like “ascender” – the U is silent.

Ascendeur HQ is located in the Highlands neighborhood of Denver. You can come visit us in person at 2810 North Speer Blvd. This is also where we host our GFXs and occasional Afternoon Clubs!

• First, introduce yourself to us! We want to learn more about your business, your journey, and you as a person.
• Next, have your CPA verify your revenue.
• We’ll review your application. Once it’s approved, you’ll receive a payment link and welcome email to let you know what your next steps are.

Ascendeur was built for and by entrepreneurs, so the first and most important requirement is that you’re an entrepreneur. To us, that means that you’re a growth-minded owner of a value-creating enterprise who understands and takes on the risks inherent in entrepreneurship.

Ascendeur depends on its members to help us vet applicants for our organization. If your revenue is $500K or below, you’ll need three recommendations from current members as part of your application; if your revenue is over $500K,  you’ll need one recommendation from a current member. Don’t know a current member? Come to a GFX or Afternoon Club to meet the community.

We’re different from other peer group organizations in that we don’t have any revenue requirements. Rather, we use our Entrepreneurial Experience Evaluator (EEE) to help you find the appropriate forum for your journey.

That’s great! Free your forum! You can bring your entire forum over at a discounted rate.

A forum (or peer or mastermind group) creates an environment where individuals can find and give support, solve problems and achieve their goals among like-minded people who face similar challenges. Or as one of our members put it, “If you go to a gym and workout by yourself, you can get ok results. However, if you go to the gym and workout with a trainer or a class, you have a higher level of accountability and a feeling of camaraderie as you achieve a shared goal. You’ll find that you can push yourself above and beyond what you expected and you achieve transformative results. Forums are that trainer or class.”

A Guided Forum Experience is the first step on the path to your Ascendeur Forum. GFXs are standing meetings that allow new members to gain access to a forum experience immediately upon joining. They are also where potential members, new members and experienced members come together to create relationships that lead to the launching of new forums and the growth of existing forums. GFXs are open to all members, so if a member is not in a regular forum for any reason (e.g. traveling too much for business, being between forums, taking a break from forum, or not having enough time to commit to a regular forum), the GFX provides a regularly scheduled opportunity to still find a place to get feedback and support from peers on any issue.

 

With Launch Guides, Lead Guides, and Learning Guides, we have an expert for wherever your forum is in its evolution.

• Launch Guides are experts at starting new forums. They’ll provide operational instruction, train your group on forum best practices, identify the forum’s purpose, assist with the development of forum mission and vision statements, help build lists for exploration topics, and anything else your forum needs to get started on the path to success. They’ll participate in your forum’s meetings for the first few months until your group is comfortable moderating their own meetings.
• Lead Guides are experts at keeping maturing and experienced forums on track. Working regularly with the forum chair, Lead Guides will help develop a Monthly Action Plan (MAP), plan presentations and exercises to meet the group’s needs, and continue to liaise with chairs and members to make sure the forums MAPs are effective. Lead Guides do not participate in monthly meetings; rather, they connect ahead of meetings with your forum’s chair.
• Learning Guides are experts at administering specific programs for a defined period of time. Topics will evolve over time and will be driven by the interests and needs of forums. Learning programs include accountability, fitness, relationships, and culture. Learning Guides offer forums a deep dive into specific topics in an expertly guided way.

Your forum gets to pick your Guides; you’re welcome to choose the same Guide each stage or try out someone new. We do the work of content creation and facilitation so members can focus on benefiting from the experiences.

Forum Guides are Ascendeurs with experience leading peer groups. Collectively, our Founding Guides have over 70 years of peer group experience and leadership. Ascendeur also has a network of Guides who are community experts in their field. If you are interested in becoming a Guide, please contact us.

Forum Guides are a resource for both chairs and members. Guides connect with forum chairs each month to review the previous meeting, create a MAP for the upcoming meeting, build the calendar of future forum discussions and exercises, and help ensure forum meetings stay impactful. Members with questions or issues regarding their forum or other opportunities offered by Ascendeur can turn to the Guides for help navigating their options.

Forums are initially formed at GFXs. After joining Ascendeur, members attend GFXs at least once a month. There, your forum will develop organically as you meet and form bonds with other Ascendeurs. Though Guides are available to assist in forum creation, members are always in control of their forum experience. New members have a say in their forum creation and selection process and existing forums dictate how their forum develops and changes over time—including membership. Moving between forums is encouraged as your entrepreneurial journey changes. And, of course, Guides are there to help both individual members and forums manage the process.

Your forum gets to pick your Guides; you’re welcome to choose the same Guide each stage or try out someone new. All Guides will be rated by forums in an open and transparent way to give forums the information they need to choose the best guides for their experience. New forums will work with Launch Guides through the regularly scheduled GFX meetings that run every other week. Maturing and experienced forums will choose their guides at any time from our pool of available experts.

Forums are encouraged to have at least one annual offsite meeting. Ascendeur’s guided approach offers assistance in selecting locations and building agendas for creating impactful retreats. Forum Guides are also available to facilitate retreats when groups want additional support. Retreat Guides each have their own style, expertise and cost, with unique bios and experiences that are openly reviewed and rated by other forums so you have the information needed to select the best Retreat Guide for your forum’s intended objective.

Each Guide develops their own content for retreat facilitation and negotiates their terms with the forum.

Any member can attend Forum Guide Training to be listed as a Forum Guide (or just to be a better member of their own group). A limited number of Launch Guides are selected to ensure continuity during the GFXs for new members, new forums, and existing members looking for new groups.

Forum Guide Training focuses on leadership development and teaches best practices for running effective forums and small teams. Topics covered include meeting operations, agenda creation, accountability tracking, planning, and follow up.

Forum Guides get the chance to continue their personal growth while also giving back to their entrepreneurial community. Unlike other forum-based organizations in the market that rely heavily on volunteers to deliver value, Ascendeur invests in our Forum Guides through continual training and development. Forum Guides share the forum experience with new and seasoned forum participants, get paid for doing something they enjoy, and are recognized as leaders in their entrepreneurial community.

A Forum Guide is a paid, trained professional whose job is to make sure that forums create and follow a plan based on Ascendeur’s Forum Framework. A Forum Chair is a member of the forum who volunteers to lead the forum for a set period of time with administrative help from Ascendeur.

• Guided Forums combine the best parts of member-led groups with the added benefit of an expertly trained guide to elevate your entrepreneurial journey. Guides may occasionally attend a forum, but most of their time is spent with the Chair to prep and plan for forum meetings.
• Led Forums are for groups who want a dedicated Guide to attend meetings and lead their forum in lieu of a volunteer Chair.
• Pro Forums have been in the same high-functioning forum for two or more years and feel like they’re in a place where they don’t need the help of a Guide. They still have access to all TEN benefits and they can bring in Learning Guides as needed to tackle special topics.

Each year, we host 18 events  that are included in Plus memberships. They’re a chance for entrepreneurs to get together for a variety of purposes and in different locations. Members who do not have Plus memberships can pay for individual events online or at the door. Prices vary depending on the event.

Every “Plus” membership comes with free access to 18 events per year:

• At Afternoon Clubs, members get a chance to socialize with other growth-minded entrepreneurs at trendy spots around town.
• Our Lunch Abouts are a chance for a member to host other Ascendeurs at their company for an informal midday learning session over a meal.
• Forum Mashups are an annual event that allows members to engage with other Ascendeurs who are not part of their forum in a forum-like gathering.
• Dine-Arounds occur once a year at members’ homes. These are great opportunities to break bread with non-forum members and their significant others.