We have been given permission by the Cambridge Tech Week team to share content from the conference over the coming weeks and months. Today we begin with one of our favourite sessions from startup to scaleup day, where Amelia Armour of Amadeus Capital Partners interviewed Kristian Segerstrale from Super Evil Mega Corp who is currently navigating the Cambridge ecosystem on a quest to understand how to better enable the scaleup potential of the city.

Key Takeaways:

• “Momentum is currency.” In the US, rapid scaling matters more than capital itself. Christian urges UK founders to foster impatience for growth and not fear fast failure.

• “Everyone celebrates either a quick victory or a quick blowout. What people fear most are ‘zombie companies’ that just linger.”

• Talent is the differentiator: “Don’t settle for the top 10%. Get the top 0.1%. Two best hires can be worth more than £100m in funding.”

• Focus, focus, focus: “Find your win condition and do nothing else. Avoid shiny distractions- if you win, it’s because you doubled down.”

• The UK has caught up: “You don’t have to move to the US anymore. Capital, talent, and mindset exist here if you assemble the right team.”

• Integrating atoms and bits: “The next 5-10 years belong to startups that bridge digital and physical worlds - think robotics, batteries, sensors, and AI - something Cambridge excels at.”

• Learn by doing: “There are no books. You only learn by scaling, making mistakes, and then helping the next wave go bigger.”

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