Could This Be Where London’s Next Breakout Founders Are Hiding?

I often get asked why I go to so many startup events.

The answer is simple: I’m addicted to founders working on cool things. More specifically, I’m addicted to hearing from people who genuinely believe they can change something and then telling those stories.

In tech, there’s a phrase you hear a lot: “high signal.”

It basically means something is a particularly good indicator of what you’re looking for.

And this was a high-signal room.

NovaBook, which works closely with startups, hosted the evening alongside OnStage and Sifted ahead of its upcoming Demo Day. NovaBook told me the competition had attracted more than 1,200 applicants, eventually being narrowed down to a top 100 and then a top 20.

The event itself was simple: no long panels, no packed agenda. Just a restaurant, drinks, canapés and a room full of founders, investors and operators talking to each other.

Sometimes that’s exactly what a good startup event needs to be.

For founders, nights like this are also an opportunity to practise pitching — not necessarily because they’re raising money, but because explaining what your company does clearly is a skill in itself.

Some of the best opportunities in tech still spread through word of mouth. That’s one reason I go to these events: to find the founders and companies that aren’t necessarily the best publicised yet.

One conversation was with Lorna Lewsley, Senior Events and Content Manager, from Sifted. The team spoke about the growing confidence around European tech and described the ecosystem as moving from “challenger to champion.”

Whether Europe can genuinely compete with the scale of the US and China remains an open question, but the optimism was noticeable.

More interesting to me, though, were the founders.

One company that stood out was CrossSense, which is developing an AI companion for people living with dementia, delivered through smart glasses.

The idea is to help users carry out everyday tasks with more independence. But smart glasses immediately raise questions around privacy, particularly when the users may be vulnerable.

CrossSense told me that camera and microphone data is retained for up to 24 hours for emergency purposes before being erased, and that the product is not designed as a conventional recording device.

The company is currently carrying out its third clinical study, with a pilot planned for spring and a launch targeted for early 2027.

Another company I spoke to was Floats by Terrible, which helps artists, creators and brands design, source and sell merchandise.

The founder described the platform as “air traffic control” for the merchandise supply chain.

What interested me most was the mission behind it. The company sees merchandise as an increasingly important revenue stream for artists and creators at a time when making money from culture itself has become more difficult.

CrossSense and Floats are solving completely different problems, but that’s exactly what makes these rooms interesting.

You never really know what the next conversation will be.

And that’s why I keep showing up.