Ventures

Aaron Morris, Co-Founder/CTO of Bigged, pivots the ad tech startup from creative tooling toward LinkedIn advertising optimization after recognizing enterprise pricing advantages over the consumer model (Update has pivoted back)

Starting as a 12-year-old game developer building racing games and "psychedelic kitten tree" experiments, Aaron developed expertise in non-Euclidean geometry systems like Portal where complex behaviors emerge from simple rules, leading to his university research on conditional generative modeling for graphic design layouts using GANs before transformers existed. His paper explored content-first design workflows that bypass Canva's template limitations by automatically arranging titles, buttons, and images into cohesive layouts, though the approach now seems outdated given transformer architectures' superior attention mechanisms for spatial relationship understanding. Aaron advocates problem-first learning over technology-first approaches, arguing that mastering JavaScript, Python, and C sequentially without specific applications creates broad knowledge without practical implementation skills, while distinguishing between "vibe coding" tools like Lovable (advanced Wix alternatives) and actual coding with LLM assistance in VS Code editors. Bigged's pivot targets enterprise clients spending millions monthly on ads where 1% optimization improvements generate substantial revenue gains through algorithmic A/B testing of creative variations, moving from R&D-intensive layout generation toward personalization and workflow optimization across text and image formats. Aaron finds Plugged's late-night founder culture essential after working alone with real estate agents and lawyers in deserted co-working spaces, appreciating environments where leaving at 10pm doesn't make him the last person grinding, while acknowledging the quality-of-life versus future-reward trade-offs inherent in 996 work cultures that companies like TSMC struggle to replicate when expanding from Taiwan to Arizona's different working culture expectations.

Alexandru Voica, Head of Corporate Affairs & Policy at Synthesia, navigates the complex intersection of AI regulation and startup innovation, drawing on 15 years of tech experience across ARM and Meta to educate policymakers about artificial intelligence while protecting European startups from regulatory overreach. Romanian-born Alexandru advocates for startups in EU AI Act discussions, highlighting how fine-tuning requirements can burden small companies with full model provider obligations when modifying open-weight models like Llama for specialised healthcare applications, forcing them to produce documentation, training data summaries, and copyright policies that larger companies can handle but startups struggle to manage. He critiques the EU AI Act's "Christmas tree" evolution where competing priorities from different member states and companies created unwieldy legislation with late-arriving implementation details like codes of practice, potentially slowing European innovation while US and Chinese competitors advance at "three to four times the speed" without such regulatory complexity. Alexandru questions the Act's broad "high-risk" classifications, using personal examples of learning English in Romania without wealthy family resources to illustrate how AI language learning tools could democratize education access, yet face the same regulatory burden as biochemical weapons under current frameworks. His policy work involves constant education of government officials who predominantly come from legal or Oxford PPE backgrounds rather than engineering, contrasting unfavorably with the Chinese leadership's engineering expertise that enables practical technology understanding and faster innovation cycles. At Synthesia, Alexandru advocates moving corporate communications away from traditional marketing-led PR agency relationships toward in-house corporate affairs functions that work closely with legal teams, emphasising quality press coverage over quantity to build long-term relationships and protect executive reputations. He champions "common sense" as his most valuable skill, sharing examples of preventing reputational disasters like engineers presenting monkey-snorting-data memes at major tech conferences, while expressing scepticism about AI-first companies like Cluely that sacrifice human relationships for viral attention, arguing that sustainable customer relationships require maintaining human touchpoints even within AI-automated systems.

