The Social Club Consultant · Est. Chicago

I built a social club from 25 friends to 300 members. Now I build them with you.

Everything I teach, I paid for first.

Founder of Three Cities Social — a private clubhouse that hit profitability in four months with zero venture capital. I advise founders, organizers, and operators who want to build real membership communities, and I license the brand to the right partners. The frameworks are everywhere. The scar tissue is here.

III

Draymond WashingtonFounder, Three Cities Social · Est. Chicago, 2024

25 → 300members
4 monthsto profitability
30–45events per month
2clubhouses opened
$0venture capital
Members laughing together on couches during trivia night at Three Cities Social A fireside author talk in front of the Chicago map mural at Three Cities Social
The story

Belonging is a business — if you refuse to run it like one.

Before I opened a clubhouse, I joined four social clubs in Chicago and paid anywhere from $150 to $2,000 a month. Every one of them nickel-and-dimed me at the door and hoped I wouldn't show up.

"My final bills every month were $2,000 — and I wasn't really doing anything."The founding insight

So Three Cities Social was designed as the inversion: BYOB, everything included, no bar minimums, no bottle service, no celebrity in the corner booth. A 7,500-square-foot clubhouse open 7am to midnight, running about 90% unmanned on badge access, where the whole point is the person at the next table.

Research says a friendship takes roughly 70 hours to form. Apps can't compress that. Bars can't hold it. A clubhouse can — because a physical home base is the validation of "I'll see you again." Everything I build serves that one mechanic.

Draymond Washington in a Three Cities cap greeting members at the clubhouse front desk
Working the room. This is the job — everything else is infrastructure.

The timeline, honestly

Oct 2022
Started as a free events group. No lease, no dues — just proof that people would keep showing up.
Jul 2024
Opened the River North clubhouse with 25 founding members.
Nov 2024
Profitable — four months after opening.
May 2025
250+ members, 16–20 events a month, still effectively a one-person operation.
Oct 2025
Opened a second clubhouse in Wicker Park on a below-market sublease I negotiated 45% under ask.
Dec 2025
~300 members — and an expansion burning cash. Both things were true.
Jul 2026
Walked away from a ~$1.4M lease renewal because the math said walk. The club is healthier for it.

That last line matters. Most "community experts" sell the growth story. I'll also tell you about the expansion that didn't pencil — because knowing when not to sign is worth more than any launch tactic. Everything I teach was paid for with real money or real embarrassment.

The proof

Don't take my word for it. Take the members'.

★★★★★ 4.9 on Google · 46 reviews
★★★★★

"This is the only one that delivers on high quality people, experiences and spaces! The event calendar is PACKED! All of the members share the similar values of wanting to connect on a deeper level and enjoy everything Chicago has to offer… together!"

Member · Google review
★★★★★

"Three Cities was a terrific spot to host our event. Incredibly professional, prompt, and clean."

Quinten R. · event host · Google review
★★★★★

"Three Cities Social in Wicker Park delivers on its promise for the community…"

HealthSource Wicker Park · neighborhood business · Google review
★★★★★

"Always super clean, and the space is designed beautifully… a great perk if you're new to Chicago or want to join a social club to make new friends."

Member · Google review

45 of 46 reviews are five stars. The one that isn't keeps me honest.

What I believe

The Ten Laws of the Clubhouse

The principles are free — they're true and I'll say them anywhere. How to execute them is what clients hire me for.

Law I

Charge to show up.

Free things get treated like free things. Attach even a small, refundable commitment and attendance transforms.

Receipt: Our free kickball team of 25 forfeited ~80% of its games. Our deposit-backed volleyball league never forfeited once.
Law II

Your price is your price, forever.

Grandfather every member at their joining rate, permanently. It converts every price increase into a loyalty reward for the people already in the room — and an urgency engine for the people who aren't.

Receipt: "The price you're paying per month is the price you're going to pay forever, no matter how much we grow." Members quote this line back to me.
Law III

Build the container. Let members make the club.

The founder's job is infrastructure, not entertainment. The best programming engine is your own membership — if you design the incentives right.

Receipt: Member curators and partners got us to 30–45 events a month at near-zero programming cost. One curator sells out at $95 a ticket.
Law IV

The depth of membership is the product.

Your most valuable inventory is who's already inside. Experts trade programming for membership; influencers trade reach for hosting rights. Pay in belonging, not cash.

