Blog

Thought Leadership

Insights, analysis and hard-earned lessons from Oxford's builders, backers and researchers, written by the Founders & Funders team.

The Anfani team in front of a solar panel installation

Deep Dives

Three Hours in Abidjan

How a market validation trip shaped Anfani, and taught Ishaq Bolarinwa how small businesses actually buy.

25 September 2026·By Nessie Chu-Heng Lu

Read article

A LEVRA facilitator running a VR human-skills session

Deep Dives

More Capable Machines, More Valuable Humans

Emily Gill's bet with LEVRA: the better AI gets at the mundane, the more everything comes down to judgement, trust and how you handle a difficult conversation.

7 September 2026·By Nessie Chu-Heng Lu

Read article

Deep Dives

On Railway Time: The Five-Minute Problem of Deeptech Spinouts

Every month spent negotiating boilerplate is a month a young company isn't spending on the thing that was supposed to make it valuable in the first place.

26 August 2026·By Ines Almeida

Read article

Deep Dives

The Case for Starting Small

Why the most promising drugs often begin as the least impressive molecules.

12 August 2026·By Harold Grosjean

Read article

Deep Dives

Language Is Where AI Sovereignty Begins

Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo, Founder of NightOwl AI, on the languages AI hasn't learned, the safety tests it never ran, and why she's building her company smaller and more responsible.

21 July 2026·By Nessie Chu-Heng Lu

Read article

Deep Dives

Is This Venture's Moneyball Moment?

Venture capitalists say they back the best founders. The data suggests they back the best jaws.

19 June 2026·By Michael Hutson

Read article

Case Study

What Teens Say They Want and What They Actually Do

luna co-founder Jas Schembri-Stothart on building a health app for an audience that will tell you exactly what they need, and then behave completely differently.

2 June 2026·By Nessie Chu-Heng Lu

Read article

Insights

The Unwritten Audition: A Conversation with Dr. Susanna Kislenko

The Founder Pedestal doesn't exclude people. It just has one way in.

18 May 2026·By Nessie Chu-Heng Lu with Dr. Susanna Kislenko

Read article

Deep Dives

What UK and International HealthTech Founders Get Wrong About America

What the data shows, and what the data doesn't, on entering the hardest healthcare market in the world.

3 March 2026·By Benjamin (Benny) Axt

Read article

Nicola McConville at the Founders & Funders event

Insights

On the AI Bus, or Off It

Capital put more than half its money into one sector last year. For founders building the slow thing, the lesson is that your investor's clock decides your fate long before your science is ready.

2 December 2025·By Christiaan de Koning and Michael Collyer

Benny AxtNicola McConville

Read article

Aerial view of Oxford with the Radcliffe Camera

Deep Dives

From Oxford, with Love

Spinouts, supercomputers, and Silicon Valley titans: inside the hype and the hurdles of Oxford's innovation race.

12 November 2025·By Founders & Funders and Nessie Chu-Heng Lu

Read article

Ian Hardingham at the Founders & Funders event

Insights

The Case Against the Hot Market

Why patient, unfashionable markets may matter more than the next saturated gold rush.

4 November 2025·By Christiaan de Koning and Michael Collyer

Ian HardinghamCezary Skarżyński

Read article

Dr Cici Muldoon at the Founders & Funders kick-off event

Insights

Pivot Is the Strategy: What Two Oxford Founders Taught Us About Building Things That Last

On pivots as a method, the unglamorous work of fixing broken processes, and why a fragmented ecosystem may be the real brake on British innovation.

7 October 2025·By Christiaan de Koning and Michael Collyer

Dr Cici MuldoonLukas Feddern

Read article