Founder communities in New York: 16 compared (2026)

The right founder community in New York is the one you'll go back to: a Saturday run, a Tuesday dinner, a monthly pitch night or a space where other founders work every day. New York has more founder events than anyone can attend, so pick two or three and go often. Below are 16 communities across Manhattan and Brooklyn, each checked on its own pages on 28 October 2026, with what each costs, how to get in and when it next meets.

A note before you read on: this guide is published by Remote Builders, our own free community for founders who build companies remotely, which you can join online from New York. It isn't in the table, because it doesn't meet in New York. We've left out any number we couldn't find on a community's own page, and where a page shows a price without naming the currency, we say so.

How to choose a founder community in New York

Runs and walks

These are the easiest way in.

• Founders Running Club New York runs on Saturday mornings from Abingdon Square Park in the West Village, at an easy pace, then coffee. The next run is on Saturday 31 October at 9am.
• NYC Founders & Operators holds weekly morning walks from Little Island along the Hudson and the High Line, plus rooftop evenings every two weeks and quarterly dinners. It's for founders and senior operators in AI and B2B SaaS, and it says it isn't for vendors, lawyers, accountants, bankers or consultants.
• The Founder Exhale is a free 45-minute walk from Riverside Drive on the Upper West Side, with no pitching or agenda.

Dinners

• NYC Founders Club: a six-seat chef's table dinner every Tuesday in Manhattan, for full-time founders in New York from seed to Series B. Every application is reviewed by hand.
• Junto Founder Dinner: a monthly dinner for 24 vetted early-stage founders and CEOs at a private dinner club. The next one is on 9 December 2026.
• AI Founders Supper Club: a monthly dinner for 15 to 20 early-stage AI founders, by referral or application. The next one is on 17 November 2026.
• Guava: small supper club dinners for Black and Brown founders. The November dinner in Brooklyn is on 18 November 2026, at US$125 a ticket.

Pitch nights and meetups

Founders Live New York City is a monthly pitch night at The Yard in Herald Square: five founders pitch for 99 seconds each and the audience votes. NY Tech Meetup holds demo nights at Civic Hall, with the next one on 9 November 2026. NYC Blockchain Network meets every third Thursday. Colectivo runs dinners, mixers and pitch sessions for Latino and Latin American founders, plus Latino Tech Week.

Women founders

Womansplain Collective is a membership for female founders, especially in consumer brands, at $350 a year (currency not named), with quarterly workshops and a New York summit. Fierce Foundry holds drop-in coworking days for female founders at Luminary on Broadway; the next is on 11 November 2026.

Founder spaces

• Founders House, Flatiron: a founder-only workspace with an optional gym and recovery. Network membership is $500 a year or $50 a month (currency not named), and tours run most weekdays at 5pm.
• Newlab Brooklyn, Brooklyn Navy Yard: 84,000 square feet for startups commercialising hardware, climate and other critical technology, with prototyping labs.
• Hardware Founders held its first New York mixer on 29 July 2026 and meets online every month.

Founder communities in New York compared

These are 16 communities, all checked on 28 October 2026. Every row was active when we checked: an event, intake or post dated May 2026 or later, or open registration for an upcoming event. "Says" means the figure is the community's own claim.

Notes on the table

• Upcoming events. Founders Running Club runs on 31 October, Womansplain Collective holds an evening on 5 November, NY Tech Meetup is on 9 November, NYC Founders Club's open mixer is on 11 November, and Fierce Foundry's coworking day is on 11 November.
• Approval. NYC Founders Club, Junto, the AI Founders Supper Club, Guava's dinners and Fierce Foundry's coworking day all need approval or a referral.
• Shared audiences. Colectivo, NYC Founders & Operators and Founders Live welcome investors and operators as well as founders.
• Prices. Where a page shows a dollar sign without naming the currency, the table says "currency not named".

Communities we checked and left out

We left out sites that blocked us or need JavaScript to show their details, event series run for lawyers or investors rather than founders, hardware groups open to every professional, and groups with no New York event dated May 2026 or later. We didn't find a fintech founder group that met that bar; if you run one, tell us and we'll check it.

New York's founders in numbers

The Center for an Urban Future's May 2025 report with Tech:NYC, Sustaining NYC's Tech Edge, counted 8,750 funded start-ups in New York, more than double Los Angeles (3,997) or Boston (3,342). Startup Genome's Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2025 ranked New York City second among global startup ecosystems, behind Silicon Valley.

How to get value in your first month

1. Pick one weekly thing and one monthly thing. A Saturday run or a weekday walk, plus a dinner or pitch night each month.
2. Go to the same one three times. By the third, people know what you're building.
3. Bring one specific ask. "I need an intro to a founder who has sold into hospital systems" gets you somewhere.
4. Apply early for the dinners. Dinners seat six to 24 people, and most need approval.
5. Add a broader group. Our US and Canada guide covers other cities, and our comparison of communities for remote founders covers the online options.

Common mistakes

• Saying yes to everything. There's more on than you can attend. Pick two or three and go often.
• Only going to pitch nights. Most of the help comes from other founders, not investors.
• Ignoring the stage rules. NYC Founders Club is for seed to Series B and Founders House for VC-backable companies. Check before you apply.
• Waiting for the perfect group. If nothing fits your niche, start one. Our guide to starting a founder meetup covers the first three events.