We're excited to host Gildre's December "Holiday Happy Hour" and 2026 Roadmap Release! We know it's earlier in the day so think happy hour for coffee, tea, or whatever your favorite beverage is!

​We'll kick off with a group welcome and highlights from 2025 as to where the community has grown, followed by our roadmap for 2026 and brand new community features.

​After that we'll move into the traditional Speed-Networking 1:1 format where attendees will get to meet at least 2 other founders/startup leaders from the Gildre Community through rotating 10-minute conversations.

Hiring the right people early can make or break a startup. Your first team members shape your culture, growth, and long-term success. In this webinar, you'll learn how to identify the right talent, engage early hires and co-founders, and avoid common pitfalls that derail young startups. Drawing on 30 years of entrepreneurial and corporate experience across multiple industries, Karan Mangat, CEO of Skill Beyond Boundaries, will share practical insights and proven strategies to help founders build strong, effective teams from day one. Join us to gain actionable advice and leadership lessons that will help you hire smarter and scale faster.

​NachoNacho - The B2B SaaS + Services Marketplace, Shopline.com, and Deel will host this exclusive NYC Founder + Investor holiday happy hour event. This networking event will be exclusively for SaaS Founders, C-Suites, investors, tech media, and tech leaders (Partnership leaders are definitely welcome, too). This event will include sponsored drinks and appetizers.

The end of the year is your chance to set your startup up for a successful 2026. Join Adam Spector, Founder and CEO of Chore, for an exclusive, no-nonsense session where he'll guide you through an actionable, 100-item checklist covering compliance, payroll, taxes, contractor payments, and more. This isn't just about checking boxes—it's about positioning your startup for streamlined operations and fewer headaches in the new year. With Adam's extensive experience as a 4x founder and +200 investor, he'll show you how Chore helps startups like yours offload back-office tasks, allowing you to focus on growth.

We're excited to host Gildre's August Speed-Networking event! We want to make sure everyone has the chance to continue to connect with amazing individuals across the globe.

Do you want to ask questions to startup investors about fundraising in a friendly, judgment-free environment? Are you looking to raise funding in the future, and want to learn what investors look for and how they evaluate potential investments? Then join us for this live, interactive Q&A event featuring Kirby Winfield, the Founding General Partner at Ascend. Don't miss this opportunity to expand your network and ask in-depth questions.

Join ecosystem partner, Forecastr to learn how a great financial model can show you how much capital you should raise, and exactly when to raise it. Get better insights and make better decisions for your startup.

Join Executive Mentor, Henri Schauffler in the November Gildre Innovation Roundtable Session: "Turning Early Customers into Power Sellers - The Art of Fostering Referrals".

Join ecosystem Partner Forecastr and Gust in this interactive webinar where they’ll highlight 10 key ways that your business can run out of cash and how to avoid them.

Join us for an exclusive masterclass with Chris Tsakalakis, former CEO of StubHub, as he shares the proven strategies that transformed a startup into the world's leading ticket marketplace.

​In this intimate 45-60 minute executive workshop, Chris will reveal the frameworks and principles that drove StubHub's remarkable journey from 2000 to 2014—and how you can apply these lessons to accelerate your own venture's growth.

​This webinar is an overview of our 5-day intensive designed for founders and aspiring founders who want to build a venture-backable company — not just a demo.

Whether or not you call your company an “AI startup,” every company today must understand and harness AI to stay competitive. That’s exactly what this bootcamp helps you do.

This bootcamp is for all startups, not just AI-centric startups.

​​In the bootcamp, we teach you:

• ​​How to come up with the right idea (not just any idea)

• ​​What makes an idea investible and how investors think about AI startups

• ​​How to leverage vibe-coding to accelerate from concept to working product

• ​​How to craft the business model and pitch deck investors will take seriously

​We’re excited to invite you to an exclusive session designed specifically for coaches and consultants, hosted by executive coach Berk C. Celebisoy.

​In this action-packed 60-minute workshop, you’ll discover proven strategies to find, coach, and retain high-value clients — the kind who inspire and challenge you. Best of all, you’ll learn how to do it without wasting endless hours chasing leads or lowering your fees.

​You’ll walk away with practical tools that you can apply immediately to start attracting and retaining your dream clients.

What You'll Learn:

• How to give a concise, yet compelling, elevator pitch

• What investors are looking for in a startup pitch

• Specific advice and feedback on your pitch and startup ideas

If you have a startup idea or a growing company and you want to expand your network in Chicago, then join us for the in-person 'Founder Night Out' event. At this informal networking event, you can connect with other early-stage entrepreneurs, startup mentors, and advisors from the Founder Institute network. Socialize over drinks with potential co-founders, advisors, mentors and partners. Most of all, get away from the computer and have fun!

