Peer groups are one of the many aspects of entrepreneurship and the startup world that took me years to appreciate. When I say peer groups I don’t mean networking groups. Rather, peer groups are small sets of people that often meet once a month, if not more, in an environment of trust and confidentiality. Peer-to-peer experience sharing and learning is incredibly powerful for entrepreneurs in all types of businesses.
Here are some benefits of peer groups for entrepreneurs:
- Most issues have already been tackled by someone else, so the same mistakes don’t need to be repeated
- No more being lonely at the top as there are many people out there in similar positions
- The emotional roller coaster of entrepreneurship has high highs and low lows that are best when shared with others
- Life’s a journey and these peer groups provide a special setting to develop deep relationships
The most common and popular non-profit for these peer groups is the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) for companies greater than $1 million in revenue and EO Accelerator for companies between $250k and $1 million in revenue. I highly recommend these organizations as well as peer groups in general.
What else? What are some other benefits of peer groups?
David Cummings on Startups 
Brian Balfour wrote a great post about the power of peer groups: http://brianbalfour.com/post/2813742577/core-groups
David
Great insight and I have been a member of a CEO Peer Group which inspired me to leave my corporate job and become active in the field of peer learning.
My book Critical Mass: The 10 Explosive Powers of CEO Peer Groups is written to help explain why so many entrepreneurs and CEOs belong to a peer group. Here is a link to my book: http://www.amazon.com/CRITICAL-MASS-Explosive-Powers-GROUPS/dp/8904276039
The book has 5 stars with 30 reviews from entrepreneurs who understand the value of peer learning.