CT Founders Club: Founder & Funder Meetup
2026-09-24 08:30 - 10:30 (America/New_York) | MA
In this special edition of CT Founder Club, we’re bringing together founders and funders to network and support one another over coffee & breakfast!
Investors, come ready to help at least one founder – with capital, customer introduction, feedback sessions, etc.
Founders, come ready to share your story, make asks, and build relationships.
Please arrive between 8:30-9am. We will have open networking and breakfast 8:30-9am, gather for some quick words and highlights 9-9:30am, and continue building relationships 9:30-10:30am. Hope to see you there!
Thank you to Webster Bank and Wiggin & Dana for making CT Founders Club possible!
Webster Bank is a $75B commercial bank offering a full suite of banking services to companies in all stages of their business life cycle. Founded nearly 90 years ago, Webster remains headquartered in Connecticut with offices and clients across the country. Webster’s array of products and services meet the needs of not only its business clients but also their founders and employees.
Wiggin and Dana is widely recognized for providing practical, business-focused legal support to companies across the U.S. and around the world. Headquartered in Connecticut with offices in key locations along the East Coast, the firm pairs deep experience with business-focused judgment, working with companies at every stage of their life cycle, from early-stage startups to mature, scaling enterprises. By staffing matters with attorneys whose expertise aligns directly with a company’s needs and growth trajectory, Wiggin and Dana delivers responsive, efficient, and cost‑effective counsel that helps businesses move forward with confidence.
Background on CT Founders Club:
We heard from many CT-based founders that they don’t have a solid local group of likeminded people to share intros, tips, and the up & down journey of startup life with. Let’s change that! If you’re a founder all-in on building a high scale potential company, CT Founders Club is for you. We gather every 6-8 weeks for breakfast, happy hour, or dinner and making CT a great place to start and grow a game-changing company.
Rules of CT Founders Club:
1. Be Vulnerable: be yourself and ask for what you need. It’s brutally hard to start and grow a company. For those that have done it, don’t glorify it, be honest, share your challenges and mistakes, as well as the wins.
2. Give first: rising tide lifts all boats, let’s make CT a better place to build startups. Come to each event with your A game and the intention to help at least one person you meet in some way (sales pitch feedback, customer / investor / talent intro, brainstorm session, etc.).
3. Don’t be an asshole: treat others like you want to be treated. If you offer something follow through.
4. No soliciting: any help offered is free and without the expectation of anything in return (see rule #3).
5. Be inclusive: everyone started somewhere, include and support everyone (except #3).
6. Respect the time put into organizing: if you rsvp, come on time. If something comes up, communicate.
7. What happens at CT Founders Club stays there: respect people’s vulnerability and transparency and treat what’s shared as confidential.
This event wouldn’t be possible without some great collaborators!
Connecticut Innovations is Connecticut’s venture capital arm and the leading source of financing and ongoing support for innovative, growing companies.
The Angel Investor Forum (AIF) is a private network in Fairfield, CT, that hosts monthly pitch events where vetted startups present to potential investors. Joining AIF offers access to investment opportunities, educational resources, and a collaborative community of experienced professionals.

Intellectual Property Protection – Patents, Trade Secrets, and Trademarks
2026-09-15 17:00 - 19:00 | MA
Please join the Connecticut Entrepreneurs Forum for an interactive discussion with Marina Cunningham, a partner at McCormick, Paulding & Huber, and George Chaclas, a partner at Day Pitney, on best strategies for IP protection – ask the questions you always wanted to ask.
Topics covered will include:

How and when to obtain protection?
What protection is needed?
Best strategies for protection – Patents vs Trade Secrets?
Once I have a patent, can I practice it?
How to enforce a patent?

AIF Investor Meeting
2026-09-15 10:00 - 14:30, 2026-08-11 10:00 | Fairfield University Dolan School of Business, 1073 N Benson Rd, Fairfield, CT, 06824, United States

BioCT Annual Mixer + Special Edition Collaborative CT
2026-09-10 17:00 - 19:00 | New England Brewing Company – Branford, 5 Indian Neck Avenue, Branford, CT, 06405
​BioCT’s annual mixer is our most highly attended event of the year – drawing 450+ registrants, including industry colleagues, executives and state officials. Open to everyone in the life sciences, come enjoy an evening of networking, craft beer and good company.

Tsai CITY Demo Day
2026-09-10 16:00 - 18:00 | Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking, 17 prospect Street, New Haven, CT, 06511
Demo Day brings together more than 25 student-led ventures for an afternoon of pitches, poster presentations, and conversations spanning technology, health, the arts, consumer products, and beyond. The event offers a unique opportunity to see how students are turning ideas into ventures while tackling real-world challenges across industries.
​Attendees will have the chance to engage directly with founders, learn about emerging projects, and connect with a broader community of investors, mentors, alumni, and fellow students. Whether you’re interested in entrepreneurship, exploring potential collaborations, or simply looking to discover what students are building, Demo Day provides a front-row seat to the creativity and ambition driving Yale’s startup ecosystem.
​Join us to celebrate innovation, support student founders, and gain insight into the ideas shaping the future. A reception will follow the showcase.

Collaborative CT
2026-08-20 16:30 - 18:30 | 101 college street, 101 college street, New Haven, CT, 06510
Collaborative CT events bring together innovators and entrepreneurs from CEOs to students for purposeful collaboration and conversations.
Attendees come from diverse backgrounds—academia, industry, startups, venture capital, economic development, pharma, biotech, arts, and more—united by a shared belief that in order to further an individual organization’s mission we must strengthen connections and enhance collaboration.
All are welcome!

Building with AI: Stamford Micro-Hackathon (w/ The AI Collective)
2026-08-19 17:30 - 21:00 | MA
Come join us for a fast-paced, three-hour, in-person AI “vibe coding” hackathon in which multidisciplinary teams develop and present practical solutions to predefined problems affecting Connecticut.
​The event is designed to accommodate both beginners and experienced developers and builders. Success will depend not only on coding, but also on problem definition, market research, product design, storytelling, and effective use of AI tools.
​We’ll assign you to a team based on your superpowers. If you want to form your own team, just let us know.
​We need way more than coders. Whether you are good at product management, project management, market research, presentations, data analytics, or coding, we have a task for you.
​Please be advised: Unfortunately, space is very limited at these community events and we can not always accept everyone we would like to. If you are not accepted to this event, please keep applying! We appreciate your application tremendously and we are looking forward to seeing you at a future event very soon!
