🚀 Founders Meetup London

Join London's startup community for an evening of tactical fireside conversations with seasoned entrepreneurs and speed networking with fellow founders, potential co-founders, and investors!

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📋 Evening Agenda

Time	Session
17:30	Arrival & Open Networking
18:30–18:40	Welcome & Introductions
18:40–19:00	Community Shoutouts
19:00–19:45	Fireside Chat with Bhairav Patel
19:45–20:45	Open Networking & Drinks
20:45 onwards	Pub Drinks 🍺

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🎟️ Speed Networking — Colour Badge System

Arrivals kick off with structured speed networking. Wear your badge colour to signal what you're looking for:

• 🔴 Red — Fundraising | Investors | Looking for Funding
• 🔵 Blue — Team Building | Co-founders | Hiring
• 🟢 Green — Community | Opportunities

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🔥 Community Shoutouts (18:40–19:00)

A dedicated safe space where attendees can share what they're currently working on, celebrate recent wins, and openly raise any challenges they'd love the community's help with.

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💬 Fireside Chat (19:00–19:45)

This month's guest is Bhairav Patel, co-founder of ATOM CTO (acquired by Teybridge Capital). The session will be an informal, hands-on conversation exploring the real tactics and strategies behind building, shaping, and growing a startup. Every month brings a different topic and a diverse guest to share their story!

👉 Follow the Founders Meetup London LinkedIn page for the latest fireside chat guest announcements 🔥

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🤔 Who Should Come?

• 🏗️ You're actively building a startup right now
• 💡 You have an idea and are considering launching a business
• 🤝 You're searching for a co-founder or early team members
• 💰 You're an investor scouting for new opportunities
• 📚 You want to learn directly from experienced startup operators and successful founders

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🧠 What Exactly Is a Startup?

Definitions vary widely — and are often contradictory. Simply put, a startup is a newly established business aiming to develop and sell a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty, typically founded by entrepreneurs seeking to innovate and disrupt existing markets.

Startups vs. Small Businesses — Key Differences

Dimension	Startup	Small Business
Growth	Focused on rapid scaling	Focused on stability & serving an existing market
Funding	Startups typically raise, or consider raising, outside investor funding through venture capital to fuel their growth rather than through revenue or loans alone. (Note: this is a generalisation — many startups instead opt for the bootstrapped approach.)	Primarily funded through revenue or loans
Risk Profile	Higher risk — often pioneering new products or models	Lower risk profile
Culture	Speed, iteration, and disruption	More risk-averse
Impact	Aims for high-impact and rapid scale	Smaller, more localised impact
Exit Strategy	Acquisition or IPO often the goal	Stability and profit generation

Overall, startups are defined by their drive for innovation, high growth, and disruption, whereas small businesses focus on delivering existing services to a local market. The two can overlap, and startups can evolve into small businesses over time. If you want to sharpen your startup tools and thinking, this is the meetup for you! 😎

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🙌 Special Thanks

Hosted by serial founders:

• Hamish Geddes of Mapify Logistics
• Dec McLaughlin of Foras Ventures
• Sofia Hamilton of Souk
• Selby Cary of the Scottish Startup Hub

Sponsored by Howard Kennedy Ignite — a programme designed to support founders with far more than just legal advice. Benefits include discounted fees, access to a trusted network of VCs, angels, and strategic partners (especially valuable when raising, hiring, or scaling), warm introductions to the right people, PR network exposure, founder dinners, and curated events. Whether you're pre-seed or post-Series A, Howard Kennedy Ignite is built to back you at every stage.

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📩 Data & Communications

By registering for this event, you agree to receive occasional updates from Founders Meetup London about future events, community news, and relevant opportunities. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any of our emails.