Gildre · Tampa, FL
Tampa builds quietly and wins loudly. Gildre is where those founders find each other.
Gildre is a private founder community for Tampa’s most active builders. Curated dinners. Weekly introductions made by hand. A room with standards for serious founders.
250+
Active Members
$2.4B+
Member Valuations
Weekly
Curated Intros
15+
Cities Represented
Why founders join and stay
Most founder communities give you more noise.
Gildre gives you meaningful, curated conversations.
The dinner is the visible part. What actually changes is who you call on a Tuesday when something goes sideways.
They're actively building
Not planning to build. Building. Gildre members are shipping, closing, and navigating the hard stuff in real time. The conversations match.
They give before they ask
The community runs on reciprocity. Every member comes in ready to contribute. That standard is what separates a Gildre dinner from every other founder event you've sat through.
Every industry. One standard.
Healthtech, SaaS, cybersecurity, defense, consumer, services. Gildre Tampa has members building across all of it. The filter isn't your sector. It's whether you're serious enough to be useful to someone else.
Past the point of no return
Most members crossed a line where the company stopped being a project and became the thing. That changes how honest they are, how much they share, and how much they help.
Curated Dinners
Channelside, Tampa
In-Person Events · Tampa, FL
More than dinners. A full calendar built around founders.
Gildre Tampa events run the full range — from intimate curated dinners to team experiences, co-hosted startup events, and seasonal gatherings. Every format is designed for one thing: getting the right people in the right room.
- ✓
Founder Dinners
Seated. Small. Every attendee selected. Twelve founders around a good table — no panels, no pitching. The conversations here don't happen anywhere else in Tampa because the room was built for them.
- ✓
Team Building Experiences
Off-sites and challenges designed to build trust faster than a conference ever could. The best peer relationships start when you're solving something together.
- ✓
Co-Hosted Events with Other Startups
Gildre partners with top Tampa Bay startups and ecosystem organizations to co-host events. Curated cross-pollination — access to complementary communities, not just ours.
- ✓
Social Gatherings
Some of the best founder relationships start over good food and Tampa sunshine. Gildre hosts seasonal social events where the agenda is just being around the right people.
From Gildre Members
What building inside Gildre
actually feels like.
Being in Gildre feels like having founder co-workers that actually get it. They've saved me hours of research just by sharing what's worked for them.
Caitlin Van Berkel
Founder · Silver Lining Career Coach
The structure at Gildre is impressive. It's truly a space where founders challenge each other and mentorship isn't abstract.
Christof Mannfeld
Founder · Solvee
I wanted to surround myself with others going through similar growth and challenges. Gildre gives me exactly that, a community where I can both give and gain exceptional value.
Elise Madrick
Founder · Cerené
Selection Criteria
Membership isn’t automatic. That’s what makes it worth having.
We review every application. Not to be difficult — because who’s in the room determines what the room is worth. If the bar drops, the conversations drop with it. The people already inside are the reason you want in.
Chapter Leads
Meet the team leading Gildre’s Tampa Chapter.
Brian Lee
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Gildre
Brian is a 2X exited entrepreneur who has spent the past decade working with bootstrapped and venture-backed companies. He launched his first company in 2015 and has since co-founded multiple 7-figure ARR startups. His most recent role was Head of Product at a global accelerator working with hundreds of Series A-Pre Seed founders across high-growth industries. He currently sits on two advisory boards and mentors for organizations like Founders Institute, Techstars and Watson Institute where he serves as their Entrepreneur-in-Residence.
LinkedIn →
Mikhail Reece
Founder, Integrow Ventures · Chapter Lead, Gildre Tampa
Mikhail is a Tampa-based entrepreneur and operator with roots at Yale and a track record spanning business development, digital growth, and community leadership. As the founder of Integrow Ventures, he works with founders and professionals to align their identity, message, and action into a compounding growth flywheel. Before that, he scaled Atlas Digital USA's email marketing platform into new markets as VP of Sales. As President of the Yale Club of Tampa Bay, Mikhail has spent years building meaningful networks across the Bay Area's business community. He brings that same connective energy to Gildre Tampa, creating a room where founders can be honest about the hard parts and get real, tactical support from people who have been there.
LinkedIn →Tampa FAQ
Questions about Gildre Tampa.
How are 1:1 founder introductions curated in Tampa?+
Every week, Gildre's team actively reviews your profile, stage, and goals to match you with a specific Tampa Bay founder or operator who is solving a complementary problem or has directly relevant experience. These are warm, intentional introductions, not algorithm-generated requests you have to cold-follow up on.
Where are Tampa founder dinners and events held?+
We host monthly founder dinners and curated events throughout Tampa Bay. Venues rotate across the metro — Downtown, Channelside, Hyde Park, and Westshore — so no matter where you're based, you're in range.
What types of founders join Gildre's Tampa Chapter?+
Gildre Tampa welcomes founders across all industries, from healthtech and cybersecurity to SaaS, defense-tech, and consumer brands. The community is defined less by vertical and more by mindset: you are actively building, serious about peer accountability, and ready to give as much as you get. Members typically range between the Build (<$500K) and Growth ($5M+ ARR) stages.
How is Gildre different from Embarc Collective or other Tampa startup communities?+
Gildre is a curated private membership, not an open coworking hub or events calendar. Every introduction, dinner, and roundtable is built around you specifically. Embarc Collective is a great physical space for Tampa's ecosystem; Gildre is the high-signal peer layer that operates inside and beyond it.
Can I attend a Tampa event before becoming a member?+
Occasionally Gildre opens select Tampa events to prospective members by invitation. The best path is to apply and mention your interest in a Tampa preview dinner. We regularly prioritize local applicants so you can experience the community firsthand before committing.
Tampa, FL
The next dinner already has a guest list. Apply to be on it.
Applications take less than five minutes. If you’re a fit, you’ll hear from us within a week. The founders you’ve been trying to get in the room with are already members.
© 2026 Gildre, LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy · Back to Gildre.com