Hampton is genuinely in the UK now

This changed recently enough that a lot of advice online is out of date. On 2 September 2025 Hampton announced it was focusing growth on thirteen chapter cities and moving Core groups to in-person meetings. London is one of the thirteen. The other twelve are in North America.

That matters in both directions. London founders can now join an in-person Core group rather than a video call, which is the version of Hampton that works. Founders in Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh or anywhere else in the UK cannot, because Hampton only places members into in-person Core groups in chapter cities.

What Hampton requires

The bar is published clearly, which is to Hampton's credit.

• You must be an actively operating founder, CEO or owner. Not an inherited business.
• Your business must generate more than $3m in revenue, or you must have raised more than $3m in venture capital, or you must have had a previous exit above $10m.
• You must live in one of the chapter cities. For the UK, that means London.

Those are the minimums. After that comes an interview, and then something unusual: existing members can veto your application. Hampton describes this as self-policing, so that anyone who has had a bad dealing with you can block you. It is a strong idea and it is the sort of thing that keeps the trust in a room high.

The part that decides it for most UK founders

Hampton is for tech. Not mostly, not by preference. Its own FAQ says members are all tech-first or tech-enabled founders, and the published industry mix bears it out: a quarter SaaS, then agency, direct-to-consumer, marketplace, services, media and fintech.

If you run an engineering business, a manufacturer, a professional services firm or a consumer brand that is not digital-first, you will be the odd one out. The advice around the table will be about growth loops and paid acquisition when your problem is a factory, a framework agreement or a buyer at a supermarket.

This is not a criticism of Hampton. It has picked a lane deliberately and it serves that lane well. It is a reason to be honest with yourself about which lane you are in.

How the room works

Core groups are around eight founders plus a paid, trained facilitator. They meet monthly except August and December, so ten times a year, for about three hours. Groups are curated on a mirror, mentor and mentee model, so you sit with people at your stage, ahead of you and behind you.

Around that sits a Slack community of more than a thousand members and a chapter events programme run by a full-time city lead. Hampton says average member company revenue is around $23m.

Two practical notes. Core group placement takes about 90 days after you join, so there is a wait before the main thing you are paying for starts. And Hampton runs a 45-day money-back guarantee if you show up to your commitment call, which is a genuinely fair piece of policy that few organisations in this category offer.

The Slack is mostly American, and that cuts both ways

Twelve of the thirteen chapter cities are in North America and the digital community is described in terms of members across the country. So when you post a question at nine in the morning UK time, most of the room is asleep.

If you are raising in the US, selling into the US or hiring there, that is a feature. If your customers are UK and European and your problems are UK employment law, UK hiring markets and UK buyers, a network weighted to American SaaS founders will answer a different question to the one you asked.

What Hampton does not publish

Its price. The FAQ has a question titled "How much does it cost?" and the answer describes the investment without stating a figure. Numbers circulate on third-party sites and we are not going to repeat one we cannot source to Hampton itself.

It does confirm that membership is billed annually, and that some events and retreats cost extra on top of dues, which it says it runs at break-even rather than for profit.

Hampton and Helm, side by side

Criteria	Hampton	Helm
Who it is for
Sector	Tech, internet and digital-first founders	Any sector, UK scale-ups
Where you must be	One of thirteen chapter cities. In the UK, London only	Anywhere in the UK
The bar	$3m+ revenue, or $3m+ raised, or a previous exit above $10m	£3m turnover, £3m raised, or a previous exit. Members average £21m
The room
Group size	Around eight founders	Six to eight
Meetings	Ten a year, around three hours	Ten a year
Who runs it	A paid, trained facilitator	A founder who has already exited
Wait to be placed	Around 90 days	Matched at onboarding
Wider network	1,000+ members, weighted to North America	400+ members, all UK
Events	Chapter events, retreats often charged extra	160+ a year, all included
Commercials
Published price	Not published	£495 to join, then £495 a month
Billing	Annual	Monthly
Money-back guarantee	45 days, conditions apply	No formal guarantee. Tell us and we will end it
Selling to members	Strict no-solicitation, three strikes	Curated so nobody is sold to

Hampton details from joinhampton.com/faq and its chapter announcement of 2 September 2025, both checked on 24 August 2026. Hampton does not publish dues, so the price row reflects that rather than a figure we have assumed.

So is it worth it?

For a London-based digital founder with transatlantic ambitions, yes. The curation is serious, the veto mechanism is smart, the money-back guarantee is fair, and the room will be full of people building the same kind of company.

For most UK founders, the honest answer is that the fit is wrong twice over. Wrong sector, because Hampton is explicitly tech-first. Wrong geography, because if you are not in London you cannot join an in-person group at all. Neither of those is a flaw in Hampton. They are just facts to check before you spend time applying.