001A network for anyone in Founder 2.0
You've earned your freedom.
Now make the most of it.
Founder 2.0 is the chapter after the business stops needing you: freedom of time, money and choice, and the fun of working out what to do with it. Reel Founders is a private club for living it well, through great people, world-class speakers, adventure and the odd opportunity. By application. 24 founding seats.
002Founder 2.0
What is Founder 2.0?
You've spent your life earning your freedom. The business now runs without you, or you've sold it. For the first time in years you have freedom of time, money and choice, and you're working out what to do with it. Most people in 2.0 say the same thing: it's more fun than they ever thought.
Reel Founders is a network for that chapter. Optimising life for fun, profit and adventure. Making memories nobody else has. Making the most of whatever time we have on this wonderful planet, with people who've earned the same freedom and will make sure you use it well.
It isn't an event. There are no badges, no pitches, no panels. It's a small group of founders who would rather be on the water at first light than in another ballroom.
Twelve on the water at a time. Every member chosen by Pat, for track record, character and what they bring.
Some have chased billfish for decades. Some have never held a rod. Nobody minds which.
Founder 2.0 isn't an age. It's a stage.
Whether you got there at 22 or 72, you've built the freedom. Now you get to use it.
- Who it's for
- Operator-free founders: your business now runs without you.
- Portfolio founders: you've exited and now invest in or build a portfolio.
- Anyone, at any stage, who is serious about making the years ahead their best.
- People who have done the conference circuit and want something with more depth.
- Givers: you help before you ask and keep a confidence.
- Partners who want to get stuck in, not just come along.
- Who it isn't for
- Anyone looking to sell, raise or recruit in the room. There is no pitching, ever.
- Those who want a luxury holiday with networking bolted on.
- People who need to be the most important person on the boat.
- Anyone who would rather post it than live it.
- Anyone who can't put the phone down for a week.
003The Club
Membership is the club. Trips are your choice.
One membership, [£X] a year, puts you in the club: the people, the speakers and the conversations that make the next chapter better. Expeditions are open to members and priced per trip, because no two are alike.
- World-class speakers
- Calls, talks and evening sessions with some of the world's best thinkers, movers and shakers across health, wealth, fitness and all-round life optimisation. Talks, not pitches. [confirm format and first speakers]
- The network
- A small, vetted room of founders in Founder 2.0, introduced personally. People who've solved the problem you're facing, and will tell you straight.
- Accountability
- [Quarterly] circle calls and a private member channel, so what you commit to actually happens. [confirm format]
- Introductions
- Made personally, when they're worth making: capital, partners, experts. Never a directory.
- Concierge
- A dedicated concierge for club life: trips, travel, kit and the details all handled, so you just turn up.
- Member access to trips
- First call on members-only expeditions: marlin grounds, remote rivers, wild lakes. Every trip is different, so each one is booked and priced separately. Join the ones that suit you.
- Partners and family
- Partners are welcome on trips [partner pricing]. [Optional: one family trip a year.]
- Founding privileges
- Founding rate held for [term], a say in future destinations and house rules, and your name on the founding roll.
The motto
Be Reel Lucky.
Luck is what happens when the right people spend real time in the right place. We take care of both.
004The Six Pillars
What the club is built on.
- 01
Freedom
Your time is your own again. The club is built around that: go where you want, when you want, with people who made the same choice.
- 02
Adventure
Trips you couldn't put together yourself: remote water, big fish, places very few people reach. Handled door to door.
- 03
Real conversation
No signal, no stage, no pitching. On the water the pauses come naturally, and that's where the honest conversations start.
- 04
Accountability
Say what you want from the years ahead to people who've been there. They'll hold you to it, on the water and between trips.
- 05
Opportunity
Evening talks on life optimisation and investment, and introductions made personally. Never the point of a trip. Often what comes home from one.
- 06
The next chapter
Fun, profit and adventure, and memories nobody else has. The aim is simple: make the most of whatever time we have on this wonderful planet.
005Magic Moments
Twelve founders. One boat. No signal.
The best things on an expedition can't be scheduled. Put twelve good people on remote water for a week, out of reach of the phone, and the unplanned happens. A sunrise conversation that settles a decision you've carried for a year. A friendship that starts on a boat and lasts decades. An idea on the last night that changes the next five years.
We can't promise which. We can promise the right people, the right place and enough time.
Every great network has a fire. Ours is on a beach most maps don't name, cooking what we caught.
006The founding expedition
Mozambique. September 2027.
