A candlelit dinner table set before guests arrive

Atlanta — Founder Hospitality

Entrepreneurship wasn’t meant to be built alone.

Forks & Founders is a hospitality platform bringing founders together through intentionally curated dining experiences, thoughtful conversation, and genuine relationships.

Join the Founder Waitlist Watch Founder’s Perspective

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Our Belief

The best business relationships rarely begin in a boardroom.

They begin over a shared plate. In the pause between courses, when the pitch falls away and the person remains. Atlanta has no shortage of founders — what it has lacked is a room built for them to actually know one another.

Forks & Founders exists to design that room. Not a mixer. Not a panel. A table, set with intention, for people building something real.

We believe hospitality — done properly — is the fastest way to build trust between strangers who have every reason to become allies.

Guests seated at a long candlelit dinner table

Founder Table — Atlanta, 2026

What We Build

Three ways we bring the room together.

Founder Tables

Small, intentionally seated dinners — six to twelve founders, one long table, no agenda but honest conversation.

Founder’s Perspective

Editorial films and conversations that document how Atlanta’s builders actually think, work, and relate to one another.

Community

A standing circle of members who keep showing up for one another long after the plates are cleared.

Episode 001

Founder, Hospitality

“On the difference between building a following and building a room people actually want to sit in.”

0:28

The Series

Founder’s Perspective

One founder. One question. One perspective worth sharing.

Founder’s Perspective is the editorial series from Forks & Founders, where founders share the conversations, lessons, and perspectives that often happen behind closed doors.

Rather than focusing on business achievements, each episode explores the ideas, challenges, and experiences shaping how founders think, lead, and build.

Because sometimes the most valuable insight isn’t another strategy. It’s hearing how someone else sees the world.

Watch the Series

Our Method

Hospitality is our business model.

Hospitality isn’t serving dinner.

It’s creating belonging.

It’s designing conversations.

It’s making founders feel seen.

It’s remembering names.

It’s creating rooms people never forget.

How It Works

The Founder Table experience.

Application

A short, honest application — who you are, what you’re building, and what kind of room you’re looking for.

Invitation

Tables are curated by hand for balance — industry, stage, and temperament all considered before a seat is offered.

Arrival

No name tags, no pitch decks. Just a beautifully set table and a host who already knows why you’re there.

Conversation

Prompted, unhurried conversation across courses — designed to move past small talk within the first twenty minutes.

Connection

The relationships that matter rarely end when the check arrives. We make sure the thread continues.

Community

Every table feeds a growing, standing circle — the people you’ll keep running into, on purpose, for years.

What happens around the table.

Table Seven

A founder met her first investor.

Seated across from each other by design, not by accident. The term sheet came six weeks later — the friendship came first.

Table Twelve

Two founders became business partners.

Different industries, same instinct. Eight months on, they share an office and a cap table.

Table Three

A conversation became a lifelong friendship.

No deal, no deck — just two people who kept the thread going long after the dinner ended.

Raven Thornton, Founder

Meet Raven

Why this exists.

I’ve sat at the tables where the real decisions get made, and I’ve sat at the ones designed to look like they might. The difference was never the venue. It was whether anyone in the room actually intended for you to be known.

I built Forks & Founders because Atlanta’s founders deserved better than another networking hour disguised as community. We deserved a table set with the same care we put into everything else we build.

This isn’t an event company. It’s a standing invitation to be known by the people building alongside you.

Raven

For Brands & Partners

Partner with Forks & Founders.

We work with a small number of brands each season who understand that the best introduction to a founder isn’t an ad — it’s a seat at the table. If your brand belongs in that room, we’d love to hear from you.

Apply to Partner

Inaugural Founders Dinner — September 2026

Request an Invitation

Join the Founder Waitlist.

Founder Tables are intentionally small. Leave your email and we’ll reach out when a seat opens for you.

Sealed. We’ll be in touch before September.

Founder Tables are intentionally curated. Joining the waitlist does not guarantee an invitation.