On Thursday 14th of June, we joined the Startup Open House event the took place in the offices of some of some of London’s biggest startups. The idea behind this event was to connect professionals with the city’s best startups. The event started at the WeWorkoffices in Spitalfields in East London.
There were a number of different venues in the headquarters of startups (WeWorkSpitalfields, Hackney Council, Second Home, Seeders, Techspace and IDEA London) were startup fairs were set up with some of the UK’s most exciting startups.
There you could find representatives of these startups that you could have a conversation with and grasp what each of those companies does, as well as ask any questions you may have or gather further information.
The set up in the IDEA London were different as Startup Open House hosted inspiring talks by different entrepreneurs who would talk about their experiences of setting up and running their businesses which would be followed by a Q&A session for the attendees to ask any questions they might have.
In the headquarters of Seeders, the startup fair included some of the companies that had most successfully used Seeders, which is an equity crowdfunding platform. It included companies such as Revolut, a banking alternative which included a pre-paid debit card (MasterCard or VISA), currency exchange, cryptocurrency exchange (Bitcoin(BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin(LTC)) and peer-to-peer payments and Stashbee. Stashbee is a platform that enables anyone to rent out any space as storage space to anyone that might need it. At the WeWork Spitalfields offices, where the event started, we learned about companies such as YADAwhich is an up and coming events planning app and the Drinkiapp that has partnered up with some of London’s best pubs and bars and through which you can get a free or discounted drink at the places they have partnered with.
Also, several of the city’s biggest startups such as Airbnb, Uber and Deliveroo opened their offices for the people who attended the Startup Open House to check out their workspace and be able to have a conversation with any of the employees of how it is to work in one of these companies as well as network. The startups that did open their workspaces to the audience also gave tours of their premises to make the audience more comfortable and familiar.
The whole event was very well catered for with the organisers providing free drinks, alcoholic as well as non alcoholic sponsored by companies such as Koppanberg, Brewdog and Old Mout as well as light bites to help the attendees power through the day and attend as many of the events as possible which were spread around London’s tech city..
It was a delight to see such an initiative which was inspired by the Open House London project. They successfully managed to connect upcoming as well as already successful startups with people who either have started their own business or want to work in one of these companies as well as create an atmosphere for the attendees to network with each other.
Something that is also noteworthy is that 
which is an up and coming job seeking platform, and was heavily involved with the event, will be working with most of the up and coming startups that were in Startup Open House.
They will advertise jobs on behalf of the participating startups and had set up a big touch screen in the WeWork Spitalfields offices to make it easier for people to register themselves on the platform.
Overall it was a great experience and we met a lot of people from different backgrounds and were able to interact with similarly minded individuals. We also learned about new technologies and got inspired by some of the stories by entrepreneurs who have already walked on the path we are currently on. So, we would definitely recommend to anyone interested in startups to look out for any future events and make sure to join such an event.