Louise Maunoir, Director Europe at Sigma, bridges European and Chinese entrepreneurial ecosystems through community building and fellowship programs, drawing on her diverse background from creating carbon credit systems for 3,000 Egyptian farmers (generating €4.8 million in carbon credit value) to microfinance work in Kenya and founding her own venture-backed startup that she closed earlier this year after exactly two and a half years. Based in Switzerland with business and sustainability expertise, Louise discovered her passion for China through pure curiosity - taking flights without predetermined plans to understand what she describes as a "black box" ecosystem that operates at remarkable speed, where "a robot can be built in 48 hours because everything is close to each other." Her China Fellowship, developed with collaborator Catherine, provides European founders with week-long immersions to decode Chinese business systems, covering everything from hardware manufacturing and engineering hiring to fundraising and visa processes across key hubs like Shenzhen (manufacturing), Shanghai (tech), Beijing (AI/robotics), and Guangzhou. As Sigma's Europe Director, Louise tailors community programming to different regional maturity levels - hosting advanced events in fast-paced London while supporting earlier-stage founders in countries like Poland, where entrepreneurship battles cultural resistance and parental disapproval, noting the importance of creating founder-friendly ecosystems in underrepresented hubs like Budapest, Italy's Bocconi network, and Madrid. Louise co-founded the Gossip Group angel group with Linda Cheng to democratise investing knowledge and support impact-driven founders, defining impact broadly as "anything that doesn't have negative consequences for the planet" while creating structured deal flow and educational events. Her networking philosophy transformed from business school awkwardness to realising "networking is just making friends and helping each other," emphasising that exceptional communities like Sigma enable 2am crisis calls about firing decisions or fundraising challenges among like-minded builders. Louise anticipates returning to startup building within 18 months once she feels "the itch that it's not possible to do anything else," currently managing multiple initiatives between Sigma community growth, China bridge-building, and angel investing while maintaining her core belief that great people enable unlimited possibilities.

Melissa Dewar, Founder of The Modernist, creates the "future of lifestyle membership" through a hospitality tech startup that provides ClassPass-style access to private members clubs, co-working spaces, and exclusive events across London, describing her platform as the offspring of "ClassPass and Soho House." Originally studying architecture at Cambridge where she conceived the idea while writing her thesis, Melissa launched The Modernist as a side project newsletter while working in consulting, curating London's best venues and building a community-first business that grew to 600 members within six months before she left her full-time job. The platform addresses the Gen Z/Millennial problem of expensive multiple memberships (she previously held five different venue memberships) by offering one key that unlocks coveted spaces typically reserved for those 40+, capitalizing on post-COVID demand for physical networking and authentic experiences as people tire of phone-based interactions. Melissa's AI-powered matching tool connects users to venues based on personal interests like fashion, classical architecture, and music, while providing venues with curated customer acquisition and valuable data insights about their ideal customer profiles, positioning The Modernist as a win-win partnership that brings additional revenue through events without charging venues upfront fees. Currently raising £750K at a £4M valuation through SEIS/EIS rounds targeting VCs, family offices, and angel investors, plus founding memberships similar to historical models, Melissa plans global expansion to the US, Middle East, and Asia while developing reciprocal arrangements that exceed traditional private club limitations by including event access and full membership conversions. The Modernist enables for younger professionals seeking authentic connections and premium spaces previously beyond their reach.

Katie Saddleton, Senior Ecosystem Manager at Royal Academy of Engineering.Founded by Prince Philip 49 years ago to put engineering innovation in service of society. Operating under the Academy's Strategy 2030 framework focused on "engineering better lives," Katie supports bold, IP-rich deep tech innovations spanning the full breadth of engineering from software and biomedical to traditional civil and mechanical disciplines, recognising engineers as uniquely positioned to solve complex environmental, economic, and societal challenges through their systematic problem-solving mindset. She addresses critical UK deep tech challenges revealed in their comprehensive report covering 3,000 companies attracting over £5 billion investment, where only 7.5% are female-founded and less than 6% reach scale-up stage, advocating for early intervention through role model visibility, entrepreneurial education in schools, and systemic mindset shifts to match the US entrepreneurial culture where "coffee shop workers discuss side projects." Katie identifies fundamental investment ecosystem gaps where UK investors' predominantly financial backgrounds versus US investors' technical PhD expertise creates difficulty de-risking complex technologies, while patient capital shortages prevent adequate funding for deep tech's 10-year development cycles compared to traditional 3-5 year timelines, despite deep tech's higher long-term returns. Through the Explore program's international missions to San Francisco, Boston, and Paris, Katie facilitates entrepreneur connections leading to pilot projects and acquisitions while learning that UK strengths lie in "zero to billion" innovation development, though companies must relocate for "billion to trillion" scaling due to capital limitations. Her ecosystem strategy follows the MIT innovation model engaging entrepreneurs, government, corporates, investors, and academics through curated networks and "moments of serendipity," exemplified by success stories like NotPlastic's seaweed-based packaging alternatives that make single-use plastics disappear, representing the Academy's 600-strong entrepreneur network developing breakthrough technologies for global benefit.

