After two days at the show, I expected to leave thinking about technology. Instead, I left thinking about people.
First things first, there was plenty of room for improvement on the wifi, at London Tech Week. Make of that what you will. After exercising my patience and thinking about quotes from the Dalai Lama I resorted to smiling and using it as an ice breaker. And what a great ice breaker it was.
Over two days, I had the opportunity to speak with founders, operators and technology leaders from across the UK and around the world. As expected, the technology on display was impressive. AI was everywhere. Product demos were powered by it, pitches were centred around it and almost every conversation touched on it in some way.
But what surprised me most wasn’t the technology itself.
It was the people behind it.
AI has become part of the conversation
One theme was impossible to ignore.
AI is no longer a niche capability or an emerging trend. It has become part of the fabric of modern technology businesses. It’s now the baseline.
Many of the companies I spoke with were building productivity software, intelligent workflows or platforms that enable businesses to create their own AI agents tailored to specific needs.
That technology had remarkably similar capabilities.
When a technology becomes widely adopted, the conversation naturally shifts. The question is no longer whether a company uses AI and starts becoming how effectively it solves a meaningful problem with AI. Technology may open the door, but outcomes are what creates value.
And that leads to one of my biggest observations from the event.
Clarity is becoming more valuable than ever
In many conversations, I found myself asking founders a simple question:
“Who is this built for?”
The answers were often ambitious.
“Everyone.”
“Any business.”
“Anyone looking to improve productivity.”
Naturally, I would probe a little further.
“Is there a priority market for you?”
Often, the answer remained broadly the same.
What I found interesting wasn’t the response itself. It was what it revealed about the stage many businesses are currently navigating.
As technology becomes easier to build and AI capabilities become increasingly accessible, founders have more opportunities than ever before. The challenge becomes deciding where to focus.
The businesses that scale successfully over time are rarely those trying to serve everyone at once.
They are usually the businesses that understand a specific problem exceptionally well and create a compelling solution for a clearly defined audience.
In a world where many products share similar capabilities, clarity becomes a competitive advantage.
Not just clarity of product, but clarity of customer, positioning and purpose.
Growth starts long before sales
Another recurring theme was growth.
Customer acquisition and expansion featured heavily in many discussions, which is understandable. These are priorities for almost every scaling business.
What I found fascinating was how differently founders approached the challenge.
Some viewed growth primarily through the lens of sales and marketing capability. Others were thinking more broadly about positioning, market focus and commercial direction.
For me, this reinforced an important point.
Commercial strategy is not simply hiring salespeople or adding marketing resource.
Those functions are incredibly important, but they are most effective when operating within a clearly defined commercial plan.
Positioning, market selection, customer understanding, messaging, partnerships and revenue goals all play a role.
The most successful growth strategies are rarely built on activity alone. They are built on clarity, consistency and execution over time.
For founders navigating Seed through Series A and often series B growth, that distinction matters.
The most valuable part wasn’t the technology, it was the people behind it
During my discussions at the Tunisia pavilion, which had a bold presence at the show, I learned that the Arabic language contains 12million words, an astonishing number showing the culture’s richness and beauty. As someone who has wanted to learn Arabic for some time, I found the conversation fascinating. Not sure I will manage to learn all 12 million words but it’s worth a try!
At the Indonesia hub, another high-growth tech ecosystem, I was offered coffee candy, a traditional delicacy from Indonesia that came with its own story and cultural significance.
These moments might seem unrelated to technology, but for me they captured the true spirit of the event.
London Tech Week brought together founders and innovators from across the world, each bringing different experiences, perspectives and ambitions.
What stood out was the openness. People were willing to exchange ideas, challenge assumptions and learn from one another. The conversations felt intelligent, generous and genuinely human.
At a time when AI dominates so many discussions, that felt particularly important.
Technology is still about people
Before attending London Tech Week, I expected the technology to be impressive. It was.
What I didn’t expect was that the most memorable conversations would be less about the technology itself and more about the inspiration behind it. One of the questions I loved asking founders was, “what inspired you to build this?”
Founder after founder spoke about the frustrations they wanted to solve, the industries they wanted to improve, the opportunities they believed should exist but didn’t yet.
It reminded me of something simple. Technology is a form of creativity. Like art, it starts with an idea. It reflects the ambitions of the people who create it. And it has the power to transform lives.
My biggest takeaway
I left London Tech Week feeling optimistic.
Not because AI is advancing rapidly, although it is. Not because new products are being launched every day, although they are.
I left optimistic because of the people building them.
The next generation of successful SaaS and technology businesses will undoubtedly use AI.
But the companies that create lasting impact will be the ones that combine innovation with clarity.
Clarity about who they serve, the problems they solve and how they create value.
The technology will continue to evolve at an extraordinary pace.
The importance of understanding customers, building meaningful relationships and solving real problems will not.
And after two days of conversations with founders from around the world, that feels like a future worth being excited about.
All views are based on my conversations and observations during my time at London Tech Week 2026.