Rainmaking Loft Blog

Pimms by the glass and jug

Saint Katharine Docks is a pretty special place.

The roots of the buildings, including the building that houses Rainmaking Loft, can be traced back to the 10th Century when King Edgar gave 13 acres of land to 13 Knights (yes, really).

To accommodate the pace of trade during the Industrial Revolution, civil engineer Thomas Telford and architect Philip Hardwick were tasked with designing six storey warehouses, with cast iron window frames and extensive vaults. The vaults were necessary to store casks of wine and other luxury goods flowing into the docks.

The warehouses, all but one, were victims of The Blitz. From their ruins the buildings that now line the marina were built, mirroring the architecture of the old warehouses.

Which brings me to the point of this story. I was wandering around International House, the building that houses Rainmaking Loft. In the basement there is a small artefact from the old days - a sign that reads: Pimms by the glass and jug

There are also old storage rooms for casks.

Now. I’m a firm believer that a good story should not be spoiled by too much concern for the truth. This said, I think it’s only right to mention that International House, until 2009, was the home to The Vineyard Ale & Port House - a Davy’s establishment - which is probably the original creator of the sign.

This discovery worked up quite a thirst in the Loft and we decided to make this sunny Friday a Pimms day. Oh, and that means we can also inaugurate our new Rainmaking Loft coasters!

Cheers!

Beer Pitch

Beer Pitch - London’s absolutely no frills pitching event took place yesterday. It was an alpha launch event and in true startup fashion, our alpha version of the Loft included very little features beyond the necessities (4 walls + roof, makeshift seating made of palettes, plenty of beer and good company).

The format, 3 minute pitches, 5 minute open Q&A, no slides (or other frills) and completely democratic voting, worked really well. So well in fact, that we have decided that we will make Beer Pitch a regular event. Beer Pitch will take place every quarter. The winners will get 3 months rent free at Rainmaking Loft and a case of beer.

The first Beer Pitch event had not one, but two winners, as the majority of the votes were split between Resort Review and Gleepost. Congratulations to both teams.

Resort Review pitching at Beer Pitch

Flavrbox pitching at Beer Pitch

Gleepost pitching at Beer Pitch

Viking Invest pitching at Beer Pitch

Winners of the 1st Beer Pitch

Beer Pitch 2013 taking place on June 19th at Rainmaking Loft

Beer Pitch, London’s absolutely no frills pitch event, is taking place on June 19th at Rainmaking Loft. Join us for an evening of quick pitches and cold beer.

Click here to book your place today!

Format
3 minute pitches + 5 minute Q&A. Presenters deliver their pitches while standing on top of a case of beer (beer drinking while pitching is optional). There will be no slides, no videos, no frills.

1st Prize
3 months rent at Rainmaking Loft for the winning team + Case of brewskis (the one the teams will be standing on while pitching).

Details
Wednesday June 19th, 6:00pm @ Rainmaking Loft, 1 St Katharine’s Way, E1W 1AY. Click here for more details

Rainmaking Loft – Launching 1st July 2013

Rainmaking is launching Rainmaking Loft, a new, not-for-profit startup hub in London, located at the iconic St Katharine Docks, a historic marina right by Tower Bridge and Tower of London. Rainmaking Loft will open on 1st July 2013.

The Loft has over 10,000 sq ft of space and in addition to being home to 120+ entrepreneurs, it will also house all the Rainmaking startups and the global headquarters of Startupbootcamp. The Rainmaking Loft also has an events venue for 100 people and will host a variety of startup events every month. The Loft will house early stage investors and ambitious, early stage start-ups from across Europe who want to be based in London.

Rainmaking Loft is dedicated to supporting startups by providing them with a highly collaborative and inspiring working environment, at a significantly subsidised price. We believe startups create great innovations and economic growth - and a good co-working space can accelerate this by fostering collaboration, creativity and community - generating value far greater than the sum of its parts.

Startups & entrepreneurs can rent desks for only £299/ month per desk.

To find out more, visit www.rainmakingloft.com or email [email protected].

Rainmaking Loft, International House, St Katharine Docks, London, E1W 1AY, UK.

Contact: Mats Stigzelius ([email protected]) or Oli Johnson ([email protected])

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ABOUT RAINMAKING

Rainmaking is a ”startup factory” – welaunch start ups, build them into solid businesses, and eventually exit them.

We started out in 2006, and have so far launched 15 start ups. 3 of them have been exited to industry leaders and alarge investment fund, providing us with a foundation to invest in more ideas and projects. Today we run a portfolio of 10 companies with a total of 100 teammembers in our offices in Copenhagen, London and Berlin. Our current portfolio of companies include Startupbootcamp, Venture Scout, Better Now, Frokost.dk, Latestinbeauty.com, Ultimate Manager, Cutis Developments, Marketing Lion, Smart Launch and Small Step Ventures. Since 2010, we have invested in another 50 start-ups through Startupbootcamp.

Rainmaking is fully owned by 9 experienced entrepreneurs. 5 of us live in Copenhagen, 3 in London and 1 in Berlin.

We are an extremely value driven company, our culture is what makes us unique. Our partnership is Warm Hearted, we are all friends – literally. We are World Focused, we want to be part of the solution in this world, not part of the problem – seriously. We want to be Whole Persons, thus keeping our schedules clean enough to allow room for family, friends, sports, travel, reading etc. – honestly.

To learn more, visit rainmaking.co.uk

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ABOUT STARTUPBOOTCAMP

Startupbootcamp is the global accelerator for startups with a mentor and alumni network from more than 30 countries across the world. Startupbootcamp runs accelerator programs in Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Dublin, Eindhoven and Haifa. Each program selects 10 startups from 500 global applicants. Startups receive €15,000 in pre-seed investment, free co-working space and over €300,000 worth of deals from our sponsors and partners. The secret sauce to Startupbootcamp is the pool of volunteer mentors who help our startups by opening doors to customers, partners and investors. In addition we Startupbootcamp has partners with some of the leading brands in the world including Vodafone, IBM,Samsung and Novartis who act as mentors and pilot customers.

After the first 3 months of the accelerator program all teams are given the chance to pitch their company to hundreds of Business Angels and Venture Capitalists at Investor Demo Days. In addition Startupbootcamp teams are taken on an annual investor tour to London and Silicon Valley. After the program all startups are invited to join theAlumni Growth Program where they are helped to secure their next round of investment and grow the customer base. 85% of the Startupbootcamp alumni teams are still alive and 70% have gone on to raise additional funding from some of the worlds leading VCs and angels.

To learn more, visit www.startupbootcamp.org

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