As part of our Going Global program, in partnership with NSW Investment, our Co-Founder JJ, along with a number of HealthTech companies from the program visited the UK for London Tech Week! This is such a valuable and exciting part of the program, giving the founders the opportunity to touch down where they’re planning to expand, forge the necessary connections and partnerships and understand the sheer size of the market and how they can best fit into it. 

After spending what has been an incredibly inspiring and eye-opening week in London, JJ reveals his highlights of how this week has been instrumental in showcasing and connecting Think & Grow clients with other tech start-ups, founders and VCs on a global scale. 

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‍What’s been the most beneficial part of London Tech Week for you? 

From day one it’s been amazing to share the same space and be able to connect with so many influential people from across the globe. From top VCs, founders and C-suite of global leading tech businesses. Industry thought leaders from space, climate and food to the head of Australia’s high commissioners, the state leads for each state in Australia, as well as state leads from places like France and Pakistan.

It’s rare to find opportunities like this one where you have the ability to connect with the humans and founders of businesses globally even within just the first few days. 

130+ companies from Australia have attended this week which speaks volumes for the healthy state our ecosystem is in. The new trade agreement also helps enable the ease with which business can be conducted between nations. It’s astonishing to see this pull into London on this scale, especially post-Covid.

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Did you come across anything notable you weren’t expecting? 

It’s not that I wasn’t expecting this, they were more of a nice surprise – 

1. There was a proactive nature of VCs in attendance throughout the week, I was excited by how many seed investors there were across each technology type. 
2. A lot of the conferences were directed to emerging trends and global needs from food and climate to the ongoing diversity gap, specifically women in tech about breaking the bias and building a better future.

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‍As part of Think & Grow’s Going Global program, there were many Australian HealthTech companies in attendance, as part of their UK expansion growth. What would you say were the three most valuable things they got from this week? 

1. Understanding the size of the opportunity in the UK market for them to bite into. This is what many of the companies we’ve worked with as part of Going Global have realised after visiting here. This week, even more so because it’s a whole few days geared at making connections and finding those opportunities. 
2. The relative ease with which you can connect and understand key players and audiences. Same as before, this week is designed to introduce you to those people, so as long as you get stuck in you’ll come away with a lot more knowledge. 
3. The energy and enthusiasm from the competitive market and start-ups in their space in the UK and globally. There’s a real desire to help each other and it’s always a pleasant surprise when you discover that, but it’s kind of ‘seeing is believing’.

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Let’s hear from some of the founders of the Going Global program: 

“The market size we have seen this week means we’ll stay another 5 or 6 weeks to continue making impactful connections - we already have a full schedule thanks to the program with connections to hospitals across the UK.” - Dr Nishanth Krishnananthan, Vantari VR

“It was great hanging out with the crew in London this week, London’s really invigorating and I was very pleasantly surprised by how much of a good fit the UK is for us.” - Nicc Johnson, MusicHeath