About

Venture Café is a program of the Venture Café Foundation (VCF), the not-for-profit, public-purpose sister organization of the Cambridge Innovation Center. VCF is incorporated as a Massachusetts Not-for-Profit Corporation under the leadership of Tim Rowe and Carlos Martinez-Vela (Executive Director).

Community

The Venture Café was created to provide a resource for the Boston entrepreneurial and innovation communities. Our mission is to enable fresh and useful conversations.

Cambridge is a fountain of innovative spirit, spirit that needs a framework to reach its full potential. The Venture Café serves as a nexus for helping innovators and entrepreneurs find one another and collaborate to bring their dreams to reality.

Even in this digital world, it’s important to have a physical space. Shared physical spaces provide common meeting ground and a forum for semi-serendipitous encounters that often foster brainstorming and drive creativity. Meeting in person establishes the trust that’s so crucial to working together, particularly on risky, underfunded projects. The Venture Café can provide the framework upon which numerous experimental “applications” can be nurtured and launched.

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Learn more about our new contributor model, and review the application criteria here.

Guests: Open to all members of the innovation community for up to three visits.
Affiliates: Visiting privileges will be extended to members of select innovation-focused partner organizations while they remain in good standing with their respective organization (Boston World Partnerships (connectors), C3, CIC, CommonAngels, Critical Mass, Dogpatch Labs, Greentown Labs, Mass Challenge (finalists and mentors), TechStars etc). Affiliate codes are available at the sign-in kiosk.
Contributors: After three visits, individuals must be approved as Contributors in order to attend the Café. Note: Applicants must also provide up to three references (these may be Venture Café Volunteers or well-known members of the innovation community).

Location

The Venture Café is currently an event held every Thursday. When the Café is in session, we’re located on the 4th floor of the Cambridge Innovation Center in Kendall Square.

Currently, the Venture Café is open every Thursday and for special events. Please see our calendar for opening times. Entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, developers, designers and other members of the Boston startup community drop in to chat about what they’re working on.

Venture Café from its very beginnings has welcomed participants without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, military service, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, or disability. Venture Café reserves the right to refuse admission at our discretion.