People's Choice at Cornwall Demo Night: Meet UnaGo's Tom Ring and Max Mednikov

At Canopy Community's Cornwall demo night, the audience cast their votes — and two founders walked away with the People's Choice award. Tom Ring and Max Mednikov, the team behind UnaGo, earned that recognition not just for building something impressive, but for telling the kind of story that reminds every first-time founder why she started.

Meet Tom Ring, Max Mednikov, and UnaGo

UnaGo is an agentic AI platform that lets you train your own AI agent to handle the routine, repetitive work that quietly devours a founder's week. Marketing automation, competitive research, analytics, social media management, video and image creation, browser automation — all triggered from a single prompt.

The vision is deceptively simple: free humans from grinding spreadsheets and low-value tasks so they can spend their time on the strategic and creative work that actually moves the needle. UnaGo is currently focused on marketing automation, but the long-term potential stretches far beyond any single vertical. Canopy Community is already an early adopter — using UnaGo credits as part of our own operations — so when we say this platform delivers, we mean it firsthand.

From Bandmates to Business Partners

Tom moved to Newquay after years working overseas. He formed a band — rock and grunge, the kind of music that fills a room with energy.

Max had long dreamed of living by the ocean. He ended up in Newquay almost by chance, heard about the band through a studio owner, and applied to be the guitarist. They played together, became friends, and from that friendship a startup grew.

They are believed to be the first founding team to have met through a band. Their setlist has evolved with the lineup — their younger singer loves pop, so Britney Spears and Chappell Roan now sit alongside the grunge classics. It is the kind of origin story that a first-time founder discovers is rarer than she thinks: a genuine, unplanned human connection that became the foundation for something serious.

Cornwall's Startup Moment

Newquay is not the obvious place to build a tech startup. That, in many ways, is exactly the point.

Cornwall is growing its own startup ecosystem — one built around community hubs, ocean-adjacent quality of life, and the kind of serendipity that happens when interesting people end up in the same place for different reasons. Tom came looking for a new chapter. Max came looking for the sea. Both found a community of builders who were doing the same.

For an early-stage investor or a first-time founder wondering whether geography still matters in the age of remote work, Cornwall is a compelling answer: place still shapes people, and people still shape startups.

The Demo Night Win

Matt hosted the Cornwall demo night — a live event where early-stage founders pitch to an audience of founders, advisors, and investors, and the People's Choice award is voted on by the room.

Winning as a two-founder team carries its own particular meaning. A co-founder relationship is tested in public the moment the pitch begins — the energy between two people on stage either builds trust or erodes it. Tom and Max built it. The audience noticed.

As People's Choice winners, Tom and Max receive 12 months of virtual incubation with Canopy Community — mentorship, network access, and the kind of structured support that gives an AI startup the runway to grow with intention.

Advice from the People's Choice Winners

Tom's advice for any founder preparing her first demo night pitch is precise and generous in equal measure.

"Build a clear story — problem, solution, proof. Don't talk too much about how difficult the build was or how cool it is inside. Be precise about your timelines. Make it plausible."

That is the pitch framework a first-time founder can use tonight. Strip out the technical pride. Lead with the problem. Show the solution. Prove it works. Then stop.

What's Next for UnaGo

UnaGo soft-launched the day after the Cornwall demo night interview. The major public launch is set for 2nd June, with marketing lead Andrea heading up promotion.

On the fundraising side, Tom and Max are raising £1M — structured under SEIS, with the remainder under EIS — targeting completion this year. They are actively seeking investor introductions, early testers, and feedback from the community. If you are an early-stage investor looking at agentic AI, this is a round worth watching.

The team heads to Bristol's Engine Shed the following day for Canopy's Bristol demo night — a speed-date format where founders meet Stewart in person. The momentum is real, and it is building fast.

In a generous community gesture, UnaGo has also offered free credits to all People's Choice winners as a prize — a signal of the kind of founders Tom and Max are.

Connect with Tom and Max

If you'd like to learn more about what Tom and Max are building, you can connect with Tom on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/tomring75 and with Max at linkedin.com/in/maxmednikov.

About Canopy Community Demo Nights

Canopy Community hosts monthly demo nights across Europe and globally online, bringing together early-stage founders, investors, and advisors from across the world. Each event features live startup pitches, expert panel feedback, and the People's Choice award — voted for by the audience and judges combined. Whether you're a founder ready to pitch, an investor looking for early-stage deal flow, or a supporter of the startup ecosystem, there's a place for you at demo night. Find out more and register at lu.ma/canopy.