In this brief you’ll find:
Effective and efficient AI deployments in the age of FDEs: learnings from across app software to industrials | October 1, San Francisco
Alex Wilson and Lucia Keijer-Palau are hosting a dinner for X26 founders on behalf of Generation Investment Management's growth equity fund, whose investments include Ramp, Octopus Energy, Toast and Spring Health. Both are ex-McKinsey, and Lucia previously served as CPO at Europe's largest energy operations business, where she rebuilt a consulting business around a forward-deployed engineering model.
It's an open discussion on why some AI deployments deliver and others stall, covering energy and cost, the infra stack and FDE.
Status: Registration open
FoundHer Circle: An Off-the-Record AMA with Three Investors | October 1, Online
For women founders fundraising now or planning to soon. Most founder–investor conversations happen on stage, in a pitch, or with a check on the line; this one is a relaxed AMA held under Chatham House Rule with Jenny Fielding (GP and Co-Founder, Everywhere Ventures), Adela Jamal (GP and Co-Founder, Milemark Capital) and Naomi Goez (Partner, Forum Ventures). Bring the questions you actually want answered. The session will also cover where fundraising gets harder for women and how to pitch from a position of strength. Registration is reviewed, so sign up early.
Hosted by FoundHer Circle, a small community of women founders built by McKinsey alum Deeya D'Souza. It runs founder dinners of around eight people, mostly in NYC, plus virtual sessions like this one.
Status: Registration open
Masterclass in Sales & Product-Market Fit | October 2, Online
Rob Snyder works with B2B founders in the founder-led sales stage, between first customer conversations and $1M ARR. He's ex-McKinsey, an HBS graduate, a Fellow at Harvard Innovation Labs and author of The Power of PULL, and took his own startup from $0 to $4M ARR in two years.
He'll walk through how to treat each sales call as a way to learn what you're really selling and who is actually buying, then open the floor to questions such as whether you're facing a sales problem or a product-market fit problem. Submit your question and upload a sales call for Rob to give personal feedback on. Best suited to founders who are actively selling and still working out what lands.
Status: Registration open
YC Application Support Workshop | October 9, Online
Join Reece Griffiths and other YC founders for a live support session designed for founders working on their YC application. As YC alumni and ex-McKinsey operators, they've been through the process, and know what it actually takes to stand out.
Status: Registration open
Female Founders Dinner | October 15, San Francisco
A small invitation-only dinner for a group of female founders in San Francisco.
The evening brings together eight women currently building companies for an honest conversation about the realities of the work, and to grow the community of female founders we're forming within X26. With only eight seats, it's built for depth rather than scale.
The dinner will be hosted by Diana Khramina, Co-Founder & CEO at Praxis - which is joining YC in the Fall batch this year!
Status: Registration open
Founders Dinner | October 22, San Francisco
A small X26 dinner in San Francisco for a handful of established ex-McKinsey founders, kept relaxed and intentionally intimate for good conversation.
Hosted by Zamir Akimbekov, founder and CEO of Cayu (specialised agents for physical-world finance execution, starting in energy), ex-C3 AI FDE, ex-McKinsey, PhD in ChemE from UC Davis; and Hesham Younis, a digital health leader with 20+ years commercialising medtech and virtual care, who built the partner acquisition engine at Enara Health; ex-McKinsey, MIT PhD in biomechanics.
Status: Registration open
Austin Founders Mixer | October 28, Austin
This is a gathering designed for McKinsey alumni who left to build, swapping notes over drinks.
Your host Nevin Kamath scouts and invests in early-stage life sciences and cleantech companies led by founders tackling hard, meaningful problems. He also founded Human Liberty Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on democratic resilience. Background spans law, consulting, entrepreneurship, and community organizing – and he's deeply plugged into the Austin founder ecosystem.
Status: Registration open
Founders Dinner | October 29, New York
A small X26 dinner for a handful of established ex-McKinsey founders in New York designed for thoughtful conversation and meaningful connections.
Your host Reece Griffiths is a co-founder of X26 and a YC S23 alumnus. He previously founded and sold Deasy Labs to Collibra, and has been building and backing ex-McKinsey founders ever since.
Status: Registration open
Companies We’ve Backed:
X26 is proud to have backed the following four McKinsey founders who participated in the past YC batch.
For more information on our fund and future investment opportunities, register your interest here.
Mochatrade lets global traders trade top US stocks using perpetual futures. (YCP26)
Our agents retrieve and synthesize all the records law firms need to start a personal injury case. (YCP26)
Flowscope is an AI implementation firm that deploys agents to map, optimize, and automate companies’ processes end to end. (YCP26)
Transload helps logistics companies measure shipments using the security cameras they already have. (YCP26)
A growing number of X26 members have been through YC, including our co-founder Reece Griffiths (S23), and many of them have offered to help the next wave of ex-McKinsey founders do the same. If you're considering an application, we can give you insight into how the process works, coaching from founders who have been through it, reviews of your application, and support from the first draft through to interview and beyond.
If that sounds useful, apply below and we'll be in touch.
Pre-seed | $3M | London / SF / Netherlands
AI employees as a service for the back office: Periscope learns how a company works, builds AI employees to carry out those processes with guardrails, and measures the hours and money saved, in a $100B+ market.
First version built, with the first install completed in September alongside a Regional Director at The Marketing Centre, the UK's largest fractional CMO network (100+ fractional CMOs, 1,400+ UK businesses), who is bringing Periscope into his client portfolio.
First pilot lined up with a £50M-revenue EV charging firm, and a second design partner, Kiddom (B2B edtech), in scoping. The founding team brings experience from ElevenLabs (employee 5 and first growth hire) and McKinsey.
Pretesh Patel (CRO) is ex-McKinsey (Associate), where he worked on AI transformation engagements.
Email us if you would like an introduction.
Ex-McKinsey Founder’s Database
Ex-McKinsey Investor’s Database
Thanks for being a part of this amazing community. We’re excited for everything that’s to come.
Love,
The X26 team.