Serendipity

built in

Venture Café is looking for strategic partners in cities across the globe interested in building stronger more inclusive innovation ecosystems.

We are an out of the box solution that has been named by the Brookings Institute and Startup Genome as a best practice for activating innovation ecosystems. Venture Café is a community builder, an educational platform and a world class tool that engages and amplifies your innovation ecosystem.

We’re building a global movement to change the world through innovation. Will you join us?

Get started today!

Global Network

Venture Café was founded in Boston’s Cambridge Innovation Center in 2009 and helped fuel the growth of one of the world’s most powerful innovation ecosystems. Since then, we have drawn together over 550,000 innovators, creatives, developers and civic-minded leaders for over 13 years in 11 cities around the world, building a global community of communities.

Why partner with Venture Café?

Venture Café is a tailored out of the box solution for amplifying innovation. Here's a sample of what we're bringing to the table.

Programs

The Thursday Gathering convenes hundreds of innovators weekly, but it doesn’t end there. We offer equity driven innovation programs, Innovation Bridges, soft landing programs and many more.

Shared systems and services

We’ve spent over a decade perfecting the art of curating a weekly innovation event while building community. Our organizational management systems will help you focus on creating serendipitous collisions while easing operations.

Training and onboarding

Our training and onboarding program will help you get off the blocks at full speed. You’ll crosstrain with existing Venture Café sites and we’ll help you build a successful program using our systems, services, credo and culture.

Knowledge sharing

Receive ongoing support from the Venture Café network and participate in ongoing team building and training through our annual Global Gathering as well as global and regional meetings that connect and inspire local teams throughout the year.

Fundraising

Benefit from local and global fundraising efforts as well as our funding playbook with the strategy and assets you need to secure partnerships. After all: without margin, there's no mission.

Expansion

We are growing our network, which means you are too! More Venture Cafés means more deep connections to innovation ecosystems across the globe.

Brand Assets

Venture Café has created a robust portfolio of brand assets. Our brand guidelines and templates will help you tell the right story, right from the start.

Brand Equity

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a strong brand. Venture Café has been building awareness and creating impact since 2009.

Globally Recognized

Each Venture Café welcomes international delegations each year. Our brand extends past the cities we currently serve as we partner with innovation ecosystems across the globe.

Connecting innovators to make things happen

How does Venture Café Expansion work?

We collaborate with you, your community and our network to bring Venture Café to your city. We want to help you grow your ecosystem and build a community of entrepreneurs.

We know that the right partner is key to creating meaningful impact in your city. So we work together with you to create the best strategic plan for your market.

It’s not a one-size-fits all approach, but typically our key strategic partner falls into one of these categories: educational institutions, innovation institutions, governments, economic development organizations and foundations.

Let's get started!

Connecting innovators to make things happen

Assessment Phase

The assessment phase is an important part of the expansion process, think of it as our mutual due diligence period. It’s when Venture Café gets to know your ecosystem—the people, the places, and the opportunities that make it so special—and you get to see if Venture Café is a good fit for your city.

We want to know what you stand for, what you’re looking for, and how we can best serve your community. And we hope that you’ll learn more about us and what we do in the process!

Connecting innovators to make things happen

Pre Launch Phase

Due diligence: check! Launch sequence initiated! Now it’s time to make things happen.

The Venture Café global team goes into launch mode to set up the the new Café for success. We deploy the full catalogue of benefits, help hire and train the local team, and collaborate with you to create a program strategy designed to amplify the best your city has to offer.

Connecting innovators to make things happen

Launch Venture Café in your city!

It’s time to get down to business.

The Thursday Gathering launch is just the beginning. The Venture Café global network will keep innovating and collaborating to help you grow your impact. We’ll help you launch additional programs, reach out to new communities, and create meaningful connections locally and globally.

Together, we can make a difference in our communities and beyond—and we’re just getting started!

Let's get started!

Expansion Inquiry

Thank you for your interest in bringing Venture Café to your city. As a first step, please fill out the expansion inquiry form below. This will give us context with which to start a fruitful conversation.

We look forward to learning about how we can work together to bring Venture Café’s model of inclusive innovation and community to your city.

Let’s make it happen!

Expansion Inquiry