Past events
Co-Founder Matching Night. 17 nov 2025
We teamed up with ETA Technologies for a special edition of Open Mic Night, bringing founders together for fast-paced 1-minute pitches, AI-powered psychometric matching, and high-energy networking. From technical geniuses to visionary founders, attendees discovered complementary co-founders and sparked real startup partnerships.
Held at 45 Curtain Road, Shoreditch, the night was full of creativity, rooftop vibes, and meaningful connections. Big thanks to our sponsors Sprinto and OVH Cloud, our safety partner Safespace Plus, and ETA Technologies for making this AI-powered matching experience possible.
The perfect shortcut to building your next big startup team.
Open Mic Pitching and Networking. 12 nov 2025
A high-energy open mic night brings founders together for fast pitches, real conversations, and spontaneous networking right after a major business event. Guests can expect rapid one-minute pitches, playful surprises, and a lively space where new ideas and new connections come to life.This Halloween-themed Open Mic Pitch Night blends startup pitching with spooky chaos, where founders are randomly “summoned” to pitch for one minute and face sharp feedback (and possibly water guns). Expect costumes, dark humour, and a networking night where startups meet the supernatural.
Open Mic Pitching & Networking - Halloween Special. 29 oct 2025
This Halloween-themed Open Mic Pitch Night blends startup pitching with spooky chaos, where founders are randomly “summoned” to pitch for one minute and face sharp feedback (and possibly water guns). Expect costumes, dark humour, and a networking night where startups meet the supernatural.
🇧🇪🇬🇧 Embassy Pitch Series: UK x Belgium. 7 oct 2025
🇧🇪🤝🇬🇧 UK–Belgium Startup Showcase
A curated gathering connecting 30 pre-seed and seed-stage founders from the UK and Belgium with investors. Each founder pitched their startup in just 60 seconds, a fast-paced format that revealed the most focused and investor-ready teams. The event highlighted cross-border innovation and meaningful founder–investor matches, hosted at the Embassy of Belgium in London by Rare Founders in collaboration with the Embassy.
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.
How to Influence Investors, Teams & Customers. 22 sep. 2025
We welcomed Faris Aranki, CEO of Shiageto Consulting, for an energising masterclass on influence, communication, and strategic success.
Attendees explored how to combine IQ, EQ, and FQ to work smarter, connect deeper, and lead with impact. From live frameworks to real-world stories, Faris gave founders and leaders practical tools to cut through the noise and achieve what really matters.
Big thanks to everyone who joined, shared insights, and made the room buzz with energy.
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
Navigating Fundraising Challenges. 11 dec 2024
What an amazing event at Google’s Startup Hub! Fintech founders tackled fundraising challenges with insights from expert panelists Johnnie Martin, Stella Buhalis, Daniel Rose, and James Fell, moderated by Kyle Masterson.
The evening delivered actionable tips, inspiring stories, and great networking over coffee and bites (thanks, Google Cloud!).
Missed it? Stay tuned for more Rare Founders events! 🚀✨
Startup Christmas Party. 10 dec 2025
The Startup Christmas Party on December 10th, hosted by Rare Founders, SeedLegals, and Hotbed, was an unforgettable celebration at Blue Marlin Ibiza London. It brought together the startup community for a night of festive fun, live DJ sets, and connections. Highlights included performances by Kate Moss via Djaayz, a Christmas Duck Hunt, and plenty of surprises. Sponsors like Djaayz, Scribe, and Sunrise Technology Services helped make the event a memorable experience, offering a relaxed vibe, networking, and festive cheer as everyone celebrated the year's achievements and looked forward to 2025! 🎉🎄
Female Founders Night. 18 NOV 2024
Female Founders Night celebrated female entrepreneurship at the Google Cloud Startup Hub, in partnership with SeedLegals. The evening featured inspiring panel discussions with Laura Tudor (Founder & CEO of Centred) and Lucy Anderson (Founder of Woowoo), who shared their journeys of building successful, female-led businesses.
Guests enjoyed networking, insightful talks, and refreshments from Google Cloud. The event kicked off a series of startup-focused gatherings by Rare Founders, aimed at supporting entrepreneurs with resources and connections for growth. 🌟
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.
Where to start with your MVP. 5 NOV 2024
Rare Founders hosted a dynamic panel discussion at the Google Cloud Startup Hub, focusing on building an MVP.
The event featured Cait Pilkington (Block Dojo) and Robert Lynch (Old.St Labs & CityMunch), who shared insights on starting with simple tools vs. investing in developers. Moderated by Vasily Alekseenko (Rare Founders), the session challenged conventional MVP strategies, emphasizing idea validation before development.
The evening ended with networking drinks, sponsored by Google Cloud, offering founders a chance to connect and exchange ideas. A valuable experience for early-stage startups!
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.
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
Tech roast. 29 MAY 2024
Well, Wednesday night was beyond epic! 🎉
What you missed:
the tech legend behind TechBible (Ghita El Haitmy – now I know it's pronounced like Rita) unleashed her alter ego as a comedian! She roasted herself to death, and it was truly funny! 😂
But what happened yesterday was much bigger than Ghita’s sense of humor! 🚀
On Wednesday, Rare Founders and TechBible gave birth to “Tech Roast,” where 10 pre-selected #B2B #SaaS businesses went on stage to demonstrate their tech in realtime to the audience of 130 people 😱😱😱. It was fresh, it was fun, and it was super memorable. 🎤
For me personally, there were many hashtag#founders I knew for a while, but I never understood their product until last night. We're going to do more of these events because it’s the best way to get user feedback, reactions, and win over new users (maybe even investors). 💡
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.💣