Entrepreneurs' Lunch Club — Victoria, BC

Members only · By approval

Lunch with Victoria's founders. Once a month. That's it.

Someone sent you this link because they think you belong at the table.

Request a Seat
A packed restaurant with exposed brick, every table full of founders mid-conversation
The long table, doing its job.
  • NO SMALL TALK ALLOWED
  • 200+ FOUNDERS
  • ONCE A MONTH
  • WINS & ASKS
  • PART AND PARCEL
  • PERRO NEGRO TAPERIA
  • J & J WONTON NOODLE HOUSE
  • VICTORIA, BC
  • SEE YOU AT LUNCH
200+founders
1lunch a month
15 minmonthly small-talk allowance
0sales pitches

Founders —

Running a company is lonely in a way that's hard to explain to anyone who hasn't done it. You can have a full team and a supportive spouse and still have nobody to tell the truth to. The payroll scare. The acquisition offer you can't mention at dinner.

Victoria is full of people who get it. For years I kept meeting them one at a time, and every time I thought the same thing: why don't these people know each other? The room I wanted to sit in didn't exist, so I booked a long table and started filling it.

The format hasn't changed. Once a month, we have lunch. Everyone shares one thing going well and one thing they need help with. Then we talk for ninety minutes about the stuff you can't say anywhere else, with prompts on the table and a standing ban on small talk.

That's the whole club: one long table a month, filled with 200+ founders who know exactly what your week was like.

If you want a seat, ask for one.

Andrew Wilkinson

Founder — ELC

How a Lunch
Works

Every lunch runs on the same clock. Doors at noon, done by two.

  1. 12:00

    Doors

    Find your seat, say your hellos. This is the only fifteen minutes of chit-chat you'll get.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

A member raising a glass of water mid-toast at a crowded lunch table
This is what a win sounds like.
A platter of sliced steak and olives on a lunch table
Wonton soup and a cap table.
A founder laughing over a cup of coffee
Minute fourteen of the sanctioned small talk.
Members deep in conversation down a long table at Perro Negro
Someone is explaining churn.
A high five going up over the table while a member laughs
An ask, mid-air.
Two members smiling with an arm around each other's shoulders
Nobody here is networking.
Black and white photo of the whole table cracking up at once
The prompt card worked.
A new member in a white polo, grinning
A new member, two sentences in.
Two members walking down a brick lane in Victoria
Sauna day. The rule still applied.
Two members in black t-shirts cracking up at the table
Members talking along a banquette against a brick wall
The room applauding a member's win
Applause at another lunch venue

Beyond the
Table

Lunch is the anchor, and some months the club adds to it. Mark Bowden ran a workshop on body language for entrepreneurs. There are dinners. One month, lunch was an outdoor sauna village instead. Events are free for members; the paid workshops are open to every tier.

The Menu

Four tiers, priced like a prix fixe. Pick the one that describes you. Nobody at lunch will ask which one you chose.

Profitable Member$199/mo or $1,799/yr

Your business makes over $100K a year in profit. Monthly lunch, free events, access to the paid workshops.

Startup Member$5/mo

Not profitable yet. Everything the profitable members get, for the price of a latte.

Out of Town Member$199/yr

You don't live in Victoria but drop in for the occasional lunch. One or two a year, plus free events whenever you're in town.

Patron Member$399/mo or $3,999/yr

For founders who want to pay it forward and contribute more than everyone else. Thank you in advance.

All prices CAD. Every membership requires approval.

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 Startup tier is for. The table doesn't rank by revenue.

Can I pitch my services?

No. 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 request a seat?

A human reads it. If the room fits, you get an invite to the next lunch.

Request
a Seat

Two sentences about you and what you're building. That's the application.

Your first lunch is the interview, and the only way to fail it is small talk.

Request a Seat on Luma