How to Protect Your Startup When AI Is Killing Categories Daily
What's actually defensible when the next foundation model ships half your roadmap natively?
A closed room of 50 founders and operators, three angles on the same question, nothing recorded.
Invite-only. Free if you show up, £35 if you don't. Or skip the queue with a guaranteed seat.
Speakers:
Andrew Lobanov, Co-founder & CEO, Algonova. Math and coding school where live teachers are supercharged by an AI copilot, built on the global Algorithmics network he founded in 2016 (90+ countries, 1M+ alumni), now scaling across Southeast Asia and Latin America. On why some of the strongest moats in AI don't look like moats at first, and why the thing that makes a company hard to displace is hiding in plain sight.
Sergey Toporov, Partner, LETA Capital. Reviews 200+ AI pitches per quarter across UK, US, and EU. On the panel he'll lay out what investors actually score AI startups on in 2026, which moat stories are getting funded, which ones get a polite no, and the specific red flags that kill an AI Series A in the first 10 minutes.
Plus a hot seat.
Daniel Callis, Founder & CEO, BEYLA. Building the regulated financial vehicle that turns frontier AI into real-world action for SMEs, with memory, controls, consent, and the authority to move money safely. In the hot seat, he brings a real case on what stays defensible when the labs own the intelligence, but not the outcome, and how the moat forms around ownership of the customer, the context, and the right to act.
What you'll walk away with
A clear read on which AI moats are getting funded in 2026, and which pitches investors quietly reject.
Operator-level playbooks for repricing, repositioning, and rebuilding product when foundation models eat part of your category.
A working framework for deciding what to build in-house versus what to rent from frontier labs, with real numbers from operators making this call right now.
Off-the-record conversations with people who see the defensibility question from three different angles: funds, frontier labs, and scaling AI businesses.
Peer review of one real challenge from your own company in a moderated small-group session.
Format
18:00 to 18:15. Welcome drinks and arrival.
18:15 to 18:55. Panel discussion with the speakers.
18:55 to 19:15. Open Q&A.
19:15 to 19:25. Break.
19:25 to 20:10. Mastermind sessions in small moderated groups. One real case per table, brought in advance by founders in the room, no pitching, no general advice giving.
20:10 onwards. Drinks, food, and unstructured time.
Who it's for
Founders and senior operators building or defending AI-native businesses. Most attendees will be Seed to Series B, but stage matters less than how seriously you're carrying the defensibility question.
If you're carrying one of these questions right now, the room is for you:
What does my company look like when the next foundation model ships in 6 months?
Which parts of my product are genuinely defensible and which are rented from a lab that could ship competing features tomorrow?
How do I price when my closest competitor is a $20 ChatGPT subscription?
In partnership with
Halkin (venue). A family-run flexible workspace operator across ten London buildings, and a hub for startups, communities, and investors. The evening takes place at one of their venues.
Kleos (formerly Stape) as a sponsor of the meetup. As a global team management platform, Kleos helps companies hire and manage talent across 242 countries by bringing contracts, compliance, documentation, payouts, and payroll into one seamless system.
How to join
Free seat: apply for an invitation. A £35 deposit will be placed on your card and refunded after you attend the event. The fee is only charged if you do not show up. Approvals are issued in three batches, with the first round starting 7–10 days after registration opens and the final round about a week before the event. We balance the room based on profile and stage.
Guaranteed seat (£35): apply, pay £35, confirmed within 24 hours. Your seat is held from payment, no risk of running out.
Please note that photos and videos may be taken during the event and used for promotional purposes, including on social media and other marketing channels.