Brian Walker, Founder of REVEL, accelerates humanoid robotics adoption by building the world's largest library of digital twins for physical embodied AI training, positioning REVEL as "Scale AI for robotics" while pursuing partnerships with major manufacturers, including Dyson, Bosch, Milwaukee, Stanley Black & Decker, and IKEA. Originally a Czech filmmaker who spent 17 years in Hollywood working on major epics while building tech companies, Brian returned to Europe with his family after 18 years away, where he connected with Project Europe's ecosystem and acquired a Stockholm hackathon team for €20K to build RAY (REVEL AI), an industry-specialized outreach tool that generated €100K ARR in its first week across five fashion brand licenses seeking AI-forward lead generation solutions. REVEL addresses the fundamental robotics data bottleneck by creating high-fidelity digital twins that capture precise material properties, force feedback mechanisms, and collision meshes, enabling domain-randomised simulation training that can achieve "10 years of real-world robot training in two hours" across millions of environmental variations including gravity, friction, wind, and temperature changes. Brian champions humanoid robots over specialised automation because existing infrastructure is designed for human operation—from CNC machines to combines to construction equipment with 10-20 year lifespans—making humanoids the practical transition solution while companies avoid expensive manufacturing overhauls costing hundreds of millions. REVEL's digital twins embed complete metadata, including spring tension calculations for trigger mechanisms, torque specifications, and thermal properties, allowing robots to "see the Matrix" with full parameter visibility for intuitive manipulation, while their planned certification layer would create competitive advantages for manufacturers whose robot-ready products gain preferential factory selection. Brian envisions services like IKEA assembly robots that use public transport to reach customers' homes, automatically identify missing parts, and coordinate replacement deliveries, ultimately creating labour automation abundance that frees humans for creativity, relationships, and multi-planetary exploration while teasing a Project Lovable-style robotics community event for September featuring top-tier engineering teams, major industry sponsors, and prominent guest speakers.

HERE WE GO: Today on VENTURES 🚀: 9 Guests, 5 hours, 1 don't miss streamThe docket is locked, loaded & it's more informative than The Vatican archives.5 hours of streaming, bringing you the latest on what is happening in the landscape of Technology & Business.From Datasets for robots 🤖 - European Defense 🇪🇺 - Fashion StartupsTHE BLOC IS ABLAZE 🔥Where else are you going to find this 🤷‍♂️12:00: Brian Walker - Founder, REVEL12:30: Katie Saddleton- Senior Ecosystem Manager, Royal Academy of Engineering13:00: Louise Scarlette Maunoir - Director Europe, Sigma Squared Society | Founder, EuroTech Federation | Ecosystem building, NovaX Hong Kong13:30 Melissa Dewar, Founder, The Modernists14:00: Benjamin Wolba - Co-Founder, European Defense Tech14:30: Alexandru Voica - Head of Corporate Affairs & Policy, Synthesia15:00: Imogen Matanle - Brand manager, Batch LDN15:30: Aaron Morris- Co-Founder, Bigged16:00: Johannes Korpela - VC, Wave VenturesAhhh the beauty of the European Renaissance 🇪🇺 🕊️ Jump in the chat & feed us your thoughts/ questions before & duringIt's LIVE.Send in pics of where you're watching VENTURES 🚀 - most outrageous gets a prize.Follow us on YouTube & LinkedIn to watchDM viraj, if you want to appear on the show or sponsor/partnerToday @ 11:30LFG 🔥 🚀

