Bengaluru Founders Turn to Game Nights, Runs and Walks for Networking
Treasure hunts, park runs, game nights and conversations over chai are reshaping how Bangalore’s startup founders meet one another. Smaller, founder-only gatherings are drawing entrepreneurs away from workshops and conferences, creating room for ideas, relationships and shared experiences to develop in more relaxed settings. AI Collective Bangalore hosts events every week or every two weeks, combining AI discussions over chai, women-in-AI sessions and treasure hunts. Community builder Samridhi Jain says these formats give participants a clearer sense of each other’s working styles while making interactions more personal. The group is also considering pizza-making and crochet workshops with an AI element. At Minimi’s villa-office in Indiranagar, co-founder Ojasvika Sahu curates gatherings through questions about what attendees are building. The AI personal memory company’s events are designed as non-transactional spaces and have included evenings for Claude power users, game and movie nights, and “mangomaxxing,” centred on mango dishes. Srikanth Prabhu’s Agara Walks welcomes founders for Saturday morning walks around Agara Lake. The early start helps draw committed participants, while platforms such as Luma have made informal events easier to find in founder-heavy areas including Agara and HSR Layout. Participants have found mentors, hires, co-founders, business opportunities, references and, in some cases, seed funding.
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