We love to spotlight the startups that dine with us. Today it’s TableCrowd regular Will Swannell and Hire Space. Will is co-founder of Hire Space and is after dinner speaker at our “Tales from the Trenches” dinner on finding the right tech talent for your team.

What’s the elevator pitch for your startup?

Hire Space makes venue finding easy. We work with over 1,000 of the coolest, new venues in London, from Westminster Abbey to secret rooms at the back of trendy coffee shops. We show transparent pricing for our venues and make the enquiry process quick and simple. Did I mention that we’re free?

What were you doing before you launched your startup?

I was a teacher at an academy in North West London.

Where did you meet your co-founder?

I met him at the pub on Richmond Green in 2002, potentially out celebrating the completion of AS Levels with a group of mutual friends.

What’s your biggest ‘hindsight’ moment?

When we realised that we had to cut the contract with our first developers, and that we should have done it six months previously.

What will 2014 bring?

More cities and 1,000’s of exciting new venues.

1 piece of advice for someone starting a business in the sector?

Take a month to learn some high level coding basics. It will make it easier to make good decisions and hire good people.

Convince someone to use your product/service in under 50 words.

Finding a venue used to involve hours of calling round dozens of venues and a gaping lack of price transparency. Hire Space makes finding somewhere easy.

What’s your favourite startup in the sector (not including your own)?

I think ticketing for events is the area which has made the most progress over the last few years so I’m going to have to say Eventbrite, even if they aren’t really a start-up anymore.

What’s your favourite London restaurant?

40 Maltby Street. The poached egg is a work of art.

We’re really looking forward to hearing Will take the floor at tonight’s dinner together with Hire Space’s CTO Dean Hume. There’s just 2 places not yet booked, so it’s not too late to get involved.

To view all our upcoming tables, click here.