Since 2023 I have been running small residential retreats for AI founders with Alexander Volz of the European Leadership Institute, and Caitlin Cockerton of Trailhaven. Eight cohorts so far of carefully curated AI founders, most recently in October 2026.
It's four days in a beautiful remote chalet in the Alps near Geneva, with a group small enough that everyone is in every conversation. Mornings are for the mountains: hiking, cold water, silence. The rest is structured work in two strands. Alexander and Caitlin run the coaching side, which works on the founder as a person: fear, limiting beliefs, what leadership costs. I take the operator side: mentoring circles where each founder puts a real problem on the table and gets worked answers from people who have been through it, on products, fundraising, hiring, enterprise sales, and AI engineering itself.
The session participants consistently rate highest is the one we now call The Board You Cannot Afford: a closing circle where the group acts as each founder's board for an hour. Across cohorts people tell us the same thing; put peer mentoring, proper coaching and altitude together and you get something a conference can't give you.
Participants have come from across Europe and the US, from seed-stage founders to people building inside the frontier labs. Cohorts are invitation-first and kept deliberately mixed by stage.
If you are an AI founder and this sounds like your kind of thing, get in touch or register interest on our site here.