Exclusive. Aspirational. Vetted. Rejected.
Hampton is a private network for high-growth founders launched by the already successful entrepreneurs, Sam Parr & Joe Speiser.
Sam Parr founded The Hustle and co-hosts My First Million with Shaan Puri. Joe Speiser has built and sold several companies but doesn’t need a podcast and personal brand for outside validation (it’s a joke Sam, take it easy).
I have exactly zero days of experience in this industry but one thing is clear: this is a tough business to build and requires a delicate touch.
Most businesses follow a simple model: marketing and sales try to grow the company as fast as possible whilst every other department tries to keep the ship steady. Selling a private community to high-net-worth individuals requires more nuance.
You need to be selling and marketing. But too much promotion and you dilute the brand value. Too little promotion and you don’t have a community. You need to sound enticing and welcoming yet also exclusive and in-demand.
Thankfully, Sam Parr knows how to write copy that converts. This was a really fun one to write and there’s some absolute gold on the Hampton website which you should steal.
Let’s get into it.
Enjoy,
— Robbie
The Hero Section
Hampton follows a tried-and-tested framework for the hero section: bold headline, context in the subheading and a clear call-to-action (CTA).
The Headline: “If you’re a founder…Stop making $50M decisions alone” is a near-perfect headline for Hampton. And I say near-perfect because there’s one change I’d make: drop “If you’re a founder…”.
It dilutes the message. The founder-requirement is clearly defined in the subheading. Allow the audience to self-select their relevance based on the headline.
They either handle $50M decisions or they don’t. Those who do will keep reading. The shortened headline is a gut punch and a pattern interrupt.
Real Community: we can picture our “personal board” of advisors. It’s visual and uses in-group terminology. It feels like a support network. And the follow-up line drives home the value proposition.
My suggestion would be to flip the second sentence: “Show up with your hardest challenges at noon, leave with a clear plan by dinner”. This gives the sentence a parrallel structure: verb + prepositional noun + time.
The copy also uses the imperative mood with commands like “show up” and “leave”. This is common in conversion-focused copy. It creates immediacy and tells the reader exactly what action to take.
Exclusive CTA: “Apply” is the obvious choice. It’s more exclusive. You can apply to become a member but that doesn’t mean you can join. They’ve also included the “Explore Memberships” option below (which leads to a killer landing page, but more on that later). I’d remove the question beforehand. Exploring memberships implies you want to learn more—feels like they both have the same meaning.
The Big Idea
A company’s messaging should focus around one big idea, especially in the early days. Basecamp do this beautifully: they bring clarity to chaos. All of their messaging is centred on this core idea. Hampton also do this incredibly well. Their messaging is centred around having nobody to lean on: the cost of trying to build alone.