Founders Forum

Founders Forum began in London in 2005 as a fifty-person gathering of European technology entrepreneurs, and has grown into Founders Forum Group, a company that runs invitation-only forums alongside a set of associated businesses. More than forty forums have been held in over twenty cities. The flagship, Founders Forum Global, runs across two days in London and the English countryside alongside London Tech Week: the 2025 edition drew 450 entrepreneurs including 300 unicorn founders, 125 chief executives and 129 venture capitalists. Regional forums cover the Middle East, Africa and South Asia from Dubai, the Asia-Pacific from Singapore, Europe, North America and India, and there are role-specific forums for chief marketing officers, chief financial officers, venture capitalists and family offices. Attendance is by invitation. The group's stated design principle is that everyone present could be a keynote speaker, and the programme mixes panels with small breakout brainstorms and fireside chats. Founders Forum Group also operates London Tech Week as a joint venture with Informa and sits alongside Founders Factory and firstminute capital in Brent Hoberman's group of ventures.

Как это работает

Founders Forum runs a calendar of invitation-only forums, each anchored to a region or a role. Programming is tailored to the people attending and mixes panels, small breakout brainstorms and fireside chats with social and dinner elements. There is no standing membership: people are invited to a specific forum, and a register-your-interest form exists for those not invited. The wider group also offers services, competitions, insight and investment channels.

Типичный участник

Attendees are founders of significant technology companies, venture investors and chief executives. The 2025 flagship drew 300 unicorn founders and 129 venture capitalists collectively managing $2.7 trillion, alongside corporate executives and government figures.

This is an events business rather than a membership organisation, and that distinction matters when comparing it with peer networks. There is no roster, no dues, no term and no published criteria: an invitation to a specific forum is the whole product, and the organisation's own framing is that it curates rooms rather than admitting members. The identity is bound up with Brent Hoberman's wider group, which includes Founders Factory, firstminute capital and the London Tech Week joint venture with Informa, so the network overlaps heavily with a set of commercial ventures. Two practical cautions. The organisation has rebranded to Founders Forum Group and moved to ff.co; its old .com and .co.uk domains are now parked for sale, so stale links circulate. And every attendance figure it publishes is per-event, not cumulative, so they should not be read as a community size.

Редакционный анализ: Peer Group Guide editors. Отделено от записи выше и следует за редакционная политика.