June 24th, 2026 - Odonien, Cologne, Germany

ONE NIGHT OF MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS.

For founders. Investors. Creators. Connectors. A night to reconnect, recharge and rediscover. In the spirit of PIRATE Summit.

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Starting at only €50. All drinks included.

This year's theme → · Meet the first speakers → · Side events →

WHY WE'RE GETTING BACK TOGETHER

The best part of PIRATE Summit wasn't the talks or the fires - it was that one late-night conversation that changed everything.

That feeling? That spark? It's still with us. And it's time to ignite it again.

PIRATE Night is a chance to reconnect. Old friends. New faces. That unmistakable energy we all shared.

It's not a re-creation of the Summit. It's something different. Smaller. Simpler. Stripped to the essence. But just as meaningful.

This Year We Sail #OnYourTerms

"Sovereignty is not a state you achieve. It is a direction you keep facing."

You know the moment. A platform changes its terms. A payment processor freezes your account. The direction you thought was yours - isn't.

So this year we gather around one question: sovereignty. Not as a political idea - as a practical one. For founders, for European builders, for anyone who's felt the ground shift under their feet.

That's the theme for the night. It runs through the campfires, the conversations, and the first people we've asked to start them.

Read the full essay →

First Voices Around the Fire

Here are the first people bringing a campfire to PIRATE Night. More to come. None of these are talks you watch from the back row - they're sessions you sit inside.

Tim Schumacher

Co-founder & General Partner

World Fund

Burn the Cap Table

Founders and investors, around the fire. I'll pass around twelve cards. Each one names a clause that never makes it onto a term sheet but that everyone lives with anyway. The pace mandate. The narrative lock-in. The drag-along drag. The one nobody names.

For each card, the circle votes: did you choose this on purpose, or find out too late? The ones nobody defends go into the actual fire.

The term sheet is the sharpest moment between a founder and an investor, and almost nobody talks about it honestly with investors in the room. I've sat on both sides. I'll own up to how our terms as GPs create the dependencies we then turn around and criticise.

We close by writing a Founder's Pact together: three things every founder should put on the table before signing. I'll publish it afterwards, in the name of the PIRATE Night community.

Björn Kutzner

CTO

Rausgegangen GmbH

Unlocking Velocity: Optimizing Existing Codebases for AI-Powered Development

Vibe-coding a brand new product with AI is easy. Running a production system that serves hundreds of thousands of people every week, and still moving at AI speed, is the hard part. How do you do that safely, ship faster, and actually lift code quality while keeping things future-proof?

Most AI demos right now are about prototypes: a new app built in a few hours. That's not the problem most of us face inside a running business. Plenty of CTOs and dev teams are quietly building the internal tools and processes to solve it. Nobody talks about it nearly enough.

What I want to dig into: - how to keep code quality high - how to handle the review and QA bottleneck that shows up - how code, context and skills should be structured for fast development - what actually works for AI code reviews and QA

André Daus

Strategic Opposition Consultant

André Daus | Strategic Opposition

Arrr. That's Not Your Tool. It's Your Captain.

Every founder calls their critical dependencies tools. Most are right. Some aren't.

This campfire is a 30-minute challenge to the dependencies sitting inside your strategy unquestioned. The method comes from Strategic Opposition: a way to surface the assumptions your own thinking keeps reinforcing instead of correcting.

Each of us names our most critical dependency. An investor relationship. A platform bet. A co-founder dynamic. A key hire. A tech stack. Then one question: did you choose this, or did it become the path of least resistance while you were looking somewhere else?

Which of your dependencies would survive a real challenge? Which ones have you stopped examining because examining them feels disloyal, or threatening? What changes if one of them turns out to be a constraint you built yourself?

You won't leave with a plan. You'll leave knowing the question you've been avoiding.

Anna Weber

Project Manager

Purpose Foundation

Steering Your Ship: Steward Ownership for Sovereignty

As pirates chasing freedom, we have to ask: who's steering the ship? And who owns it?

You can't talk about sovereignty without talking about ownership. Who owns a company, and how, shapes how and why it operates. That has never mattered more than now, with AI and tech infrastructure in the picture. If we're serious about European and German digital sovereignty, we have to talk about ownership structures that keep companies purpose-driven and independent for the long run, so control can't simply be sold to the highest bidder, whether that's big tech or the hedge funds behind it.

So how do we build and back companies that shift from extracting wealth to stewarding it?

Join this campfire on the DNA of a business and the role steward ownership can play in protecting it. Let's think together about how to avoid hostile takeovers, how to unbundle money and power, and why ownership matters. A future where we sail on our own terms, for as long as the wind carries us.

Got a campfire in you? Shape the Night →

What the Evening Will Feel Like

We're still shaping the evening, but here's what we're planning so far:

Matchmaking between investors and founders
Inspiring campfires to exchange ideas, learn and get inspired
An open bar (cheers to that!)
Fires to watch and gather around
A treasure chest of surprises and fun activities
The legendary PIRATE party (miss it at your peril)

All in classic PIRATE style - raw and real. No fluff, no flash. An evening full of connections and memories.

Get your ticket

Starting at only €50. All drinks included.

The Night Belongs to You

This year we want to take the platform idea further. The notion that this night isn't just ours - it belongs to whoever shows up and makes it theirs.

Last year the VC Think Tank used the space for a unique afternoon (barcamp style) for investors. It worked beautifully. This year three communities have already confirmed they're in. They'll get their own space, kick off a little earlier, and stay the whole evening. We'll announce more soon.

Want to bring your community? Let's talk. Things are still taking shape and there's room for more.

All community events are free of charge. You just need a valid Pirate Night ticket to join.

Symbiosis: Angels × VCs

The best outlier companies are built when Angels and VCs operate in alignment. This private Think Tank brings together selected Angels, VCs and operators to discuss how stronger alignment can create better founders, stronger companies and better investment outcomes.

For: VC Partners & Associates, Family Offices, high-growth Angel Investors

Format: Workshop (Limited capacity)

Apply to join

Impact Ahoy!

We started building to create something that matters, but giving back isn't always straightforward. Join this cozy, interactive workshop to explore the "how" of doing good. We'll pool money for high-impact causes, play an impact guessing game, and discuss finding our personal "enough". No clichés - just good people, data, logic, and heart.

For: Intentional Founders, Investors, Students

Format: Interactive Workshop

Vibe On Your Terms

Join the 10-year celebration of the Pirate Skills community. Dive into growth marketing, vibe coding, and the skills that give you true agency. Expect an honest conversation, sharp talks, and the stories that built us on the PIRATE Night stage in Cologne.

For: Builders & Growth Marketers

Format: Talks & Conversations