To be an EO Member, one must hold one of the following positions in a Qualifying Business:

[Qualifying Business]: a business with an annual gross turnover of sales, or annual commission billing equal to or above such minimum levels as may be set from time to time by the Board, (1 million USD currently)

The Founder or Co-founder; or

• Founder (definition): a person responsible for the formation of the specific business enterprise, company, corporation or partnership either individually or jointly who, at the inception of the business enterprise, company, corporation or partnership was either an Owner, General Partner,
• Majority Shareholder or Actively in control.
  Majority Shareholder (definition): a shareholder in a corporation owning more than 50% of the issued and outstanding voting common stock in the company.
• Actively In Control (definition): (1) having sole or predominant day-to-day management duties at both an operational and/or strategic level, as well as an ownership interest in the business enterprise, company, corporation or partnership; or, alternatively, (2) a trustee of a trust in which the trustee is also a beneficiary, where the relevant business enterprise, company, corporation or partnership, or a controlling interest in the relevant business enterprise, company, corporation or partnership, is an asset of the trust.

The Owner; or

• Owner (definition): a sole proprietor of an unincorporated business, or sole shareholder of a corporation.

The Controlling Shareholder

• Controlling Shareholder (definition): a shareholder in a corporation with either voting control of the corporation or effective control of the corporation through the exercise of management rights/general partner with managing duties. Where the business is organized in a form other than a corporation, this term should mean the equivalent for that form of business structure.

For venture-backed companies to qualify for membership they must have privately raised funds of US$2M or publicly raised funds of US$5M, and 10 full-time employees. Venture backed companies have three years before they must meet the standard qualification of US$1M in gross annual revenue.