The rooms founders talk about after.
Intimate founder and investor dinners, hosted by a team that has spent 15+ years building accelerator and venture studio communities. Our sponsors don't just get a logo on a table. They get the room.
Our latest dinner · Denver, October 1, 2026
Twenty seats. Twenty-six guests. A waitlist.
We opened our Denver dinner at Coohills with drinks on the patio at golden hour, then moved inside to four tables. Founders came out of the Colorado School of Mines and local accelerators, alongside exited founders, operators and investors.
Our sponsors, Wells Fargo and FinStrat Management, were part of the evening, not just on the menu. Each was seated with the guests most relevant to them, had a moment to speak over dinner, and left with the full guest list and a set of introductions to follow up on.
People stayed long after dessert. One guest told us she'd planned to drop in for an hour and was still there four hours later.
Photos from our Denver dinner, captured by our event photographer.
In their words
What the room said
We film every event. Here's what guests told us at a recent dinner.
Comments recorded from guests at our October 1, 2026 dinner in Denver and shown without names.
More than a logo on a table
Most event sponsorships buy you a banner and a hope. Ours are built so that every sponsor leaves with real relationships.
Every seat is intentional
We don't do open seating. We plan every table by hand, seed conversations before the first course, and rotate seats between courses so the networking stays fresh all night. The room is electric because it's designed to be.
The guest list, before the night
Sponsors get the full guest list with contact details ahead of the event, so you arrive knowing who you want to meet and why. We'll also seat you next to them.
Featured before and after
Our pre-event email introduces you to every guest. Our post-event recap thanks you by name, alongside the photos, quotes and every guest's LinkedIn. Your brand travels well beyond the room.
Your brand on the night
Your logo on the printed menus and our custom notebooks at every place setting, plus a moment to speak to the room over dinner. Understated, never salesy.
Photo and video, included
We hire a professional photographer and videographer for every event. You get the photos, guest testimonials and highlight edits to use in your own channels.
Access to our deal flow
The founders in our rooms come from the accelerators and venture studios we have worked alongside for years. Sponsors meet them early, well before the rest of the market does.
The details
We sweat the small things so you don't have to
Before and after
Your sponsorship doesn't end when the plates are cleared
Every event is bookended with communication that keeps our sponsors front and center.
- Ahead of the eventGuest list and contact details
You get the full list of who's coming, with contact details, so you can plan who to meet.
- Before the nightPre-event email
Every guest gets a note introducing the evening and our sponsors.
- On the nightSeated, introduced, filmed
Intentional seating, seeded conversations, your brand on the table, and a photographer and videographer in the room.
- The day afterPost-event recap
A branded recap thanking our sponsors, with photos, guest quotes and every guest's LinkedIn. Here's the one we sent after Denver.
Ways to get involved
Simple to start. Easy to grow.
Big organizations tell us the hardest part of sponsoring events is the process. So we've removed it.
The simplest way in
Sponsor a single dinner
Pick a city and a date. One conversation, one invoice or a card payment, and you're in. No procurement marathon, no 30-page agreement.
- Seated with your target guests
- Guest list and contact details in advance
- Featured in the pre and post-event emails
- Photos and video from the night
For a season
Series partner
Back a run of dinners across several cities and become the name our community associates with the series.
- Presenting placement at every dinner
- First choice of cities and dates
- Ongoing introductions from our network
Built around you
Custom and co-hosted
A private dinner for your clients, a founder roundtable, an investor evening or a leg of an international trip. We design it with you.
- Your guest goals, our curation
- Formal agreements available if you need them
- Full production, photo and video
Where we're going next
Opportunities in the works
We go where great founders are being built, including the ecosystems most investors overlook. These dinners are in planning now, and sponsors can help shape them.
Past dinners: New York and Denver
Who's hosting
Community builders first
We have spent 15+ years combined building and running accelerator and venture studio communities. Bringing the right people into a room is what we do.
Steve Hayton
General Partner
Steve designed and delivered a first-of-its-kind curriculum training ecosystem leaders around the world to build accelerators and venture studios. He brings an investigative journalist's eye for people and a host's instinct for who should be sitting next to whom.
Jillian Friot
General Partner
Jillian spent the past decade fostering a global community of startup support organizations and built the SOLIDWORKS for Startups program, which served 30,000+ hardware startups. She knows the accelerators, studios and founders our dinners are built around.
Paul Kim
General Partner
Paul brings 25 years of institutional investing experience, from equity research at Bank of America and PaineWebber to portfolio management at SAC Capital (now Point72) and Omega Advisors, and helped launch Sursum Capital, a long/short global equity fund he grew past $800M. A CFA charterholder who has taught entrepreneurship at CCNY, he brings the investor side of the table into the room.
Experience described was gained through related programs before Venture Builders Fund.
Let's talk
Put your brand in the room
Tell us a little about your team and what you'd like to get out of it. Whether it's one dinner or a whole season, we'll come back to you quickly with options.