Dynamite Circle (DC) is a private, application-only community of 1,000+ vetted, location-independent founders building bootstrapped businesses in SaaS, ecommerce, services, and media. Founded in 2011 by Dan Andrews and Ian Schoen of the Tropical MBA podcast, DC connects members through 200+ in-person meetups per year across 7 continents, a mobile app, masterminds, and annual conferences in Bangkok and Mexico.
Building a business that gives you time and location freedom can be surprisingly lonely. When we started our first online business, we barely knew anyone who had built a legitimate SaaS, ecommerce, services, or media business on the internet. No offices. No alarm clocks. No limits on where we could live or what we could build next.
So we went looking for others like us…
Who we are
What Is Dynamite Circle?
Dynamite Circle is a private, global community of vetted, location-independent founders building bootstrapped businesses in SaaS, ecommerce, services, and media.
Every day we connect founders who own and control their businesses, live and work from anywhere in the world, are willing to share openly, help others and learn from peers, and care about building sustainable, long-term businesses.
Entrepreneurship is exciting. It's also hard, nuanced, and often isolating. Dynamite Circle exists to make it less lonely, and far more effective.
What holds us together
Three Core Pillars
Vetted
From the beginning, our priority has been finding people who match the culture and vibe of the community. Every founder who wants to join has to apply and demonstrate that they're the right fit — keeping the caliber of membership high and the conversations exceptional, online and in person. Hear from 40 members.
Global-minded
Every Dynamite Circle member (or DCer) values the freedom and flexibility that the internet has given us — building global teams, traveling while keeping the business running, and having the option to live anywhere in the world.
Generous
What connected us in the beginning was our desire to get to know other founders like us, help where we could, and enjoy each other's company. Very few people want to nerd out for hours about internet businesses — here you can do exactly that, every day.
Vetted founders
Meetups every year
Continents — yes, Antarctica
In practice
How Dynamite Circle Works
What started as a handful of virtual conversations has grown into a global founder network that connects every day, online and in person. Today over 1,000 founders engage through:
- A mobile app to stay connected on the go
- 200+ in-person meetups per year in cities across every continent
- Themed chat groups, forum threads, and virtual calls for deep dives into specific challenges
- Community-driven masterminds focused on problem-solving, accountability, and execution
- Adventures and interest-based events that help members bond beyond work
- Annual conferences in Mexico (DCMEX) and Bangkok (DCBKK), built for meaningful connection
What we believe
The Values That Bind Us
The same values that shaped our earliest meetups still define Dynamite Circle today.
The beginning
How It All Started
Hey! We’re Dan Andrews and Ian Schoen, founders of Dynamite Circle. We also host the Tropical MBA podcast, which we started in 2009 to document building location-independent businesses.
Once upon a time, we had "real" jobs and commutes. They were fine, but we knew we wanted more. In our spare time, we experimented: building services, software, ecommerce sites, and media businesses — anything that might let us own our time, travel freely, and build something we controlled.
After plenty of false starts, it worked. Revenue grew. We bought plane tickets. We were actually doing business on our own terms (and eventually exited our first business in 2015).
With that freedom, we tried to meet other founders doing the same thing. When we couldn't find the right rooms, we created them — mid-week, in foreign countries, and online. Those conversations in the early became the foundation of Dynamite Circle, which we formally established in . More than a decade later, that same spirit lives on in thousands of conversations happening every day across the community.
FAQ
What is Dynamite Circle?
Dynamite Circle is a private, application-only community of 1,000+ vetted, location-independent founders building bootstrapped businesses in SaaS, ecommerce, services, and media. Members connect through a mobile app, 200+ in-person meetups per year on every continent, community masterminds, and annual conferences in Bangkok (DCBKK) and Mexico (DCMEX).
Who founded Dynamite Circle, and when?
Dynamite Circle was founded in 2011 by Dan Andrews and Ian Schoen, the entrepreneurs behind the Tropical MBA podcast. They built the community after struggling to find other founders living and working on their own terms — and decided to create the rooms they couldn’t find.
How does Dynamite Circle work?
Founders apply and are vetted for culture and business fit. Once accepted, members access a mobile app with dedicated groups and threads, community-organised masterminds, a global calendar of 200+ in-person meetups per year, and two flagship annual conferences. There is no coaching hierarchy — DC is community-led, not guru-led.
Who is Dynamite Circle for?
DC is for bootstrapped, location-independent founders running online businesses — primarily SaaS, ecommerce, digital services, and media. Members range from founders building their first six-figure business to operators running seven- and eight-figure companies. DC BLACK is a separate, higher-touch tier for founders at the seven- to eight-figure stage.
How is Dynamite Circle different from other entrepreneur communities?
Three things set DC apart: it is vetted (every applicant is reviewed, not open-access), it is global rather than location-specific (members active across all 7 continents), and it is community-led rather than guru-led. The culture is built around one core value: sharing over selling. Hear what members say.
Choose Your Path
Find the room built for founders at your stage. Apply once — we'll point you to the right one.