What We Learned at Climb26

A founder sat down with an idea she'd been thinking about and wanting to create for two years. Minutes later, she had a clickable design of it on her screen.

That happened for everyone else in the room too, at Leeds Dock, on day one.

We've been lucky enough to speak at Climb before - Sara Simeone has known the Climb team for many years - but this year, as NoCodeLab, we went bigger: five sessions across the two days, three hands-on workshops and two stage conversations. Here's what stood out, for anyone running a business rather than writing code for one.

Three workshops, built to create something real

Nobody came to these sessions for a lecture. They came to leave with something real.

In our Vibe Coding workshop with Lovable, people went from a simple written idea to a live, working product, ready to share with a real URL, before anyone left the room. A few years ago that would have taken a team and a funding round. Now it happens over lunch.

In our rapid prototyping session with Google Stitch, people arrived with nothing but an idea, no technical background at all. Using NoCodeLab's Product Requirement Document prompt, they turned it into a clickable frontend design in minutes. The moment that mattered wasn't the design itself. It was watching someone realise the idea in their head didn't need a developer, a budget, or six months. It needed a prompt and a few minutes of expert guidance.

And in our session with Minds by Animoca Brands, people built their first AI agent: something that keeps working on its own, rather than needing constant re-briefing. 

The pattern was the same in all three rooms. People weren't unsure whether AI could help their business. They just hadn't had the time to sit down, be guided and see it for themselves. Once they did, they went from thinkers to builders.

Two stage conversations, one shared thread

We also joined two brilliant sessions, and both circled back to the same idea from different angles.

The first was "The Future of Agents," a conversation with Mohamed Ezeldin of Minds by Animoca Brands. The topic: what changes when a business runs AI continuously in the background, rather than opening a tool when someone remembers to. His point stuck with us. The businesses that win over the next few years won't be the ones who use AI cleverly in the moment. They'll be the ones who let it run quietly, all the time, picking up what people forget.

The second was a panel with a focus on sales, hosted by Rich Williams alongside co-panelists Mark Taylor, Liz Rhodes and Mehrdad Sadraei. The stickiest questions in the room didn't come from technical teams. They came from sales leaders, asking how AI actually helps them close more deals and build a stronger pipeline, not as a gimmick, but as something they can rely on, continuously. Technical teams got a head start on AI a couple of years ago. Sales and commercial teams are now catching up fast.

The question in the room

Climb26 was the perfect fit for us. Thousands of people came through this year, alongside a strong turnout of active investors, and the audience seemed to genuinely love what we do. We've now trained 3,200 people, and rooms like these are exactly why we keep showing up to them.

But the numbers weren't what stood out most. What stood out was the same question, asked by different people in different rooms: can I actually build this myself, without hiring anyone?

The answer, most likely, is that you already have the skills, the knowledge, and the know-how to do it yourself, or to empower your team to. Leeds gave us two days of sharing that…much to many people’s amazement. 

With thanks

A brilliant two days, made possible by great of people:

Climb26 and Gordon Bateman, for having us back. We're already looking forward to Climb27, and to working with the team over the year ahead.

Mohamed Ezeldin and Jason Ong at Minds by Animoca Brands

Rich Williams, for hosting a brilliant panel, and our co-panelists, Mark Taylor, Liz Rhodes and Mehrdad Sadraei

News on next AI Coding Autumn Accelerator will be announced coming very soon.

Missed us at Climb26? Book a free call or come find us at The Lab.