Earlybird VC

The Gradient Descending Summit 2026

For the best technical founders and operators.

November 3rd, 2026Beaverbrook, Surrey
32Days
23Hours
27Minutes
02Seconds
Sponsors
Lead SponsorStripe
HSBC Innovation BankingNotionDeel
The Summit
Since launching, we've hosted 40+ invite-only sessions with founders, researchers and engineers from companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Scale AI, Cursor, Cloudflare, Black Forest Labs, Snowflake and many of Europe's fastest-growing AI startups.
The Summit is the next step: an invite-only gathering for the best pre-seed to Series A AI founders, CTOs and technical leaders from across Europe, coming together for a day of practical discussions, new ideas and relationships that continue long after the event.
Founders and operators around a breakfast table at a previous Gradient Descending session
Roundtable discussion with founders and engineers
Two founders in conversation during a session
Attendees networking between sessions
Audience listening to a talk at a previous event
Attendees taking notes during a session
Speaker answering questions from the room
Founders and operators around a table at a previous session

Who's in the room

YOU'LL BE IN GOOD COMPANY

A snapshot of the founders and operators who come through our Gradient Descending events. Every profile is real and anonymized. No names, no exceptions.

40+

Invite-only sessions hosted

600+

Founders and operators

85%

Technical attendees

Speakers

Portrait of Tilen Kegl

Tilen Kegl

ex-Head of Content and Community

Synthesia

Portrait of Henry Broomfield

Henry Broomfield

Research Engineer, Applied AI

OpenAI

Portrait of Ian Massingham

Ian Massingham

Applied AI Lead

Anthropic

Portrait of Eugene Berson

Eugene Berson

Head of GTM Operations and Customer Success

Lambda

Portrait of Ellen Moeller McCormack

Ellen Moeller McCormack

Head of Sales EMEA

Clay

Portrait of Kevin Hillier

Kevin Hillier

Head of Services, Forward Deployed Engineers

Notion

Portrait of Anjor Kanekar

Anjor Kanekar

Founder

Platypus Technologies · ex-Palantir FDE

Portrait of Boaz Francis

Boaz Francis

Head of FDE

Wonderful · ex-Palantir

More speakers to be announced in October.

What we'll cover

  • 08:45 – 10:00

    Transportation from London to Beaverbrook

  • 10:00 – 10:50

    Arrival and breakfast

  • 10:50 – 11:00

    Welcome remarks

  • 11:00 – 11:40

    Open weights vs Closed frontier

  • 11:40 – 12:20

    AI-native GTM

  • 12:20 – 12:40

    Content and brand in the age of AI

  • 12:40 – 13:00

    How to think differently in the age of Frontier Intelligence

  • 13:00 – 13:50

    Lunch

  • 13:50 – 14:20

    Scaling Forward Deployed Engineering: Services to productisation

  • 14:20 – 14:40

    Pricing in the age of AI

  • 14:45 – 15:45

    Outdoor activity

  • 15:45 – 18:00

    Drinks and canapés

  • 18:00 – 19:00

    Transportation back to London

Getting there

The venue

Beaverbrook
Reigate Rd, Leatherhead
KT22 8QX, United Kingdom

The Summit takes place at Beaverbrook, one of the UK's most iconic country estates just outside London. By stepping away from the city for the day, we're creating the time and space for the conversations, introductions and relationships that simply don't happen at a conference.

Roughly an hour from central London by car. Coaches run from London in the morning and back in the evening. Parking is available on site.

Directions on Google MapsApple Maps

See you in November