When Founders Need Answers Fast, Think Tanks Deliver
Anyone who’s built a business knows that the journey is inherently messy: filled with twists, turns, and roadblocks along the way. Challenges can pop up unexpectedly, requiring founders and their teams to shift or pivot just as quickly as the market does.
In these moments, having a trusted sounding board is crucial.
This year, BEN introduced Think Tanks to meet that need head-on.
Think Tanks are short, focused sessions where a small group of BEN Advisors meet with a founder to tackle one timely challenge - something urgent, mission critical, and of near-term consequence that is keeping a founder up at night, where access to an expert, supportive brain-trust of advisors curated for their relevant experience could be a game-changer.
Think Tanks is a BEN community open to current or past BEN entrepreneurs, Advisors, Board Members, or ecosystem members who are interested in engaging with BEN for the first time. In other words, Think Tanks give entrepreneurs a bite-size version of the high-impact advisory support that defines BEN.
In just 90 minutes, entrepreneurs receive guidance from BEN Advisors who can provide perspective, anticipate risks, test assumptions, and maintain a focus on long-term objectives amidst short-term chaos. Together, they help the entrepreneur break down the issue and explore pathways forward.
The topics vary widely, and that’s by design. Recent Think Tanks have supported entrepreneurs navigating team scalability and C-level recruiting, data-driven forecasting, marketing strategy refinement, and more.
After launching Think Tanks in July, we’ve supported 6 entrepreneurs:
Brittany Elise Plavin of Aerial Cirque Over Denver
Each came with a different challenge and left with clearer direction, new ideas to pursue, and a stronger sense of what to do next.
Think Tanks are already proving that sometimes the next big step forward comes from one powerful room, one sharp conversation, and a community of advisors who truly care about helping entrepreneurs succeed. We look forward to supporting more entrepreneurs this way in 2026!
If you’re an entrepreneur seeking mentorship and support, please contact us to be connected to your best-fit program.