How Exit Five built a thriving global marketing community on Circle
Overview
When marketing leader Dave Gerhardt launched Exit Five, what started as a small Patreon quickly turned into a thriving global community. Moving to Circle gave him the brand control, structure, and scalability to transform a side project into a profitable membership business with thousands of marketers and a growing team.
Circle made us look and feel like a real company. It turned a side project into a business.
— Dave Gerhardt, Founder, Exit Five
Before
Turning a following into a community
Dave Gerhardt had already built a name for himself in marketing. As the former CMO of Drift and Privy, and the author of Founder Brand, he had a loyal audience who followed him for his sharp takes on B2B marketing. That audience became the foundation for Exit Five, originally a Patreon page where fans could get behind-the-scenes content, private Q&As, and job discussions. Before long, Dave added a private Facebook group to give members a place to connect directly with one another. The conversations took off. Marketers were swapping career advice, work samples, and referrals daily. Engagement was high — but it quickly became clear the setup couldn’t scale.
I added a private Facebook group to the Patreon membership,” Dave recalls. “That was the first big moment this thing felt different. People didn’t just want to read my posts — they wanted to talk to each other.
What started as a side project was becoming something much bigger — but the patchwork of Patreon, Facebook, and email made managing it all nearly impossible.
Challenge
A fragmented experience holding back growth
By 2021, Exit Five had passed 2,000 members, but the cracks were showing. Patreon handled payments. Facebook hosted discussions. Email lived elsewhere. Member records, analytics, and content were scattered across systems that didn’t talk to each other. There was no single place that felt like Exit Five. No control over data. No consistent brand experience. And no path to build the professional network Dave knew the community was becoming. The payment workflow created its own problems. Patreon subscribers had to jump between tools, and Dave had no way to migrate credit cards or automate access. When he eventually made the switch, more than half of his Patreon members didn’t migrate over — a painful but necessary reset. He describes it as short-term loss for long-term stability: moving off Patreon and Facebook meant finally owning the relationship with his members and building something under his own brand, not rented channels.
If I wanted this to be a real company, I had to take the short-term hit and move it,” Dave says. “We couldn’t have built what we have today if we stayed where we were.
Exit Five didn’t just need a different tool. It needed a platform that could support a brand — something cohesive, scalable, and aligned with the next phase of the business.
Solution
Building a true membership business on Circle
In 2022, Dave moved Exit Five onto Circle. With support from Circle’s migration team and an implementation partner, he transitioned members, payments, and content into a single branded experience. The move consolidated what had previously lived across Patreon, Facebook, and email, giving Exit Five one home for payments, conversations, content, and events.
At the time, I was a solo business,” Dave says. “Circle helped me through the migration and coached me every step of the way.
Once the community was live, Exit Five evolved quickly. The biggest unlock came with the launch of its branded mobile app, which shifted the community from a collection of tools to a fully formed product. Members could now access everything from their phones, receive push notifications, and engage in the moments between meetings and commutes. The branded app became a daily touchpoint. More than 25% of members now use the Exit Five iOS or Android app, driving deeper engagement and stronger long-term retention.
It’s like having LinkedIn on my phone, but more useful. I can look someone up, message them, join something quickly. A lot of people use it like that—even if they never post.
The app also elevated the Exit Five brand. Members weren’t joining a Facebook group; they were downloading a professional, standalone app that reinforced the credibility of the community and made it easier for sponsors and partners to take the brand seriously.
On Facebook you’re scrolling past political stuff and nonsense. In the Exit Five app, you’re in marketing mode. It feels legit. It feels custom.
With stronger infrastructure in place, the team expanded what Exit Five could offer:
Subgroups for specific industries and interests, including Marketing Ops and Exit Five Health Club
Geo-based chapters in cities like Boston, Dallas, Toronto, and Sydney
Direct messaging and custom profiles to support networking, referrals, and peer-to-peer collaboration
The result was a membership experience that felt cohesive, premium, and built for scale—exactly what the next phase of Exit Five demanded.
The team also restructured its pricing model. Exit Five moved to annual membership plans, introduced new premium tiers, and began hosting private workshops and events — all integrated through Circle’s paywalls and automations.
Circle gives us the best of both worlds,” Dave says. “We get the content and community tools Facebook or Slack never had, and now our paywalls and member access all run in the same place.
Transformation
Turning connection into a real business
What began as a small online group has grown into a full-fledged media and membership company with a content team, sponsors, and a global footprint. Exit Five is now a trusted resource for marketers at every stage of their careers. The community has expanded far beyond digital discussion. Members organize meetups around the world, with more than 30 in-person events happening this year alone. These moments—introductions, job leads, collaborations—have become core to the Exit Five experience.
It’s not about likes or hot takes,” Dave says. “It’s about meeting people, getting unstuck, finding jobs, and connecting locally.
That impact shows up in real stories. One member moved to Salt Lake City and found a local group within days. Others have landed new roles or met future colleagues through Exit Five chapters. The network has become a place where “work friends” form, even for people who’ve never met before.
Work friends matter,” Dave says. “You get answers from real humans, not AI. That’s the value of community today.
The move to Circle allowed Exit Five to scale this kind of impact while staying lean and independent. With one platform powering memberships, content, and events, the team could focus on value and growth instead of managing tools. What started as a one-person project now operates as a cohesive global brand. And Dave’s vision is still expanding. He sees Exit Five not just as a community, but as a blueprint for how modern businesses can be built around people and shared expertise—supported by platforms designed for ownership and scale.
Exit Five should be the number one brand for people who work in marketing,” he says. “Circle made it possible for one person with an idea to build a real business around community. That’s the future.
Exit Five’s story shows that when creators own their platform, community doesn’t just drive engagement. It becomes the foundation of an enduring business.
