Past events
Open Mic Pitching & Networking (Manchester). 24 September 2025
This week we took the Rare Founders magic up North for a special edition of our legendary Open Mic Pitch Night, teaming up with the brilliant crew at Silicon Mingle Manchester.
It was everything we hoped for and more 1-minute unscripted pitches (with the water guns in full effect 💦), buzzing networking, and conversations that sparked real opportunities. Every 20–30 minutes, founders raising funds were randomly selected to take the mic, keeping the room alive with energy and ideas.
In between rounds? Unfiltered networking, clinking glasses, and genuine connections the kind that make our community so special.
Huge thanks to everyone who came through, pitched, supported, and shared the vibe with us. This definitely won’t be our last trip up North.
Open Mic Pitching and Networking. 10 june 2025
Rare Founders hosted a lively open mic pitching and networking night, where founders shared one-minute pitches across three rounds. The evening also offered plenty of opportunities for guests to connect and build relationships in a vibrant setting at Blue Marlin Ibiza London.
Open Mic Pitching and Networking - Defence Special . 18 aug. 2025
Rare Founders brought back its legendary open mic pitching and networking night, this time with a focus on defence. The evening featured a fireside chat with Logan Torrence and Dan Bowyer, followed by rounds of rapid-fire pitches from defence startups and buzzing networking at Blue Marlin Ibiza London, supported by Safespace Plus.
Open Mic Pitching and Networking. 18 MAR 2025
Rare Founders hosted a lively open mic pitching and networking night, where founders shared one-minute pitches across three rounds. The evening also offered plenty of opportunities for guests to connect and build relationships in a vibrant setting at Blue Marlin Ibiza London.
Open Mic Pitching and Networking - AI Special . 22 july 2025
Rare Founders hosted a high-energy open mic pitching and networking night with an AI spotlight. The evening featured a fireside chat with Chen Wang (Fifth Dimension AI) and Nicolas Klein (Singulate), followed by rapid-fire AI founder pitches and buzzing networking. With Safespace Plus as Safety Partner and BAM Karaoke Box London as the venue, the event blended big ideas, community, and plenty of startup energy.
London’s largest demo day S2E1. 25 APR 2025
Rare Founders’ London’s Largest Demo Day is back for its second season for 2025 and it’s broke new records with 30+ founders ended up raising investments as a result
The Rare Factor. 9 dec 2024
The Rare Factor transformed the Google Cloud Startup Hub into a stage for innovation and entertainment. Eight B2B and B2C SaaS startups delivered live demos, competing to impress a star-studded panel of judges, including tech influencer Ghita El Haitmy, investor Dr. Chris Howard, and Ken Thomas from BackFuture VC.
Hosted by comedian Craig Brown, the event mixed sharp insights with laughs, iconic X-Factor buzzers, and networking fueled by Google Cloud. A true celebration of creativity, connection, and remarkable ideas! 🌟
Founder Pitch Relay. 11 NOV 2024
Rare Founders and Hotbed hosted the second Pitch Relay event, offering fundraising founders at the pre-seed and seed stages a unique opportunity to see how their startup pitch evolves through different perspectives. This innovative event allowed founders to understand how others pitch their startups, identify key points that might be missed, and refine their pitches for maximum impact. Held at the newly opened Google Cloud Startup Hub, the event provided valuable networking opportunities and educational resources for founders in the startup ecosystem.
Open mic pitching and networking. 28 oct 2024
Rare Founders hosted its iconic open mic pitching and networking event at the Google Cloud Startup Hub. Founders pitched their ideas in 1-minute sessions, followed by vibrant networking over drinks and nibbles provided by Google Cloud. The event brought together startups, investors, and innovators in a space designed to empower businesses to scale and succeed in the digital age.
Co-founder matching. 22 Oct 2024
Rare Founders and SeedLegals teamed up to transform the co-founder search with an innovative, in-person matching event inspired by Y Combinator’s tool. Held at Google Cloud’s new Startup Hub, the night was a vibrant mix of networking, collaboration, and inspiration, creating opportunities to spark partnerships and shape the future of entrepreneurship.
London’s largest demo day S1E2. 14 Oct 2024
Rare Founders’ London’s Largest Demo Day is back for its second episode for 2024 and it’s broke new records with 30+ founders ended up raising investments as a result
The Dublin Startup Scene. 23 apr 2024
It's Friday and what a week it's been for Rare Founders! From the London Demo Day to the 2nd open-mic pitching event in Dublin, the energy has been electric ⚡
First off, I gotta give it to Vasily and Seven for putting together the London's Largest Demo Day this Monday! - HUUUUGE respect! Got to meet a ton of amazing founders and investors, and get blown away by the quality of the event.
Then, with a quick flying back to Dublin, the 2nd official Dublin Startup Scene open-mic pitching and networking startup event was on for Tuesday! Hosting it for the second time was once again a wonderful experience :)
The attendance was at a new high and we got to see a ton of new faces 🎉🎉🎉
A big thanks goes to the volunteering team for making it possible. Vlada, Klara, Quinn, Joseph, Ronald - the best team in the business! 😝
Another HUGE thanks goes to Moira - one of the highlights of the night. Her live interview and Q&A? FANTASTIC! It was very fulfilling to see founders taking notes and taking in the knowledge bombs.💣
London’s largest demo day S1E1. 22 Apr 2024
Experience the thrill of London's first-ever demo day of this scale where startups, founders, and investors collided in an unforgettable showcase of innovation and opportunity! With over 800 participants, including 200 top investors and 100 of the finest founders pitching, this event was nothing short of EPIC. 🤯
✨ Highlights Include:
🏃♀️ A founder chased down by an eager investor post-pitch.
