Demo Night Bristol: Four Founders, One Room and a Lot of Energy
Oct 22, 2026
Last Wednesday, Demo Night Bristol moved into its new home: the community space at the Sloane Robinson Building on the University of Bristol's Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus.
We started with a fireside chat with Caroline Thompson from SETsquared Bristol, who talked about the new building and how founders can get involved with SETsquared. Then it was over to the founders.
The Startups Who Took Part
Bristol runs a speed-date format. Each founder gets five minutes to demo and five minutes of Q&A at a table, then moves on to the next table and does it all again. Four founders took on the challenge:
- Altrix Labs: a disruptive computer vision app that measures human body movement, presented by Parantha Narendran.
- Surveyr: real-time intelligent building inspections, presented by Amy Stone.
- MindsetOS: the mindset development platform for organisations, presented by Jake Hewlett.
- Stargentus: HPC and AI on one simple platform, with one team behind it, presented by Marc Lehrer.
The best part of the format is watching the stories change. Each round, the founders picked up on the questions, cut what wasn't landing and sharpened what was. By the last table, all four pitches were noticeably stronger.
People's Choice: Altrix Labs
When the audience voted, Altrix Labs came out on top. Congratulations to Parantha and the whole Altrix team. To be voted the favourite demo of the night by the community is something truly special.
Altrix now join this year's People's Choice cohort, with a dedicated community manager, 12 months of Canopy membership and 12 months of virtual incubation support.
Look out for our special interview with Parantha next week. We'll go deeper into the Altrix story, what they're building and where they're heading next. It will be on our blog and YouTube channel.
What the Room Told Us
Our Mentimeter showed that networking, curiosity and learning brought people along. Asked what they'd change about Demo Night, the only answer was: "Genuinely, nothing springs to mind."
For us, the best sign of the night was how many people stayed long after the voting, just to carry on talking and enjoy each other's company. That's the community we're building.
A huge thank you to Sophie Connolly for all the work behind the scenes that made the evening so special, to Caroline for the fireside chat, and to everyone who came along.
Join Us at the Next Bristol Demo Night
Whether you want to demo, invest, support or just get inspired, there's a place for you. Find the next Bristol Demo Nights and save your spot at lu.ma/canopy.