Shift8 Creative Graphic Design and Website Development

I can not begin to explain how beneficial this card is. What is it? It's a membership card that gives you some really sweet discounts on various business (and lifestyle) related expenses. Blows American Express' benefits out of the water. While you can't use it to purchase anything, it's an awesome card to have.

Is there a cost? Yes, there is. They are running a promotion right now ($249 per year locked in) instead of the $499. Is it worth it? Yes. I believe at the $249/year it's worth it. I would personally start to wonder at $500/year. It is conceivably still very worthwhile at $500, but it depends on how much travel you do.

Your biggest savings? Travel. Depending on the airline, you can save a good bit and get access to priority boarding, etc. Things you would eventually get over time if you carried a bunch of frequent flyer cards. However, it's the hotel savings that really help. There's some pretty massive discounts.

The FoundersCard site claims on some hotels as much as 60% off...But I went to the hotel's site and discovered that wasn't true. Perhaps the "normal" price was taken at the height of some season...But, there is still a real good discount of anywhere between about 10% and 25% (sometimes more). So when you go somewhere and stay for say 3 or 4 days...It's basically like getting a free night. If it costs a couple hundred to stay...Well then...You just covered your annual membership cost in one trip.

So yes -- the FoundersCard is very worthwhile. Additionally, there's discounts on things like AT&T wireless plans, Rackspace hosting, and a bunch of other stuff. Discounts on things like flowers and spas, etc. There's plenty of lifestyle benefits. Rental cars too.

Then they have networking events. Given that this is highly targeted at startup companies, most are tech related. So if you're in the internet industry, these are great networking events to attend.

How do you get it? Well, it's by invitation only. So you need to know someone who has one. Guess what? I have one! So you can get in touch with me if you'd like an invite. I'd seriously consider it and I would get on it really soon while they have the promotional pricing.

The thing that stinks is you can't see all the benefits until you've been invited. Once invited, you can review all the benefits and then decide to sign up or not.