Startup founder Rana el Kaliouby said she was frantic the day she had to tell her employees that some of them were being let go because of the pandemi

Inside the secret club that helps prepare young CEOs to take over the world

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2021-07-12 20:30:01

Startup founder Rana el Kaliouby said she was frantic the day she had to tell her employees that some of them were being let go because of the pandemic's economic toll. But she had no one to confide in.

"It's a very lonely experience," el Kaliouby said of being a chief executive. "You can talk to your mentors, but they're usually in a different spot. You can talk to your investors, but you have to be careful."

Instead, she turned to the Young Presidents Organization, a global network of executives where members meet monthly in regional small groups known as forums.

Founded in 1950, YPO has a reputation as a fraternity for ultrarich white men who inherited their family's business, and, for a time, it was. But over the years, it's recruited more entrepreneurs, who tell Insider that the exclusive club is worth the price of admission. A first-year initiation fee is about $4,000 and annual dues start at $6,000, depending on the chapter.

When el Kaliouby sat down at her computer for her first forum meeting of business leaders from across the Northeast, she remembers thinking it was going to be "a colossal waste of time."