📈 8 investor conversations sparked from a single pitch – a new record!
🤝 Massive networking success with nearly 800 attendees and 200 more on the waitlist.
🤗 Unmatched community support with 4 sponsors, 40 investor partners, and 25 community allies.
Missed out? Don't let the next one slip by! 🎉 Join the most dynamic gathering of the startup ecosystem in London and be where the magic happens. Be seen, be heard, be funded.
The Dublin Startup Scene. 6 Mar 2024
Rare Founders is officially international now 😎
Last night we launched our events in Dublin.
It was an emotional night for me, like seeing your baby take their first steps.
For the first time, I didn’t have to run around and stress about everything.
Rare Founders Dublin chapter is in the capable hands of Samuel Klacman (aka Dublin Legend) and his amazing volunteers (all Google employees, so we can say Google is our partner in volunteer support 😜).
I was there to support Sam, but he didn’t need any support as he managed everything perfectly, maybe even better than me😎 … maybe😜
An investor challenged me last year, saying I couldn't replicate London's atmosphere elsewhere as it's uniquely tied to my personality. I can now say he was wrong🤭.
Watching Sam last night, I felt proud of him and what I've created, seeing it can exist without me.
Being the center of attention in London, stepping back here was my personal challenge, and I'm glad I overcame it.
Dublin is just our first step in expansion. Soon, our open mic pitching and networking event for founders and investors will take place in other cities and countries.
The London Startup Scene. 28 Feb 2024
This week has been a lot, but it has also been fun!
Next Wednesday I will have hosted 4 events in 7 days😱. My record so far. But now back to what happened on Wednesday!
You know what happened? Yes, Rare Founders open mic pitching and networking event for founders and investors.
Sadly from 30 investors registered just a couple showed up ☹ But 200+ founders for sure got tons of value from the event anyway!
I see an interesting trend, each time we get more and more advanced startups with some mind-blowing businesses. (Top 2 for me: new type of industrial battery that can store energy for much longer than anything else available out there, AI powered tool that can read the online sentiment on businesses and evaluate the potential of it being a cyber attack by bots to damage reputation).
The highlight of the event was Saranjit Sangar, the CEO of Betterspace. Who shared her journey as a female startup leader on what it takes to build a startup in the current environment.
A few learnings:
1. founders need to be driven by passion, as if they are driven by money, they will be disappointed (at least in the short term).
2. Fundraising never stops and specifically in the UK it is relationship driven.
3. Networking and relationship building are key for startup success. It takes time, huge effort, should not be transactional, but it eventually pays off.
This time we also had some surprises for founders:
Julia O'Toole, co-founder of MyCena Security Solutions and Nkeiruka Whenu, Founder of Web3sy won free tickets to C3 Dev Festival in Amsterdam on 14-15 June. Polina Bertosh, thank you a lot for this amazing prize!
3 founders (Nkeiruka Whenu, Rupert Holms, Mike Adams) will enter a draw to pitch at London’s largest demo day and investor & founder conference on 22 April 2024. In the coming days, I will be posting their pitch video from the event. The post that gets the most engagement will be shortlisted to pitch at the event. Pretty simple.
That’s all for now. Open mic pitching event will be back soon❤️
Huge thank you to Raushan Irgaliyeva Nikita Pevnev and Luca Spiller for helping out at the event and to Michael Nugent for welcoming us again to Dockside Vaults ❤️
The London Startup Scene. 29 Jan 2024
The more you have, the more you fear losing it.
Monday, RareFounders - The London Startup Scene hosted its first open mic hashtag#pitching and hashtag#networking event of the year.
Since launching nearly a year ago, I've hosted over 10 events, each drawing an average of 250 attendees. But nothing is guaranteed, and I've come to realize the seasonality involved.
January was our first attempt at a post-New Year event, and Dry January's impact on attendance was a concern, as many opt out of alcohol-involved gatherings.
Founders pitching brunch. 28 Oct 2023
RareFounders’ Brunch: Where Founders Fine-Tune Pitches Over Fine Food 🍳🎤
In the whirlwind of October's four back-to-back events, RareFounders - The London Startup Scene hit a sweet note with our first-ever founders-only open mic networking brunch. It was a cozy and vibrant affair, attended by 37 entrepreneurial spirits, united by a passion for innovation and a penchant for great food. 🍽️
The London Startup Scene. 25 Oct 2023
RareFounders Embraces the Spooky Season with a Spectacular Startup Bash! 🎃👻
Despite a last-minute venue cancellation and the emergence of copycat events, RareFounders - The London Startup Scene triumphed once again, hosting a spooktacular networking and pitching event that embraced the Halloween spirit. 🎉 It was a night where founders and investors proved that serious business can be seriously fun!
The Dublin startup scene. 17 Oct 2023
RareFounders' International Leap: Dublin's First Startup Scene a Hit! 🌍🍀
This month, RareFounders - The London Startup Scene celebrates a thrilling milestone with four standout events, including our very first foray into Ireland's vibrant tech scene with Dublin Startup Scene at SaaStock! 🇬🇧✈️🇮🇪
The London Startup Scene. 05 Oct 2023
RareFounders' Seventh Edition: A Spectacular Melting Pot of Global Innovation 🌍🚀
Navigating the bustling world of startup events without a social media manager means my updates are fashionably late, but always worth the wait. Last Thursday, we celebrated the 7th edition of RareFounders - The London Startup Scene, and what a fiesta of entrepreneurship it was! 🎉