A · Ambitious employee
Thinking about it
You work full-time, you have ideas or ambitions, and you want to see how others made the first move.
The Circle Basel
The Circle Basel
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A monthly dinner series in Basel · Hosted by Velvert
Keep your job.Build your business.
The concept
One niche. A new chapter every month.
The Circle Basel is about one thing: building a business while you work. Each edition takes the next step of that journey: getting started, choosing your niche, pricing for profit, and more to come. Come to one dinner or follow the whole season.
Small
An intimate table, never more than eight guests, so every voice is heard.
Monthly
First Thursday of the month, 18:30–20:30.
Basel
A carefully chosen venue in the city, shared with confirmed guests.
Free
No fee to join. Everyone pays their own food and drinks.
SeminarLectureSales pitchCard swappingOpen discussion, practical examples, shared experience.
The editions
Season one: from idea to profit.
Each edition takes the next step of the journey, and each dinner stands on its own, so you can join at any time. Select an edition to see the full programme. The next themes will be announced over the coming months.
No past editions yet. The first recap appears here after 5 November.
Who it's for
Three starting points, one table.
Every dinner mixes profiles on purpose. The person thinking about starting learns from the founder, and the founder hears how it looks from inside a company.
B · Side hustler
Building it
You hold a job and run a business on the side, and you know how short the evenings are.
C · Entrepreneur
Been there
You run your own company or practice and want to share what worked, what failed, and what you'd do differently.
An intimate, invitation-only dinner rooted in Basel's Black professional and entrepreneurial community, across the Swiss, French and German border region. Anyone who shares the spirit of the table is welcome to apply.
How it works
From request to the table.
- 1
Request
Tell us who you are, where you stand and what you'd like to discuss. Two minutes.
- 2
Review
We put together a table with complementary experiences for each theme.
- 3
Confirmation
Confirmed guests receive the venue and practical details.
- 4
Dinner
Two hours of guided, open conversation around the month's topic.
- 5
Follow-up
Key takeaways, introductions where wanted, and the next theme.
Your host
“I built a business while keeping a full-time job. The best advice I got came over dinner, not from a stage.”
Evrard is an engineer and entrepreneur working in the Basel region. A former Engineering Manager at Amazon, he founded Velvert, an events venue in Alsace, while continuing his career in industry.
He started The Circle Basel to create the table he was looking for: people who speak openly about ambition, setbacks, prices and margins, and keep helping each other after the evening ends. He hosts every edition in English, with French and German welcome.
Request an invitation
Take a seat at the table.
Choose an edition or simply join the circle for future dinners. Your request opens in your email app, ready to send.
Prefer to write directly? info@velvert.com or message Evrard on LinkedIn.
Almost there
Your email is ready.
Your email app should open with the request filled in. Just press send. If nothing opened, copy the text below and send it to info@velvert.com.