Episode Details

Onstage has just been acquired by Sifted. The company runs Demo Day, an early-stage pitch event that connects founders with VCs, backed by a network of 350 venture capital partners who select the finalists.

Issie James is Co-founder at Onstage. Onstage's strategy has always been to build an audience its founders and VC partners can use to reach more customers, and joining Sifted was the natural next step for that.

The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel. Check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026

SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/

Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope

Lovable: https://lovable.dev/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:17 - Onstage's acquisition by Sifted

1:36 - What changes and what stays the same

4:10 - What the acquisition means for Issie

6:03 - What happens to Deploy

6:52 - Issie's career journey at Onstage

11:51 - What makes a great event

13:16 - What success looks like after the acquisition

14:27 - Lessons from thousands of startup pitches