Mark Costello, CEO of Meshed, transforms commercial insurance by building the UK's first AI-native brokerage that eliminates manual processes while saving SMEs 25-30% on premiums through automated underwriting and flat 10% commission structures. As a second-time founder and insurance veteran who sold his previous venture in December 2023, Mark addresses the critical problem that 50-80% of commercial customers are underinsured according to major insurers like Allianz, Aviva, and AXA, creating catastrophic risk for businesses that could face ruin from reasonably-sized claims. Meshed integrates directly with customers' operating systems to monitor turnover, payroll, and headcount in real-time, creating proactive triggers that update coverage automatically rather than waiting for businesses to report changes through traditional broker relationships constrained by 9-to-5 availability that doesn't match SME operating patterns. Mark explains how the insurance market's complexity—involving 51 insurers, reinsurers, MGAs, cover holders, and Lloyd's market participants—creates unconscious and conscious bias in broker selections, where traditional brokers might earn 30-35% commission from preferred insurers versus 20% from others, while Meshed's AI eliminates these conflicts by accessing all available capacity without human bias. Having raised an oversubscribed £950,000 pre-seed round backed by Haatch, Exponential Science, Aviva via Founders Factory, and strategic angels, Mark positions the funding toward achieving product-market fit across three pillars: proving distribution partnerships with accountants who use complementary tools, perfecting AI technology that processes tickets faster daily, and building in-house underwriting capability to create additional customer and insurer value before pursuing seed funding, while noting that 80% of brokers aren't even considering AI adoption, creating massive competitive advantages for early movers who can deliver iPhone-like simplicity where customers see better outcomes and lower costs without needing to understand the underlying technology complexity.

Linda Hong Cheng, Founder of Infrajoy Labs, transforms digital accessibility by building ethical AI infrastructure that unlocks trillion-dollar elderly consumer segments currently excluded from technology markets due to systemic ageism and design failures. Originally a piano prodigy performing Bach inventions by age seven and intending to become a China studies professor, Linda discovered ethical AI during Columbia research on gender bias in Chinese protest events, where she became the youngest invited author for an Oxford Handbook chapter on decolonising computational methods after recognising algorithmic biases baked into natural language processing systems for non-European languages. At Oxford, her research reveals women are 19% less likely to access the internet globally, with double marginalisation occurring as older women face both gender-based digital exclusion and age-related usability barriers, creating intersectional disadvantages that become life-or-death issues during crises like her grandmother's COVID kidney surgery recovery, when the inability to order groceries online nearly proved fatal. Linda defines ethical AI broadly across algorithmic bias prevention, environmental impact concerns (data centres using citizens' drinking water for cooling), and systemic inefficiencies where pattern-matching VCs exclude diverse founders despite better performance potential, positioning ethics not as charity but as efficiency optimisation that unlocks massive untapped markets. Infrajoy Labs addresses the accessibility crisis where 70% of website user drop-offs result from small text size alone, building the first global golden standard for elderly usability through collaboration with health and financial firms who recognise that unusable platforms create literal life-or-death consequences when patients cannot book critical appointments. Linda champions Europe as the ideal ethical AI movement launchpad due to its measured approach balancing innovation with future consequence consideration, contrasting American "go, go, go" mentality with European thoughtfulness that creates sustainable movements, while working with EuroTech Federation stakeholders including the European Central Bank to establish collaborative industry standards that treat accessibility as fundamental infrastructure rather than cosmetic add-ons.

Josh Tulloch, Founder/Curator of PLUGGED, transforms London's startup ecosystem by building authentic founder communities that provide emotional insurance and risk mitigation through deep personal connections rather than transactional networking. Starting from his own loneliness crisis during the 2022 energy crisis—working alone at home without heating while attending 2-3 boring networking events weekly for months—Josh created PLUGGED as a house party in February 2023 that gathered 40 founders around a fireside chat with Airbnb UK's former head of operations, followed by DJs and mixologists in his living room. His core philosophy centers on risk calculus transformation: founders surrounded by genuine friend networks can take bigger swings because failure becomes less existential when 50 people will help secure the next opportunity, contrasting sharply with isolated founders who make conservative decisions due to catastrophic downside scenarios. PLUGGED operates on "plug in/plug out" dichotomy—providing spaces for both intense work sessions and energetic social experiences—because authentic relationships require showing up as complete humans rather than just professional personas, with vulnerability-driven experiences like profile cards asking "what am I struggling with?" to establish genuine connection from day one. Josh applies his "no dickheads rule" regardless of unicorn status, using "charmingly unprofessional" communication to self-filter audiences who don't vibe with scrappy authenticity, while curating both people and experiences to help founders drop their shoulders upon entering the space. Having evolved from house parties to co-working partnerships with Wanda at Shoreditch Exchange, PLUGGED faces a crucial 100-day deadline to reach 100 members (currently at 36) to prove financial sustainability and unlock Wonder's multi-location expansion across London Fields and White City, positioning founder communities as the cultural reset needed to rival global tech powerhouses through relationship-first ecosystem building that prioritizes energy replenishment over traditional networking.