Before you join

Founders of startups at pre-seed and seed, just before launch or soon after it: small teams with first users, solo technical founders, non-technical founders and makers growing a side project.

Yes, please bring them. Each of you leaves your own email on the join page, and we introduce you both.

No. We are based in the Netherlands, but the community is online and open to founders anywhere. Calls run on Central European Time, so they also suit the UK, Africa and the Middle East, and evening calls fall at lunchtime on the US East Coast.

Yes, joining is free. You need a free Mantle Chat account, and nothing else.

Leave your email. Builders Club opens on 1 December, and that day you get an invite to Mantle Chat. When you open it, you answer a few short questions and pick the topics and events you like.

English.

Your answers tell us what you offer, what you need and what you're stuck on. First we introduce you to someone who needs what you do, or who has what you need. Next come founders with the same problem right now, then founders at your stage. Every introduction says in one line why you should meet.

Your first introduction comes in your first week. After that, one table of three or four, or one call one to one, each week. You can skip a week.

Yes, in the channels made for it. Post your project and its link in #share-your-project, your launch in #product-hunt-launches, and your LinkedIn, X or Instagram in #share-your-socials. On calls, show it when someone asks or at Demo night. The one thing we ask: no mass messages or DMs nobody asked for. See the house rules.

Yes. Share what you offer in the channels made for it, and founders who need it get introduced to you.

In a Mantle Chat workspace with channels for every need, and calls with AI notes in the same place. Mantle Chat works in the browser, and there is a desktop app.

Write to our AI host, an agent inside the community, in a private message: a question, an intro you're looking for, or anything you need. It replies right away and passes it on to Katja and Ilia when a person should help.

The introduction call is on Thursday 3 December at 18:30 Central European Time: we tell you about the community and get to know each other. After that come sessions with guest experts and the formats members vote for. You pick the formats you like, and we invite you to those, with calendar invites if you say yes. The calendar is on the events page.

No. Join the ones you like. A call goes ahead when at least two people sign up.

A monthly event from February: founders from different countries pitch for three minutes each and take questions from a guest jury. Everyone votes, and the winner is featured in our posts.

One-to-one calls aren't recorded and have no notes. In calls in a channel, our AI host takes notes, and they go to the event's thread in #online events, inside the community. Some calls may run on Google Meet or Zoom. We never publish recordings. This is how we're starting: we'll talk it through together and change it as we go.

Not yet. In-person evenings come later, together with partners who have a room.

We use them only to choose who you meet and which calls to suggest. Only the hosts and the AI host see them, so you can answer honestly. Other members see your own intro, if you write one, and a short line on why you should meet.

Write to team@mantle.chat and we delete them. For your Mantle Chat account, see the Mantle Chat privacy policy.

Katja Danilina and Ilia Barchugov, the co-founders of Mantle Chat, together with founders who co-host parts of it.

We're founders too, and other founders were the ones who helped us most. The community runs on Mantle Chat, our product, so we also get our name out and people who use what we build. We don't earn from the community itself.

Yes. Co-hosts take one part for three months, about an hour or two a week. See Run it with us.

Yes, see the page for partners. We agree the details with each partner personally.