Next Move Forum
An in-person gathering for mid-career professionals actively working through the earliest and most consequential questions of startup building.
New York City Inaugural Edition.
The Next Move Forum is a small-format, curated event designed for depth over scale. Attendance is intentionally limited to preserve the quality of conversation and ensure every person in the room has genuine stakes in the outcome. Participation is curated to bring together professionals who are actively building and prepared to engage in focused discussion. The kind of conversation that only happens when the room has been deliberately composed.
Who This Forum Is For
You have spent years inside an industry and have a specific point of view on what needs to change within it. You are actively building or seriously considering it. You are looking for a room full of people at the same stage, asking the same hard questions, willing to engage honestly.
What You Will Experience
The day moves through the questions that matter most at the start of the build. How to evaluate whether an idea is worth pursuing. How to structure a company from the ground up. How to think about financing without losing sight of what you are building. How to test the market before committing everything to it. How to move from conviction to an executable plan.
Each session is led by someone who has done it. The format prioritizes discussion over presentation. You leave with a clearer picture of where you stand and what comes next.
The Program
Indicative Agenda
Registration
Why Experienced Operators
FORMER
From Idea to Validation
Early-Stage Founder
Business Models and Funding 101
VC and CFO Perspective
Getting Investors to Yes
Series A Founder
Lunch and Networking
Building the Ecosystem Around You
FORMER
Creating Differentiation
Subject Matter Expert
Startup Showcase and Panel Feedback
Qualified Startup Founders
Closing
FORMER
Other Details
Format
In-Person
Location
New York City
Attendance
Curated. Limited to 40-100 participants.
Cadence
Quarterly
About FORMER
FORMER is a venture studio that co-builds with career professionals turned founders at the earliest stage of company formation. The Next Move Forum is built on the same conviction. That the most important conversations for this kind of founder happen peer to peer, in a room designed for the work.
The Forum operates as an independent event. Participation carries no obligation toward FORMER and no implication of future investment or studio engagement.
Attend the Forum
Register your interest in attending the Next Move Forum.
Details on date, location, and participation will be shared directly.
Register InterestSponsor the Forum
The Next Move Forum brings together a curated group of mid-career professionals at the earliest stage of building a company. Sponsorship offers focused access to a highly qualified founder cohort at the point of formation, before preferences are set and decisions are made.
Two sponsorship models are available depending on your goals and level of involvement.
Forum Partner
Single event or annual participation across four forums. Visibility during programming, networking, and curated touchpoints. Early access to founders as they evaluate platforms and partners.
Platform Partner
Annual partnership with integration into FORMER's venture-building cycles. Sustained presence with founders over time. Preferred partner positioning within FORMER-supported companies.
What are you doing tomorrow?
Stop thinking about it. The next move starts here.