Join us for an exclusive session where resilience meets strategy!

​Armando Vera Carvajal, a seasoned entrepreneur and thought leader, will share the mental frameworks and mindset shifts that separate successful founders from the rest. This isn't just theory—it's battle-tested wisdom from the trenches of building, scaling, and leading ventures through uncertainty.

Startup ecosystems don't fail because founders lack ideas, they fail because cities keep mistaking press releases for progress. Begging and intriguing thought exercise: If investors wouldn't fund your ecosystem as a startup, why would they fund your startups? This panel brings together three leading voices in economic development to tackle the uncomfortable truth about venture capital and entrepreneurship: money follows opportunity, it doesn't create it. We're going to cut through the theater and talk about what actually matters.

Expect a candid, sometimes provocative, conversation about the weakest links in economic development so that we can work together to overcome them for entrepreneurs and investors — exploring some programs and policies that can actually fix those challenges.

We're excited to host Gildre's August Speed-Networking event! We want to make sure everyone has the chance to continue to connect with amazing individuals across the globe.

NachoNacho.com - The B2B SaaS & AI + Services Marketplace, Deel, Shopline, Ancient, OneSixOne Ventures, and Emerging LA are hosting this exclusive Founder + Investor happy hour event (includes sponsored open bar and food) alongside key high-profile brands and VC firms. This is part of our NachoTuesday series, which includes in-person events as well as online thought leadership C-Suite interviews (https://nachonacho.com/nachotuesday). The location is secret and will be shared with approved guests only!

​Join Executive Mentor, Henri Schauffler in the October Gildre Innovation Roundtable Session: "Top of the Funnel: Discovering Why You May Be Wasting Time Talking To People Who Will Never Buy"".

Learn how to prepare for your first professional fundraising round with Gust’s COO. Key strategies, compliance & equity insights for founders.

NachoNacho.com - The B2B SaaS & AI + Services Marketplace, Deel, Ancient, Shopline, Zeni.ai, OneSixOne Ventures, Posha Private Chef, and Kaminitz Law are hosting this exclusive Founder + Investor happy hour event (includes sponsored open bar and food provided by the Posha Kitchen Robot Chef!) alongside key high-profile brands and VC firms. This is part of our NachoTuesday series, which includes in-person events as well as online thought leadership C-Suite interviews (https://nachonacho.com/nachotuesday). The location is secret and will be shared with approved guests only!

​EXCLUSIVE GILDRE MASTERCLASS: The Hypergrowth Blueprint - How to Blitzscale with Chris Yeh

​Join us for an extraordinary opportunity to learn directly from Chris Yeh, co-author of the bestselling "Blitzscaling" and trusted advisor to Reid Hoffman and countless Silicon Valley legends.

Learn how to prepare for your first professional fundraising round with Gust’s COO. Key strategies, compliance & equity insights for founders.

​Welcome to Gildre's Founder Fireside! This event is a casual, intimate gathering where founders come together to share the highs and lows of their entrepreneurial journeys. In this open forum, we invite everyone to connect, reflect, and offer insights on the real-world challenges they face daily, from scaling their businesses, managing teams, and navigating personal growth along with work-life balance.

Raising funding is more than pitching, it's about being truly ready for investors. At this live AMA, Marta Marrucco, founder of Smart Founder, shares insider matchmaking insights on what makes startups stand out to investors. She'll answer questions on preparing financial models, refining your pitch, and building relationships that lead to funding. If you want to understand how to attract investors by being investment-ready, don't miss this event.

We're excited to host Gildre's August Speed-Networking event! We want to make sure everyone has the chance to continue to connect with amazing individuals across the globe.

Learn how you can use a financial model to create confidence when presenting your startup to potential investors. Nail your presentation and close more checks.

If you have a startup idea or a growing company and you want to expand your network in Chicago, then join us for the in-person 'Founder Night Out' event. At this informal networking event, you can connect with other early-stage entrepreneurs, startup mentors, and advisors from the Founder Institute network. Socialize over drinks with potential co-founders, advisors, mentors and partners. Most of all, get away from the computer and have fun!

NachoNacho - The B2B SaaS & AI + Services Marketplace, Deel, Gunderson Dettmer, and GPT Trainer are hosting this exclusive Founder + Investor happy hour event alongside key high-profile brands and VC firms. This networking event will be exclusively for SaaS & AI Founders, C-Suites, investors, tech media, and tech leaders (partnership leaders are definitely welcome, too). This event will include sponsored drinks, but not food. Please grab a bite to eat before or after the event.