Receipt: Our Residency program staffs recurring expert programming — compensated with membership, not fees.
Law V

Rent the room. Never sell the room.

Private-event rentals are the margin that keeps the lights on — but every buyout closes your club to the people who pay dues. Cap them, and protect the members every time.

Receipt: "Private event rentals are what keep the lights on here." Capped anyway.
Law VI

No second strike.

Culture is enforced at the moment it's cheapest to lose revenue and hardest to do — when the club is small. One serious conduct violation is one too many.

Receipt: The first removal happened when we had roughly 20 members. That decision is why there's a club at 300.
Law VII

Don't take the money.

Venture capital and community businesses want different things. The moment growth outranks belonging, members can smell it.

Receipt: "VCs kill community-based organizations." I watched a heavily funded club change its pricing five times and go corporate. We stayed independent.
Law VIII

All-inclusive beats à la carte.

Every surcharge is a small resentment. BYOB means no liquor license, no bar minimums, and no $19 cocktails standing between a member and a Tuesday visit.

Receipt: The clubs I quit all billed me à la carte. The club I built includes everything — and runs 90% unmanned, 7am to midnight.
Law IX

Cap the club.

There's a number where intimacy dies. Decide yours before you reach it, and let scarcity do your marketing.

Receipt: ~500 members per house is our ceiling. Fun fact: Soho House reportedly still has its first 500 members.
Law X

Write it down before you need it.

The test for every process: if the founder disappeared tomorrow, does the club survive the month? Playbooks aren't bureaucracy — they're the only exit from being the product yourself.

Receipt: "If I die tomorrow, we'd be totally screwed" is the sentence that started my playbook — the system my clients now build from.
What clients get

The System: five chapters, earned the hard way.

This is the operating system that runs Three Cities — documented, tested, and adapted to each client's club. The chapter titles are public. The chapters are not.

I.
Phase one · 0 → 25

The Container

Everything before the lease — where most founders skip ahead and die. We ran as a free events group for two years before signing anything, and our tours closed at over 90% because the funnel was designed before the space was.

Demand proof before real estateThe site-selection napkin testLicensing & zoning trapsFounding cohort designThe one-funnel launch
Client engagements only
II.
Phase two · 25 → 300

The Engine

A club is programming that creates repetition, onboarding that creates belonging, and retention that notices before the member does. "The first 100 joined a movement. The next 200 joined a club" — and each group needs different architecture.

The five-format calendarThe curator flywheelFirst-30-days choreographyRetention machinery & health scoresRituals & the club heartbeat
Client engagements only
III.
Phase three · Unit economics

The Money

Numbers club founders never publish — what events really cost, how the three revenue streams balance, and the pricing doctrine that made every price increase a retention event. Plus the expensive things I killed so you don't have to try them.

Pricing architecture & grandfatheringThe three-legged revenue stoolEvent unit economicsSponsorship & rental strategyThe kill list
Client engagements only
IV.
Phase four · Expansion

The Second House

I opened a second clubhouse — negotiated 45% below ask — and later declined its $1.4M renewal because the math said walk. This chapter is the one most consultants can't write: both directions of the expansion decision, from someone who's made both.

The four expansion gatesLease negotiation leverageWorst-case underwritingThe launch playbook, round twoWhen to walk away
Client engagements only
V.
Phase five · Founder sustainability

The Operating System

The #1 risk in this business is over-reliance on the founder. This is the weekly system that turned me from the club's single point of failure into its architect — themed days, a 45-minute team sync, a 20-minute Friday review, and an AI-assisted financial rhythm.

The themed founder weekThe financial rhythmHiring & the member panelThe tech stack by stageVendor defense
Client engagements only
The library

The Vault: every template, already battle-tested.

These documents run a real club today. They are not for sale separately — they travel with engagements, adapted to your club, your city, your numbers.

