
You've got a strong deck, a clear ask, and a solid business. Yet your cold emails vanish into silence and your LinkedIn messages go unanswered. Sound familiar? The average angel investor reply rate hovers around 1% — but the problem almost never lies with the market. It lies with how you're showing up.
James Church — award-winning fundraising consultant, Amazon best-selling author of Investable Entrepreneur: How to convince investors your business is the one to back, and the strategist whose methodology has helped founders collectively raise over £200m — is taking the stage to fix that.
James will walk you through a repeatable, highly personalised outreach system that requires no deep research yet builds genuine human connection instantly. Founders who apply his approach regularly see:
You'll walk away with a practical system ready to deploy the very next morning.
🏆 Winner of Business Advisor of the Year at the Growing Business Awards | Featured in Entrepreneur Magazine & Forbes | Regular speaker at international conferences and accelerators
Then the mic opens up. One minute. One mic. A room full of people who could change everything.
Every 20–30 minutes, 5–6 founders are randomly selected to take the floor and sell their vision in 60 seconds. Whether you're actively fundraising, about to start, or just want to sharpen your story — this is your arena. Open to everyone in the ecosystem: builders, investors, and those here purely for the energy.
⏱️ Go over time? 💦 Meet the water guns.
| Segment | Activity |
|---|---|
| Arrival | Networking |
| Round 1 | Welcome + James Church's Session |
| Break | Networking |
| Round 2 | Open Mic Pitching (Round 1) |
| Break | Networking |
| Round 3 | Open Mic Pitching (Round 2) |
| Close | Final Networking |
Come for the insights. Stay for the connections. 🔥
Meet Sophy — your intelligent networking companion built for founders, investors, and operators. See who's in the room, add notes to contacts, set follow-ups, and search your entire network so no connection ever slips through.
👉 Join the Sophy waitlist — Never Lose a Contact Again
Hosted at 45 London — a vibrant creative workspace and event venue nestled in the heart of Shoreditch. Designed for innovators, founders, and creators, it blends stylish design with flexible spaces purpose-built for networking, workshops, and startup events. Find it at 45 Curtain Road.
Carta — The equity management platform trusted by 50,000+ companies and 1M+ employees globally, from incorporation to exit. Carta manages ownership, share plans, fundraising, valuations, and compliance at every stage. From 2026, Carta Launch is free for early-stage founders: set up your cap table in minutes, issue equity, and build the ownership infrastructure you'll scale with.
Safespace Plus — Our Safety Partner, helping foster a safe and inclusive environment at all Rare Founders events. Please review the Code of Conduct to understand what behaviour is not permitted.
A founder-led community connecting early-stage founders, operators, and investors through curated events across London — open mics, roundtables, and Demo Days. Sign up to the weekly newsletter for handpicked startup events and opportunities.
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