Christine Song has built something a lot of leaders quietly crave - a real third space.
As the founder of 5 to 9 Society, Christine is designing a private leadership network for founders, operators, and investors who want community outside the workplace - without politics, without performative networking, and with an unusually high bar for trust. In this conversation, she explains why she’s never been interested in “big room networking” and why intimate circles - a quiet private dinner with 12-15 people - create the kind of openness leaders actually need.
The origin story is a lesson in demand: Christine posted a simple idea on LinkedIn and 600 people filled out her form in 30 days. But instead of turning it into a high-volume membership product, she deliberately kept it small and curated. Members pay annually, dinners are topic-based and carefully seated, and she personally conducts reference checks because - in her words - trust is the entire point. It’s not just “is this person good at their job?” It’s “would you publicly endorse them with your reputation on the line?”
Christine also shares a sharp insight for founders: if you only spend time with other founders, you’ll miss the operator perspective that helps you scale. Her goal is role diversity at the table - the founders, the executives, and the capital - because those are the people who actually build companies.
If you’re building a company, leading a team, or carrying the invisible weight of leadership, this episode is a reminder that community isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s infrastructure.
