Founders Networking Dinner, Bristol, with Natasha Mortimer

Twelve people sit down. You will have spoken to all of them by the time the plates are cleared. That is the whole idea, and it is the opposite of the evenings most founders have quietly stopped going to. No badges. Nobody pitching from a stage. Not a room of two hundred where you meet three people and remember one. Ten seats, one host and one guest of honour, at a single table. Everyone there is a founder or an operator, because we check. No recruiters working the room, nobody selling you anything. Which means you can talk about what is actually happening in your business rather than the version you give at conferences. The guest of honour eats with you rather than speaking at you. They sit at the table and take questions between courses, so you get to ask the thing you would never put your hand up for in a hall. And it happens again. The same faces come back, so the people you meet in October are people you already know by January. That is the part that compounds, and it is why a small table beats a big room. Doors are typically at 6:30pm and we sit at 7pm. Dinners run on weekday evenings across Bristol, Cheltenham and Gloucester. Food typically ranges from a sharing platter, through two courses and a drink, to occasional special events. Each dinner's page says which. This is a membership, not a seat. £10 buys membership and puts 10 credits on your account. It does not guarantee a seat at any particular dinner, so check dinewithfounders.co.uk for dates, formats and availability. Seat prices are shown on each dinner's page. Membership also attracts a growing number of resources and perks, plus invitations to special events through our sponsors for the FOUNDERS and SailChecker.