Founder Operating PlaybookThe themed week, sync agendas, review cadence, financial rhythm.
Launch sequenceInterest list → tours → founding-member scarcity → trial bridge, with the actual emails.
Intake & tour scriptsWelcome-call script, tour flow, post-tour email, application + acceptance model.
Onboarding choreographyThe touchpoint calendar, ambassador program design, first-30-days checklist.
Private rental kitRate card, full contract with deposits & fines schedule, host + staff SOPs.
Event runbook templateThe one-pager that runs every event: logistics, entry, cancellation policy, reset.
League & commitment mechanicsDeposit-with-rebate pricing, season structure, standings format.
Sponsorship kitTiered rate card, the rental-to-sponsorship conversion pitch, corporate economics.
Retention machineryHealth-score tracker design, exit-interview guide, win-back offer, churn taxonomy.
Pricing frameworkGrandfathering doctrine, tier structure, fee logic, raise-announcement playbook.
Expansion gate checklistThe four gates, the napkin test, the worst-case worksheet.
House rules & culture guidePrinted rules, conduct policy, anti-clique practices, ritual design.
The community

The Operators Circle

Founding cohort · Capped at 50 operators

A membership community for the people who run membership communities. Club founders, event organizers, and space operators — building together, with my playbook and each other's scar tissue on tap.

The monthly tableOne live group session a month: a teardown of one member's club, a working topic from the System, and open problem-solving. Recorded for the vault.
The channelA private space for the questions between sessions — pricing calls, vendor checks, lease gut-checks. Someone in the room has faced it.
Template dropsWorking documents from the Vault released to the Circle over time, with walkthroughs of how to adapt them.
The network effectCross-city referrals, guest-host swaps, and first access to Founder Days, workshops, and license conversations.

$149/month, founding rate — and per Law II, founding members keep that rate for as long as they stay. The Circle opens when the founding waitlist fills; membership is capped at 50 so it stays a table, not an audience.

Join the founding waitlist

Work with me

I help people build clubs that actually work.

Plenty of consultants will sell you community strategy. I signed the lease, set the prices, ran 500+ events, made the payroll, and closed the location that didn't pencil. You get the playbook and the scar tissue.

The aspiring founderYou have the idea and maybe a waitlist. You need the sequence: proof before lease, cohort before opening, the napkin test before the broker tour.
The organizerYour run club, dinner series, or league already draws a crowd. You want to turn showing up into membership — revenue without killing the soul.
The spaceYou operate a venue, studio, or coworking floor with dead hours. A membership layer can be your highest-margin product — if it's built as a club, not a discount.
The brand or companyYou want real community — members, rituals, retention — not another activation that ends when the budget does.

The Blueprint Call

$350 · 90 minutes

For founders who need direction now.

  • Full teardown of your concept, space plan, and numbers
  • Pricing and funnel recommendations on the call
  • A written 30-day action plan within 48 hours
  • The expansion-gate / napkin-test worksheets
Book a Blueprint Call — $350

The Founder Day

$1,800 · one day in Chicago

See a working club from the inside.

  • A full day at the clubhouse — tour it like a prospect, staff it like an owner
  • Sit in on real programming and member operations
  • Afternoon working session on your club's plan
  • 30-day follow-up call once you're home
Book a Founder Day — $1,800

The Launch Sprint

$6,500 · 8 weeks

From concept to founding cohort and first events.

  • Weekly working sessions, direct access in between
  • Concept, pricing, and founding-member offer — built together
  • Your launch sequence, tour script, and onboarding choreography
  • The full Vault, adapted to your club
  • Goal: founding members committed before you open
Start a Launch Sprint — $6,500

The Operating Partner

$2,000/mo · 3-month min

A founder-operator in your corner, ongoing.

  • Monthly strategy session + async review of anything
  • Your numbers read monthly — MRR, churn, event P&L
  • Programming calendar & sponsorship pipeline reviews
  • Vendor, lease, and hiring decisions — pressure-tested
Start monthly — $2,000/mo
The top of the pyramid · Application only

Bring Three Cities to your city.

For a small number of operators, the relationship goes past advice: a license to build a Three Cities club of your own — the brand, the identity, and the complete operating system, launched with me beside you.

  • The Three Cities name, brand system, and member experience standards
  • The full operating system: every playbook, contract, script, and SOP
  • Site selection through founding cohort — launched together, on the ground
  • Ongoing operator circle: shared programming, cross-city member benefits
Apply for a license
The Three Cities Social lounge at golden hour — velvet and leather sofas, pearl-string chandelier, floor-to-ceiling windows

"Three cities" was always the plan.
Yours could be one of them.

Licenses are granted to operators who complete a Launch Sprint or equivalent vetting. Serious inquiries only.

Founding rates, honestly labeled — they follow Law II: the rate you start at is yours for good.
Speaking & workshops for teams, venues, and events: draymond@threecitiessocial.com