Lunch with Victoria's founders. Once a month. That's it.
Someone sent you this link because they think you belong at the table. Read this website to see if you agree, and if you do, then click apply.
The application takes about two minutes.
- NO SMALL TALK ALLOWED
- 200+ FOUNDERS
- ONCE A MONTH
- OCCASIONAL SPEAKERS
- MASTERMINDS
- RANDOM SAUNA HANGOUTS
- VICTORIA, BC
Dear Founders,
Running a company is lonely.
It's hard to explain why to anyone who hasn't done it.
You can have an incredible team and a supportive spouse and still have nobody to talk about your problems with.
The payroll scare. The acquisition offer you're hiding from the team. The employee who is showing up to work drunk.
Victoria is a city of ships passing in the night. Hundreds of amazing entrepreneurs, each thinking “there’s nobody here,” walking by each other at the coffee shop without realizing it.
For years I kept meeting them one at a time, and I always wondered, “how do these people not know each other?”
The room I wanted to sit in didn't exist, so seven years ago, I booked out a restaurant and started filling it with incredible local entrepreneurs to connect everyone and talk about our problems.
The format has mostly stayed the same.
Once a month, we have lunch.
We intro the new people and share some wins.
Then, we break into small groups and talk about what's really going on inside our businesses (and lives), with prompts on the table to avoid small talk.
That's it: one shared 2-hour meal once a month, drawn from 200+ founders who know exactly what your week was like, plus quarterly events and occasional meetups.
If you want a seat, we'd love to learn more about you :-)
Andrew Wilkinson
Founder, ELC · Co-founder, Tiny
Only takes two minutes.
How a Lunch
Works
Every lunch runs on the same clock — usually the second Friday of the month. Doors at noon, done by two.
-
12:00
Doors
Find your seat, say your hellos. This is the only fifteen minutes of chit-chat you'll get.
-
12:15
Intros, Wins & Asks
Andrew introduces new members. Then around the table: one thing going well, one thing you need help with. Two sentences, from your seat.
-
12:30–2:00
Lunch
Conversation prompts on the table. No small talk allowed. It sounds like a gimmick until you're forty-five minutes into a conversation you'd never have at a mixer.
Lunches move around the city: Part and Parcel, Perro Negro Taperia, J & J Wonton Noodle House.
Each lunch seats around fifty, first-come. The meal's included — membership covers your seat and your plate.
Seven years of lunches.
All photography by Adam Gilmer ↗
Beyond the
Table
Lunch is the anchor. Some months the club adds to it: Mark Bowden — ranked the world's #1 body-language professional — ran a members-only workshop. There are dinners. One month, lunch was an outdoor sauna village instead. Events are free for members. Workshops are ticketed, and every tier can buy a seat.
FAQ
“I hate networking events.”
Same. That's why ELC exists. It's a seated lunch with founders on either side of you. Nobody works the room.
Do I have to speak?
Two sentences, from your seat. That's the whole obligation. Some of the best members are the quiet ones.
My company is small — am I qualified?
That's what the Day One tier is for. The table doesn't rank by revenue.
Can I pitch my services?
No selling, but you can certainly talk about what you do. Members hire and invest in each other constantly — because they know each other. The moment someone works the table, lunch stops working.
What happens after I apply?
Someone from our team reads it, usually within a few days, and will let you know the next steps. The only real screen: you're actually building something. Stage doesn't matter; the $20 tier exists for a reason. If you fit, your first lunch is on us — come see the room before you pick a tier. If it doesn't fit, we'll tell you straight instead of ghosting you. Membership is monthly; cancel whenever.
Apply for
a Seat
Tell us what you're building.
ELC — Application for a SeatVictoria, BC · Est. 2019
Got it.
Andrew reads every application — you'll hear back within a few days, either way.
P.S. Tell the person who sent you this. They'll want to know.