TechTides

Derry~Londonderry

Perdie is a serial founder, and currently VC/Startup Partnerships at Zendesk for Startups. With over 10 years experience in the startup ecosystem, supporting thousands of founders and investors across multiple roles, Perdie has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by fast growing startups, and the investors who fund them. Prior to Zendesk, Perdie’s work was instrumental in scaling startup communities. She co-founded and ran Hotbed, an accelerator that supported 1000+ fundraising startups, and she served as Head of Programme at TechHub, a cornerstone of London’s tech scene, where she managed extensive events and community initiatives for 400 tech businesses. She’s also spent time designing and delivering impactful entrepreneurship programmes in London, Greece, and Ghana, and has operated within a hyper-growth environment at the Unicorn tech scale-up, Reward Gateway. Perdie is also an active angel investor with 8 startups in her portfolio.

A software engineer by trade, Alan began his career building websites for the BBC before the dot-com bubble burst. Alan has worked on Wall Street, in the sleepy Cotswold countryside, the swamps of Louisiana, and the big smoke of Belfast. A pragmatic entrepreneur with a relentless ambition to build a world-class product-led technology company in Northern Ireland and IPO it. Alan lives with his wife, two dogs and a mischievous cat, on a windy drumlin in County Down with bad internet.

Cathy founded CEW Communications in 2016, a boutique European agency that supports fast-growing tech scaleups, VCs, and the ecosystem around them. Cathy has a real passion for partnering with growing companies where she can have an impact on their business through communications. Previously, she was Head of Communications for Tech Nation and led Communications & Marketing for Seedcamp. The CEW team works closely with Founders to help them get their messages to market for the first time through strategic communications and as they scale. CEW is well-regarded for its agile and startup-friendly approach, supporting PR, social, and content. Clients include businesses across AI, DeepTech, FinTech, HealthTech, and more. Current and past clients include APEX Ventures, Algorithmiq, Exceptional Ventures, Glovo, Mondu, and Sleepwave.

Jerry is a tech entrepreneur and founder of IntrinsicAi, a company specialising in applied artificial intelligence. He builds intelligent systems that help organisations think faster, work smarter, and do more with less. With over 20 years’ experience in digital transformation, Jerry brings deep expertise across machine learning, data engineering, and software engineering. Certified in machine learning and cloud architecture, his work spans large language models, computer vision, blockchain, and agentic system design, always focused on real-world impact rather than theory. He is also the founder of ChainMill, a new venture using AI and blockchain to create a greener, smarter, and more compliant steel supply chain. ChainMill tackles emissions reporting, trade complexity, and procurement inefficiencies in one of the world’s most carbon-intensive industries. Jerry is passionate about how humans and machines collaborate, and how we design intelligent systems that augment human capability rather than replace it. His work sits at the intersection of technology, strategy, and practical adoption, helping organisations turn AI from hype into capability.

Wil is the Cofounder & Director at Metta, an innovation agency supporting startups, industry and governments with sustainable technology-driven innovation. He has led corporate and government backed accelerators and ecosystem initiatives globally, including Aerospace Xelerated, and the Kuwait Digital Startup Campus, supporting startups, investors, and founders at every stage. Before Metta, he was the Venture & Ecosystem Director at the ATI Boeing Accelerator and Programme Director at the Ignite Accelerator. Across the programmes he has designed and delivered, Wil has directly supported over 100 early-stage businesses and helped invest over £4m into them. He is also a former co-founder and CEO of Chew, a music-tech startup acquired in 2017 after scaling to ~400,000 global users, and an alumnus of Ignite [Prog. 5, Winter 2014]. Wil is an active investor (40+ investments to date, both personally and via VC funds) and startup mentor/advisor. In his free time, he manages three chart-topping record labels, enjoys riding his bike and DJing around Europe.

Gabi is co-founder and behavioural scientist at Metta, a transformative innovation agency helping organisations and startups accelerate growth, embed sustainable practices, and make innovation more accessible. She brings a rare combination of experience as an entrepreneur, intrapreneur, investor, and programme leader, designing and delivering innovation programmes that create real impact. She has led accelerators and ecosystem initiatives globally, including ATI Boeing Accelerator, Ignite, Aerospace Xelerated, and the Kuwait Digital Startup Campus, supporting startups, investors, and founders at every stage. Gabi also co-founded Mindmate, an Ignite and Techstars NYC alumni company, where she served as CMO, and has since supported over 150 startups directly while mentoring hundreds more. An active angel investor and Limited Partner at Carbon13, Gabi focuses on sustainability, health tech, and underrepresented founders. She is also a host of The Innovation Brief podcast, sharing insights on emerging trends in innovation.