In this brief you’ll find:
How to Build a Product as a Non-Technical Founder | May 1, Online
An X26 online session on building a product as a non-technical founder – a practical, no-fluff breakdown of how to go from idea to working product. Cedric has been building BetterBrain since 2023 on a mission to make dementia a disease of the past. He'll share what he's learned navigating the technical side as a non-technical founder.
Status: Registration open
Austin Founder Mixer with Nevin Kamath | May 14, Texas
Casual mixer bringing together McKinsey alumni founders and investors. Hosted by xMcKinsey Nevin Kamath. Nevin scouts and invests in early-stage life sciences and cleantech companies led by founders tackling hard, meaningful problems.
Status: Registration open
YC Application Support Workshop | May 29, Online
Working session by YC & McKinsey alumni, helping founders refine and strengthen their YC applications.
Status: Registration open
Founder Retreat | June 11-14, French Alps
We’re excited to share with you an upcoming founder retreat organised by ex-McKinsey founder & coach – Alexander Volz, together with the founder and CTO of QuantumBlack – Sam Bourton.
Status: Registration open
Montreal Founder Dinner with Ghislain | June 11, Montreal
X26 is hosting a small, invitation-only dinner for a select group of founders in Montreal hosted by Ghislain Gagné, CEO & Co-Founder of StratosX and former Canada lead for McKinsey's QuantumBlack.
Status: Registration open
Introducing X26 Office Hours !
One of the most requested things in X26 is time with founders who've been there.
A handful of experienced founders are opening up 30-minute slots for one-on-one conversations with aspiring xMcKinsey founders. Submit a request to speak with any experienced founder below.
Dr. Philip Rothhardt · xMcKinsey Digital · Ex-COO, CoachHub ·
General management leader with a track record of scaling tech companies through hypergrowth. Part of the core leadership team that scaled CoachHub to >1,000 employees, ~€50M ARR and >$330M in total funding. Led global teams (EMEA, US, APAC) across Product, Engineering, Data, Customer Experience, and Customer Success with full P&L responsibility. Owned cross-company initiatives including OKRs, M&A, post-merger integration, and fundraising. PhD in Physics with patented solar cell technology.
Talk to Philip about: scaling operations and teams, internationalization, Series A-C fundraising, M&A and post-merger integration, hypergrowth company building
Daniel Csonth · xMcKinsey · CEO & Founder, Veridue AI ·
Building AI to automate the $500B spent on paperwork in energy infrastructure investment. $10B+ in energy M&A track record at McKinsey and PE. Master's from Yale in Data Science & Sustainability. Proven startup builder — first PM hire at a travel tech startup he helped scale from seed to Series B, taking one product from 0 to $1M ARR in 6 months. Published thought leader on product management (featured in O'Reilly's Product Management Essentials). Yale OpenLab sprint facilitator and blockchain + energy researcher.
Talk to Daniel about: energy/climate tech, AI product builds, B2B SaaS scaling, early-stage fundraising, product-market fit
Shilin Chen · xMcKinsey · Co-founder & CEO, SmartClaim ·
Building AI that empowers UK R&D tax relief advisors. SmartClaim now supports 30+ R&D advisory firms, indirectly supporting ~5% of all UK R&D tax claims. Cambridge-educated with a philosophy background that shaped the product's clean, simple UX. Hit product-market fit early and now focused on scaling 2-5x. Featured on the Tax, Tech & Other Stuff podcast discussing AI's role in reshaping R&D tax advisory.
Talk to Shilin about: B2B SaaS for professional services, AI product development, UK fintech/tax tech, early-stage founding, McKinsey-to-founder transition
If you're a founder willing to share what you've learned with xMcKinsey entrepreneurs earlier in their journey, we'd love to have you. Any commitment is welcome.
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.