Lead Hosts
The Pitch Club began with a simple belief: practical knowledge and meaningful networks should be available to founders everywhere. These are the lead hosts — past and present — who made it real.
Lead Host
Lead Host & Co-Founder, The Pitch Club & Strategic Mindset
Laura got involved in mid 2021 and has carried The Pitch Club forward since mid 2022 — running the majority of the content, hosting Metrics Matter, and orchestrating real-life meetups around the world.
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Co-founder, The Pitch Club
Entrepreneur and co-founder of The Pitch Club, Sohail helped create an open room where founders could practice, connect, and learn from experienced voices — and gave the community its motto, HOPE: Help One Person Everyday.
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Co-founder, The Pitch Club
A founding force behind The Pitch Club, Sama helped create a place where ambitious people could be heard, challenged, and welcomed. Her contribution remains part of the community’s foundation.
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Lead Host & Co-Founder, Strategic Mindset
Co-founder of Strategic Mindset, Edna helps lead a community for open business guidance, brainstorming, and conversation — where founders and investors think longer-term and build lasting relationships.
Lead Host, The Business Room
Paul hosts the Thursday Business Room, leading one focused business topic each week with practical discussion founders can apply right away.
Click here to share what you'd bring to the room. Proposed topics are reviewed weekly across all our programming.
Sister community
Co-founded by Laura Frank Barnard and Edna Bibb, Strategic Mindset is a 59K+ member community for open business guidance, brainstorming, and conversation — a social room where founders and investors think longer-term and build lasting relationships.
Across the social-audio era
Laura was a co-founder and lead host in The Pitch Club and Strategic Mindset, and a lead host in several other business and networking communities scaling collectively to more than half a million members. During social audio’s 2021–2022 peak, the work moved across platforms while Clubhouse remained home base.
A tribute to the platforms
Our home base · 10M+ weekly users at peak
Active
Early social audio · peak figures never published
Historical
Audio across the rebrand · 1.5M+ listeners mid-2021
Active
Locker Room → Greenroom → Live · ~240K installs at peak
Ended 2023
Now part of LinkedIn Live · usage never published
Changed 2024
Mentorship through audio · 15K users in first 8 weeks
Acquired 2024
Interactive live shows · 500+ creators at launch
Historical
Community-first audio · peak figures never published
ActiveThe real lesson is endurance.
Platforms rise, change, and close. Communities endure when people keep showing up. U.S. government data shows that roughly half of new business establishments do not survive their first five years — a powerful reminder that lasting communities and companies are built through resilience.
See the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics dataThe hosts and moderators
Over 5+ years, The Pitch Club and Strategic Mindset were made possible by the hosts and moderators who welcomed newcomers, held thoughtful rooms, shared expertise, and connected founders across geographies and industries. Named acknowledgements will be added with their permission.
