The biggest #AtTheTable dinner for female founders EVER

When we started #AtTheTable earlier this year, it was just two founders sitting at a table over smoothies: Beth Santos and Rica Elysee, of Wanderful and BeautyLynk.

That table got a lot bigger this year, with many, MANY more female founders. Now save the date for December 13th, 2018: We’re hosting the first annual #AtTheTable dinner for female founders: the largest female founder dinner in New England.

The #AtTheTable Annual Dinner will be the 10th dinner for #AtTheTable since we launched and our biggest one ever. We have over 400 female founders signed up in our community, many who have already attended a dinner since we launched in Boston in March. This annual dinner will be a chance for female founders who met at dinner to re-connect and meet even more new friends and connections.

At the same time, this dinner is the launch of the next stage for #AtTheTable. Our dinners up to now were all generously sponsored by businesses in Boston that want to support female founders. The Annual Dinner will be the first one that asks female founders to pool their own funds too, raising money to grow the community and expand events.

Starting in 2019, #AtTheTable will have a membership model for founders, which will offer expanded access to dinners around the country, a dynamic online community, monthly webinars and content, and more to support the amazing work of female founders worldwide.

Why #AtTheTable dinners work

Through our shared experiences and unique differences, female founders can combine our knowledge to raise each other up.

The dinners we’ve had already have brought together both bold, young founders, as well as mature, badass women who have been running businesses for a decade or longer. We have founders who are in those tough early stages, founders who are bootstrapping and generating revenue, and others who are raising angel or venture rounds to scale their startup. Through our shared experiences and unique differences, female founders can combine our knowledge to raise each other up.

What we’ve proved this year is that a dinner table is big enough for founders to grow their network of like-minded women in a significant way, yet small enough to have meaningful conversations. It is a setting that is more personal and intimate than a general networking event, giving us a forum to be honest and real about the challenges of entrepreneurship.

Across the #AtTheTable community, we now have 5 cities (Boston, DC, SF, MIA and NYC) with female founders who want to be part of the community. It is our hope to have dinners in all these cities launched by the end of the year.

This is MORE than just dinner

We’ve also launched Slack channels for founders in all 5 cities. We’ve heard that having these channels open, even on days they are quieter, gives us all the reminder that we are not alone as founders. On those inevitable lonely days, you know there is a group full of founders who are going through similar things.

We get new connections. We get a safe place to get very real about what life is like as a female founder. We get to drop the “we’re crushing it” version we are compelled to tell everyone, all the time.

For #AtTheTable, our goals are to keep the dialogue going about what it is like for female founders, to give us a forum to help and connect with each other, to create a safe space where we can share concerns and challenges. Without worrying about being shut down, mansplained to, or appearing like you look weak.

All entrepreneurs need help. By definition, a startup is a new venture that is different from what others have done before. As something new, it also comes with fresh challenges. Founders need to balance extreme optimism with constant learning. They need to believe their idea is both worth pursuing and feasible… but also keep their minds open to advice, ask for help in areas outside their depth, test everything, notice when they are wrong, and be willing to change directions.

What started as just two founders? It’s now a community of women looking to support, help, and promote each other.

It’s a lot less lonely to be a female founder in Boston when you’re at dinner with people who are right there with you.

Join us on December 13th

Click here for tickets to our amazing inaugural #AtTheTable female founders annual dinner. Ticket prices include one year of membership into the #AtTheTable community and many more dinners.

Want to sponsor?

Sponsor a table of female founders in your network and put your commitment to supporting women to work. Email team@atthetable.io for more information.

Thank you to our first Annual Dinner sponsors:

• Curation Agency
• First Republic Bank
• Gallery West