If It’s Free For You, Think Twice

Free is Just Another Funnel

Founders are constantly invited to free things—dinners, happy hours, events, accelerator workshops. It’s one of the perks of building in tech: people roll out the red carpet to get you in the room. But as with anything in this world, “free” doesn’t mean no one’s paying. It just means you’re not.

And that’s worth thinking about.

Free things make it easy for founders to say yes. That’s the point. Whether it’s a dinner or a panel event, the goal is to reduce friction and create access. From the organizer’s point of view, if they can get high-quality founders into a room, opportunities tend to follow—connections, business, investments, maybe even long-term partnerships. It’s a numbers game, and you are the upside.

Take venture capital firms. They’ll happily sponsor a happy hour, pick up the dinner tab, or throw a founder-focused event. That generosity often comes from their management fee—the 2% LPs give them to run the fund. The reason? Events help them meet founders earlier in their journey. It’s about building relationships that might one day lead to an investment.

That doesn’t mean VCs are purely transactional. Many genuinely care about the community. They want founders to meet each other, swap stories, and even start companies together—regardless of whether they invest or not. And they get value from building a strong brand within the ecosystem, which benefits everyone involved. But at the end of the day, these are LP-backed dollars, and they come with expectations. So the overarching incentive is still there: build a pipeline, source deals.

The same goes for service providers—law firms, banks, accounting firms, software vendors. They sponsor events because they want to meet early-stage companies that might become long-term clients. If even one founder in the room ends up needing their services, the event more than pays for itself.

There’s nothing shady about this. In fact, it’s often a win-win. You get access, support, and community; they get exposure to great founders. But it’s still important to understand the dynamic. The room isn’t just full of peers—it’s often curated based on who aligns with the sponsor’s goals. That’s why certain founders tend to get invited over and over again. If you fit the mold—venture-backable, fast-scaling, well-networked—you’ll have no shortage of free invites.

But if you don’t fit that mold, you might be left out. And that’s where awareness becomes important. Because when someone else is paying the bill, they usually shape the experience. They decide who gets in, what the vibe is, and what outcomes they want to drive. If you’re not conscious of that, you might find yourself in a room where the expectations don’t match your goals.

So this isn’t a warning against free things. Go to the dinners. Enjoy the perks. Take the meeting. Just do it with clarity. Understand that free is rarely neutral—it’s a strategic choice. And ask yourself: Who’s paying for this? Why are they paying? And what funnel am I stepping into?

Because if it’s free for you, someone else is investing in the hope that you turn into something valuable.

You’re not being exploited. But you are being evaluated.

So walk in with eyes open. Know the game, so you can play it on your terms.