Two days in London. Eight founders. The rooms you don't get into on a layover.
Eight founders scaling out of the Netherlands, inside three rooms London doesn't open to outsiders — a closed-door afternoon with UK C-suite operators, a GTM working session at Google with Encord, and a fireside lunch with the head of the UK's £500m Sovereign AI Fund. Hosted with Deloitte, Miro, Google, Encord and the Dutch Embassy.
By the numbers
In pictures
A walk through the two days — the founder roundtable, the small-group sessions, the working dinner, and the Residence.
Two days, session by session
An afternoon inside enterprise AI, a morning building the GTM engine, and a fireside lunch on the UK's sovereign bet.
AI in practice
-
Arrival & hosted welcome
Salesforce AI Centre · LondonCoffee, introductions, and a tight framing of the afternoon.
-
Small-group founder × CxO sessions
Salesforce AI CentreThree CxOs and three founders around one shared topic. Five minutes to frame, then open — founders briefed on CxO priorities in advance.
-
Unicorn founder roundtable
Salesforce AI Centre · Andrey Khusid · Miro · & Eric Landau · EncordReal-world enterprise AI deployment: what worked, what didn't, what they'd do differently now.
-
Reflection circle
Salesforce AI CentreA space to reflect with peers on the challenge every founder shares — closing corporate clients.
-
Working dinner
Mixed seating by agenda. The afternoon's conversations find their second act.
GTM and investors
-
GTM Engine at Google
Google London · Daniël Rood · Head of AI GTM, Google CloudHow the best operators now use AI across pricing, outbound, content and sales enablement. He built the function that took Google Cloud's AI business from zero to $1bn ARR in under three years.
-
Building the commercial engine
Google London · Leo Leclercq · VP Sales, EncordBuilding a sales function from the ground up at one of Europe's most prominent AI-infrastructure companies.
-
Growth systems, not campaigns
Google London · Luke Harries · Growth & Marketing, ElevenLabsHow one of the fastest-growing AI companies turns every launch into a growth event — repeatable growth systems over one-off campaigns, and velocity as the real moat.
-
Fireside lunch — the UK's sovereign AI bet
Dutch Ambassador's Residence · Joséphine Kant · UK Sovereign AI FundHosted with the Dutch Embassy. What a credible European answer to US and Chinese frontier labs looks like — and where Dutch companies fit, as the AI Hub Amsterdam opens later this year.
What we learned
The throughline across two days: in an AI-native market, the companies that win are the ones that move — and learn — fastest.
- Speed is the strategy You can't out-think AI — your edge is how fast you iterate and how much you learn each cycle. Optimise for velocity and direction, not efficiency.
- Hire for mindset, not CV Look for builders with drive who just move — the tools can be taught in months. The best test is handing someone a real problem and a short deadline and seeing what they make.
- Drive change from both directions Leadership has to force it through, while teams need the budget, time and space to learn. Keep teams small, cross-functional, and focused on a real problem — not on 'doing AI' for its own sake.
- The SaaS model is being rewritten Pricing is shifting from per-seat to usage to outcomes, long contracts are fading, and ARR matters less to investors. Clients still want predictability — so usage-based pricing is the bridge — and what you're ultimately selling is trust.
- Build growth systems, not campaigns (ElevenLabs) Set a 10x goal, scale your highest-leverage activity, remove the bottleneck, measure the whole funnel, and repeat — getting customers to the 'wow' moment as fast as possible.
- Sell to humans and machines (Google) AI agents now do the buying research, so your messaging has to be consistent and far more specific and quantitative than before. A useful tell: a company's job postings show what it will focus on next.
- Watch the signals Physical AI (EVs and self-driving), demand outstripping supply, and more corporates building AI in-house — while indecision on tools and cost is what stalls pilots from scaling.
Who was in the room
Eight founders scaling out of the Netherlands. One shared question: what does it take to win UK enterprise?
What founders walked away with
Beyond the lessons — the access and the relationships you can't get from outside the room.
- Face time with UK buyers C-suite operators from Sony, SAP, Sage and more — in a closed room, off the record.
- A unicorn-founder roundtable With Andrey Khusid (Miro) and Eric Landau (Encord), built for the questions you can't ask from the audience.
- Lunch with the Sovereign AI Fund A seat with the head of the UK's £500m fund, hosted at the Dutch Ambassador's Residence.
- Rooms you can't book The Salesforce AI Centre, Google London, the Residence — and the relationships that outlast the trip.
- A peer group for life Seven other founders scaling out of the Netherlands, now on a first-name basis.
Corporates in the room
The UK C-suite operators who joined the Day 1 afternoon came from:
Hosted in partnership with
Want a seat on the next one?
The next Cities trip is already being shaped. Spots are limited and the bar is high — we bring founders of scaling businesses ready to take the US seriously. Every trip ends with a private recap like this one.