The Founders TableApply

The exclusive club for founders

Where founders
belong.

4
Events hosted
100+
In the network
NL & Bali
Where we meet
Scroll

Welcomed founders

And 94 more at the table.

Everyone here is actually building something. One afternoon gave me more than a year of networking events.
Joshua KaatsFounder
Sport as an opener works. You get to know people better in one afternoon than over ten coffees.
Dylan WijnbergenFounder
No pitches, no politics. Just founders who understand what you're dealing with, and help you fix it.
Pieter GrosFounder

Next event

Sport. Table. Connection.

Private Dinner, The NetherlandsDinner

Private Dinner

· The Netherlands

One table, one evening, no court this time. The smallest format we run, and the one where the conversations go furthest.

  • Dinner only. No court this time.
  • One table, one menu
  • Address goes out with the invitation
Padel & Network, BaliPadel

Padel & Network

· Bali

The same format, twelve time zones out. Padel in the afternoon, one long table after, and the founders who made the trip.

  • The full format: padel, table, afterparty
  • Founders who made the trip
  • Date and venue land with the invitation

What a seat gives you

Not a network. A table.

The room

Who you end up sitting next to.

  • Founders who already run something. Every seat reviewed.
  • Nobody working the room for leads.
  • A hundred in the network, and it stays small on purpose.

The evenings

What happens when we meet.

  • Sport, a long table, an afterparty. In that order.
  • Every few weeks. The Netherlands, and further when there is a reason.
  • One menu, one table, no seating by status.

The access

What a seat is worth after the night ends.

  • Dates reach the table before they go public.
  • Introductions we make ourselves, when there is a reason to.
  • The group where the follow-up happens.

Backed by

  • NOPA
  • CERO Energy Water
  • Marhaba Global
  • Mars Capital Club
  • Sunset Padel
  • TimeFuserTimeFuser
  • Repley

Past events

Built in real rooms.

Padel, Dinner & Afterparty, Alphen aan den Rijn
Padel

Padel, Dinner & Afterparty

· Alphen aan den Rijn

Courts busy all afternoon, then everyone moved to the terrace and stayed there well past dark.

Harbour Club Dinner, Rotterdam
Dinner

Harbour Club Dinner

· Rotterdam

Drinks in the garden, one long table, and a DJ to close it out.

Padel & Network, Alkmaar
Padel

Padel & Network

· Alkmaar

Everyone played the same number of matches, and nobody left without a handful of new contacts.

At the table

What members say.

Nigel BrosContent Agency
Excellently organised from start to finish. The mix of sport and networking made it a real success, with plenty of room to meet people and have valuable conversations. I made several interesting connections and exchanged details.
Jordy Thibaut
The padel and dinner event from The Founders Table was excellent in every way. 24 like-minded entrepreneurs, with competition, fun and networking all coming together in one place. Privileged to be part of this club, and looking forward to the next one.
Nine IngelseUGC creator
Great to be around so many competitive founders. Everyone from a different field, so you learn from each other and even end up collaborating. The padel event was well run, and the dinner afterwards made for excellent conversations.
Pepijn van ErpAI Software Agency
An absolute must. Perfectly organised: everyone got the right number of matches and the catering was excellent. Beyond the padel there were valuable conversations and useful contacts. I'll be at the next one for sure.
Brian Bond
A great event. What made it was the combination: padel and networking at the same time. A lot of new people, a good atmosphere, and everything properly organised down to the dinner afterwards. Definitely one to repeat.
Donna van de Merwe
I had never been to a networking event, so I had no idea what to expect. The padel took care of that: you switch teams and opponents every round, so you end up in conversation with everyone without it ever feeling like networking. Dinner after, and all the time in the world to keep going.
RowenaSocial Media Agency
The Founders Table organised a genuinely great event. Padel together first, and talking afterwards. Meeting people on a court is easy, you have something in common straight away. A great place to network.
Stan JonkEcom Agency
I find it hard to meet other founders in my own circle, and this event was the perfect solution. Super organised, everything clearly explained, and a top balance between networking and padel.
Dani M.Sales Director
At first I didn't know what to expect from networking combined with sport, but the atmosphere was incredibly positive and open, exactly what you need to make new connections. A good balance between relaxation and business talk.
Anas T.Ecommerce
It started competitively with padel, a great way to meet people and have good conversations. The dinner topped it off: we got to know each other much better and were all in stitches.

Before you ask

The honest answers.

What is The Founders Table?

A club for founders that meets around sport and a long table. An evening starts on the padel court and ends at dinner, and the point of the whole format is that you have already played together before you ever talk business.

Who is it for?

Founders who already run something. Not people planning to start, and not people who came to sell to the room. That is the entire filter, and it is the reason the evenings work.

Will this actually do anything for my company?

Not on its own, and we will not pretend otherwise. But most of those groups are paid access to a chat and a calendar. This is a room, in person, a handful of times a year, capped at what fits around one table. A hundred founders who have solved the thing you are stuck on, in a setting where asking is normal. What you do with that is yours.

Who runs it?

Joey van de Kerkhof and Lars van den Burg. Both founders, both still running their own companies. Everything you see here we organised ourselves, and every application is read by one of us.

Do I need to be good at padel?

No. Teams are drawn on the spot, so you end up mixed in with every level there is. A good part of the table comes for the dinner and plays one match because everyone else is.

How do I get in?

By invitation. You can apply here, and we go through every application ourselves. If it is a fit you hear from us before the next date is announced.

How often do you meet, and where?

Every few weeks, and we would rather host a handful of evenings a year that people clear their calendar for than one a month that half the table skips. Padel and dinners around Amsterdam and Alphen aan den Rijn, and an evening in Bali this October.

What if I am not sure yet?

Apply anyway. It is not a commitment, it is a conversation about whether this is your kind of room. If it is not, we will say so, and that saves you an evening.

Joey van de Kerkhof and Lars van den Burg, founders of The Founders Table
  • Joey van de KerkhofCo-founder
  • Lars van den BurgCo-founder

Our why

We both know what it feels like to build something from nothing.

We built the table we wish we had found earlier, and now it's yours.

Access by invitation

A seat is earned.

Each month we welcome only a handful of new founders. Because the quality of the room determines the quality of everything that happens in it.