Seven days on the San Sebastian Peninsula, at the edge of the Bazaruto archipelago, one of the finest big-game grounds left.
First light on the water. Training, recovery and time to think through the heat of the day. Evenings by the fire: no stage, no slides, just honest conversation. Twenty-four founding members, fishing as two crews of twelve. [confirm]
This is the first members' expedition of a club that will fish the world's great waters. The founding year is being filmed; being on camera is entirely your choice, and nothing featuring you is published without your approval. Billfish are tagged and released. [confirm]
- 7 days
- San Sebastian Peninsula
- 24 founding members
- Members only. Priced separately [£X]
007The Captain
Why I started this.
“I'd built the businesses. I'd forgotten to build the life.”
I spent twenty-five years building businesses, including Sullivan & Stanley, which I grew to £30M without outside investment. On paper it looked great. In reality the business owned my time, and I was burnt out.
In 2022 I moved my family to Portugal and made a decision: to become self-sovereign. Financially free, free to move, and never again chained to a business.
The catalyst was a week on Necker Island. What stayed with me wasn't the island. It was the quality of the people, and how naturally they helped each other live better: ice baths at sunrise, long open-water swims and the most honest conversations I'd had in years.
Not long after, at a founders' conference, a founder told me he'd sold his first business. “I'm in 2.0,” he said. “It's more fun than I ever thought.” That stuck. It's the idea this whole club is built on.
I came home with three convictions:
- 01Health comes first.Everything else depends on it.
- 02Freedom is the real return.Time and choice are worth more than another year of growth.
- 03Get in rooms that make you better.With people who push back rather than nod along, and hold you to what you say.
Reel Founders started on the flight home: the club I wanted and couldn't find. Fishing is my thing, so it's built around the water. The rest is freedom, good people, real accountability and the occasional opportunity that changes everything. I'm looking for 24 founding members to build it with me.
Pat Lynes
- Founder and Chairman, Sullivan & Stanley
- Author of The Interim Revolution and The Disrupted Executive
- Founder and host, Reel Lucky Sportfishing, pursuing two 1,000lb granders across seven countries
- Based in Portugal since 2022
008Apply
Apply for a founding seat
Membership is by application only. Pat reads every one personally. Most hear back within [7] days. Some become a conversation. Twenty-four become founding members.
- 01ApplyTen minutes. Your business, what you're looking for, and who you'd bring to the fire.
- 02ReviewPat reads every application personally. [Member nominations carry weight but aren't required.]
- 03ConversationA [30-minute] call to check the fit, both ways. It's not an interview and not a sales call.
- 04InvitationIf it's right for both of us, you're offered a founding seat. Your seat is confirmed on [payment of your first year's membership].
- Founder 2.0
- Two routes in. Operator-free: your business runs without you. Portfolio: you've exited and now invest in or build a portfolio.
- Character
- Low ego, generous, discreet. You help before you ask.
- Contribution
- You'll show up, bring energy and add something to every boat you're on.
Not ready to apply?
Occasional dispatches from the water, and first word on future expeditions. Nothing to sell.
Twenty-four seats. One first fire.
Most people say ‘one day’. Founding members are choosing a date. If this sounds like your kind of people, apply, and Pat will be in touch.
009Questions
Questions
Founding membership is [£X] a year [or £X a month]. That gets you into the club: speakers and talks, circle calls, introductions, concierge and member access to trips. Expeditions are booked separately and priced per trip, because every one is different. The founding rate is held for [term].
Founder 2.0, by one of two routes: operator-free founders whose business runs without them, and portfolio founders who have exited and now invest in or build a portfolio. All vetted for character and contribution. Members are introduced to each other personally; we don't publish the list. [Add founding hosts or advisers here once confirmed.]
No. Nobody pitches, ever. Over time there will be evening talks from members and guests on life optimisation and investment opportunities, but they're conversations, not sales. Anything that follows happens privately, between members who choose to. [confirm]
No. Curious, open and happy to cook what you catch is plenty. The crew will teach you the rest.
Yes. What's said by the fire stays there, nobody pitches, and filming is opt-in with your approval before anything is published.
Yes, as long as they get stuck in and embrace the spirit of the trip. [Partner pricing placeholder.]
Mozambique is the first members' expedition, with [destinations] to follow. Each trip is priced separately and you choose which ones to join. Founding members help choose where we go next.
Billfish are tagged and released. We cook and share what the local crew tell us is right to keep. [confirm]