A few mates in the pub...

What started as a few startup enthusiasts meeting for a beer every week, has grown into a community of founders, makers and idea chasers. Below is a rough timeline of our startup journey.

2016

Leeds Digital Festival inspires us to setup a friendly meetup that welcomes anyone involved or interested in digital in Leeds.

Community V1.0
• 1st event at a pub in Leeds
• 1st Founders event at Futurelabs
• First Startup Weekend in Leeds

2017

We switch from meeting in a pub once a week, to meeting once a month for our flagship Founders events. The number of attendees slowly begin to increase as we experiment with different styles of events.

Community V2.0
• 1-2-1 founder mentoring for Leeds Digital Festival
• We hit the road and take our event to Manchester
• Our 1st birthday at Futurelabs

2018

We change our core Founders venue to Platform, above the train station in Leeds. We start to explore other new venues, hosting a series of events at The University of Law, including a failure panel.

Community V3.0
• New venue for Founders at Platform
• Biggest crowd for Founders (70+ people)
• Our biggest startup quiz so far

2019

In 2019 we focussed on theming our events: Creativity, Sustainability, Funding and Connectivity. We also had Rich & Sonia join the team! Both bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience.

Community V4.0
• Creativity event at Wizu Workspace and Sustainability at Kirkstall Forge
• Helped launch the Big Leeds Climate Conversation
• Funding event at The Walk and Connectivity at Nexus

2020

Gary joins the team! We’re able to host a learning event with Hey! - before lockdown. We collaborate on a livestream with Consume, launch our Makers sessions and a range of initiatives that help support the community.

Community V5.0

• Launched Leeds Digital Makers
• Launched Freelancers of Leeds
• Launched Leeds Meetups

2021

We catch-up with old friends and make new ones at our summer party, run a no-code event for Leeds Digital Festival and hit a 20 session milestone for our Digital Makers sessions.

Community V6.0

• Summer party at the Tetley
• 'WTF is No Code' event at Duke Studios
• Hosted over 20 virtual Makers sessions to date