An honest startup showcase with three founders at different points in their journey. You will hear why they launched, the highs and lows so far, what they wish they had known on day one,
Before we break for summer, join us for an evening of honest conversations, valuable connections, and practical insights from founders who are building businesses in very different industries.
This isn’t another polished success-story panel.
You’ll hear directly from startup founders about what really happened behind the scenes: why they launched, the mistakes they made, the challenges they didn’t see coming, and the lessons they’d wish they’d known from day one.
We’ll be putting our founders in the hot seat for a candid Ask Me Anything session, where nothing is off-limits. Expect honest answers on growth, fundraising, finding customers, hiring, AI, product-market fit, setbacks, resilience, and the realities of building a business from scratch.
Why Attend?
✅ Learn from founders actively building and scaling businesses
✅ Discover practical growth tactics you can apply immediately
✅ Understand common startup pitfalls and how to avoid them
✅ Build valuable connections with fellow founders, entrepreneurs, and investors
✅ Enjoy drinks on us while expanding your network
✅ Leave with actionable insights to help move your business forward
Whether you’re validating an idea, growing your first venture, or looking for fresh perspectives on your next stage of growth, this event is designed to give you practical takeaways and meaningful conversations.
Meet our Founders
Alongside her consultancy work, Joanna is the wine author and a regular speaker on the future of AI in the wine industry. Her work focuses on bridging the gap between emerging technology and real-world business challenges, helping organisations move beyond AI hype towards practical implementation and long-term competitive advantage.
Faraan Irfan is the Founder and CEO of Saarey Music, the leading platform for South Asian classical music. A Grammy Voting Member and the first Pakistani entrepreneur admitted to the Recording Academy, he is recognised for building innovative digital solutions for underserved music communities.Inspired by his family’s long-standing commitment to South Asian classical music, Faraan launched Saarey to address the lack of access, discovery and monetisation opportunities for the genre online. Today, he leads a globally recognised music technology company that combines exclusive content, AI-driven discovery and deep audience engagement to bring classical music to listeners worldwide.
Riley Ramone has been building websites for more than 25 years and combines deep technical expertise with hands-on entrepreneurial experience. He is the founder and Director—also known as the Chief Ticketing Scientist—of Ticketlab, an online ticketing platform designed for venues, businesses, performers, and event organisers who want a straightforward, affordable, and user-friendly way to sell tickets and manage events. Riley conceived, designed, architected, and built the platform himself, growing it into a successful family-run business that has supported thousands of events across the UK and beyond.
Alongside running Ticketlab, Riley is Senior Staff Engineer for Site Experiences at the John Lewis Partnership. Throughout his career he has worked across product design, software architecture, user experience, and full-stack development, with expertise spanning PHP, Laravel, React, Angular, Vue.js, and modern web technologies. Ticketlab has also completed the British Library’s Business & IP Centre (BIPC) Start-Up and Scale-Up programmes, giving Riley valuable insight into building and growing a sustainable business while balancing the demands of a full-time career.
About our featured Start-Ups:
The company combines industry expertise with data-driven methodologies to help businesses assess AI readiness, improve data quality, identify opportunities for automation and intelligence, and develop practical adoption strategies. VerAIson.io’s approach is grounded in the belief that successful AI implementation begins with understanding the business problem first, and the technology second.
Saarey Music is a streaming platform dedicated to South Asian classical music, serving a global audience of more than 300 million listeners. Built specifically for the genre, the platform combines exclusive content, culturally designed metadata and AI-powered recommendations to deliver a richer listening experience.Saarey holds exclusive rights to approximately 90% of Pakistani classical recordings and has earned international recognition, including Fast Company’s #9 Most Innovative Companies in Europe & the Middle East, a Music Week Awards finalist nomination, and inclusion in Forbes India’s Top 200 Companies. By connecting audiences with a historically underserved genre, Saarey is helping South Asian classical music thrive on a global scale.
Ticketlab is an online ticketing platform that has been helping organisers create events, sell tickets, and manage admissions with minimal hassle for nearly 13 years. Built for organisations that operate at a human scale, the platform is trusted by venues, charities, community groups, churches, performers, workshop hosts, and independent event organisers across the UK. Ticketlab combines a simple event setup process with Stripe-powered payments, individual tout-proof tickets, event analytics, and a dedicated admissions app for fast and reliable on-the-door check-in.
Founded and built by Riley Ramone, Ticketlab was created as an alternative to overly complex ticketing systems, focusing instead on transparency, affordability, and ease of use. Organisers benefit from low fees, light administration, and powerful tools that help them run successful events, while ticket buyers enjoy a straightforward checkout experience. This commitment to simplicity and value has helped Ticketlab build long-term relationships with organisers who return event after event, year after year.
Join Us
This is your final opportunity to connect with the community before the summer break. Come for the founder stories, stay for the conversations, enjoy a drink on us, and leave with ideas, contacts, and inspiration to help shape your next move.
Spaces are limited – reserve your place now.
Thank you to our founding partner Signal for making this event happen.
You can also listen to these sessions on the Founders500 Podcast:
Supported by
