Start an On Deck Network in your city
On Deck is a dinner series and evolving community of world class entrepreneurs who are openly — or secretly — about to start their next thing.’
Currently the community includes: successful repeat founders, EIRs at top-tier VC firms, and great designers and developers at companies like Facebook, Dropbox, Airbnb, and more.
What started as a small dinner series a few years ago for people looking to do their next thing has transformed into On Deck networks all over the world.
So far, we have chapters in London (chapter leader: David Booth); New York (chapter leader: Raphael Ouzan); New Dehli (chapter leader: Misbah Ashraf); Tel Aviv (chapter leader: Ben Lang); Los Angeles (chapter leader: Laz Alberto), Boston (chapter leader: Jennifer Lum); Boulder (chapter leader: Julian Weisser); and San Francisco (chapter leader: me).
Over the past couple years, On Deckers have met their co-founders, first engineers, and investors at On Deck events — and helped countless of other people by making introductions, brainstorming ideas, and being a sounding board through the transition process. Personally, I’ve invested in four different companies that came out of the On Deck network and look forward to more.
We’re excited to grow and expand the community into new cities.
Apply here if you’d like to start an On Deck network in your city, and apply here if you’d like to join one of these chapters.
Some On Deck Stats:
- We have 3,000 members in cities across the world.
- On Deck has active chapters in SF, NYC, Tel Aviv, London, Los Angeles, and Boston.
- Chapters about to start: LA, New Dehli, Toronto, Chicago, Detroit, and more.
- People have thrown different types of On Deck events: Crypto, Healthcare, VR, ML/AI, co-founder matching, startup-engineer matching, etc
Want to start a On Deck chapter or contribute to one in your city?
We are looking for Chapter hosts to do the following:
- Commit to throwing at least 6 events for a year (either monthly or bi-monthly). That includes, coordinating event logistics, sending invitations and reminders, and identifying sponsors for F&B when possible.
- Serve as an On Deck ambassador for your city, running the Facebook group, trying to matchmake co-founders or early hires or investors or just great people who should know each other.
- Commit to making the On Deck chapter an inclusive and quality community.
On Deck event checklist:
- Invite list (On Deck team can help you invite folks but you should also be plugged in and able to fill up a list of at least 10 great people!)
- Space to throw the event (could be an office or any other space with privacy)
- Food/Drink Sponsor (Don’t let this be a deterrent! Many of the great OD events I’ve hosted in SF were just meetups where it was BYOB (i.e free)).
Here are just a few photos from past events (we often don’t take photos to preserve confidentiality).
