Lunch + Learn: Slough
Lunch+Learn is a monthly series at Plus X Innovation designed to support the growth of entrepreneurs, founders, and scaling businesses.
Each session brings practical learning, expert advice, and real-world examples across various topics relevant to the challenges of today’s businesses.
Whether you're looking to scale, improve leadership skills, or understand key funding routes, these sessions are tailored to provide actionable insights you can apply right away.
Sessions include a mix of presentations and Q&A, along with lunch to keep you energised while networking with like-minded individuals.
Join our next Lunch + Learn:
Evolution of a Startup
📅 27th May 2026, 12:00 - 1:00 PM
Matthew Simmonds explores the changing priorities as a startup matures through funding rounds and major milestones.
Growing a startup from an unfunded idea to a ready-to-exit business is a journey with many stages. Learn what matters at each stage, and how to tell where in that journey your startup is now. Gain from Matthew Simmonds's experience to prepare for the future and navigate common pitfalls.
Matthew Simmonds is familiar with this journey. As chief technical officer and then managing director of Entocycle, Matthew led a startup through phases of research and development, growth, and acquisition. Now he helps founders navigate their own "Valley of Death", sharing his 15 years of startup experience across product development, research, commercialisation, scaling operations, and fundraising.
What you'll learn
- What are challenger brands, and what do they do differently?
- How can a brand reframe its category to create competitive advantage?
- Why is a mission essential for growth?
- How can a business make an impact without large marketing spend?
- Who can use this, and how can you apply this to your own business?
Who should attend
- Founders seeking to disrupt an established marketplace.
- Marketeers who want to understand how some companies punch far above their weight.
- CEOs looking for a creative edge when spend is limited.
- Product owners looking to not just launch, but land their product, successfully, with their target customers.
Lunch + Learn Experts
A brand and communications professional with over a decade’s experience shaping clear, compelling narratives for mission-led companies.As Head of Brand & Marketing at climate-tech start-up Entocycle, Jude secured tier one media coverage across major outlets including BBC, The Guardian, The New York Times, Sifted and Sky News. Across over 10 years at eatbigfish, Jude helped challenger brands challenge the status quo to achieve outsized impact.
Bill is a brand strategy consultant and creative director – the founder of Brandad in Brighton.
He specialises in helping businesses to create, grow and build authentic and impactful brands.
With over 25 years of international agency experience, he now guides start-ups, SMEs and entrepreneurs through brand purpose, positioning, storytelling, and identity development. Bill’s experience and insights help businesses align their values with their goals, creating meaningful connections with their audiences.
Justin Megawarne helps founders and SME leaders make technology work for humans, eliminating complexity and unlocking real business value. Justin has advised organisations of all sizes and stages, with his work frequently delivering 5x–30x valuation growth. Known for his integrity, technical and strategic clarity, and “skin in the game” approach, he treats every client’s business as if it were his own.
Why attend
For more infomation visit Mayor of London and GOV.
The people I have met here make it a dream coming in a few times a week! I don't see myself being able to go back to working from home the same way I did before coming to Plus X Innovation, I don't think I could leave the sense of community behind. It really is something everyone who is working from home should try!
Central Research Laboratory has contributed to our journey in many ways: access to a network, manufacturing, procurement services, and workshop facilities. CRL enables us to feel like a slightly bigger company than we would otherwise be if left to our own devices. Being here at CRL as a cohort member, makes it feel a lot more real and plugged in into the ecosystem.
Besides the workshop facilities, the best thing about working in the Brighton hub has got to be being able to collaborate with people in the same building as you. The variety of expertise and experience in the building is awesome.
We could not be in a better place to grow as a company. We get amazing support from the Plus X Innovation staff, plus collaboration opportunities with the other inspiring residents and companies. We feel like we’re living in the future of workplaces in the present and that is pretty damn cool.
Through my time at Plus X Innovation my business has turned from a student project into a registered R&D company. My favourite thing about being at Plus X Brighton is having a mini family in the office and a beautiful space to be the best you and make the best connections.
The Lunch + Learn experience
What to expect on the day:
- Monthly, bite-sized learning sessions designed to fit into a lunch break.
- Engaging mix of presentations and live Q&A with industry experts.
- Complimentary lunch included to keep you energised and support relaxed networking.
- Hands-on discussion segments or peer exchange moments — share your challenges and learn from real examples.
