![\"Outside](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Outside-at-Climb-25.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSomething felt different about Climb 25.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe it was following a live band performance with speeches from entrepreneur Richard Harpin, who scaled HomeServe from the ground up to a \u00a34.1bn valuation, and the CEO of Leeds City Council.<\/p>\n
Potentially, it was interviewing the mastermind behind the event, Gordon Bateman, whilst he managed to find a quiet spot to eat nachos and drink a deserved pint.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Or it could\u2019ve been walking around a tech festival and seeing Dame Laura Kenny as well as the Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, prepping for a talk just a few yards away.<\/p>\n
It may have even been something as simple but unique as looking at multiple food stalls, from coffee carts to Asian street food, right by the entrance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Outside at Climb 25<\/p>\n
Now this might be an easy thing to say for someone without a wealth of experience in attending tech conferences, but Climb 25 just felt like a welcome change to your usual UK event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly what Gordon wanted \u2013 a unique, intimate event that genuinely helps attendees. It\u2019s about people, not exclusively business.<\/p>\n
The goal of ClimbUK<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cBy doing what we do, I can help 2,000 people at this event in one whack,\u201d he tells me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s up to them whether or not they take that any further themselves. Some won\u2019t but it\u2019s probably different here because we do attract an amazing quality of audience and this allows us to do what we do.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, I want to help people. And that might be about their wellbeing, it might be about their business, it could be about whatever.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just focus on business, because that\u2019s what I know more about.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are nearly 400 speakers here in the heart of Leeds across the two-day festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Situated on Leeds Dock, it\u2019s a daunting task to even figure out where to go with the sheer number of goings-on when you get there.<\/p>\n
Giant living room<\/b><\/p>\n
After the buzz of the launch event, which saw Bateman, Climb Group executive partner Ian McAtee, Brabin and Ed Whiting of Leeds City Council take to the stage \u2013 all expertly panelled by veteran journalist Tanya Arnold \u2013 I head to the quieter cinema room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a bit of a mooch from the main \u2018Summit Stage\u2019 and it\u2019s a completely different atmosphere.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s almost like sitting in a giant version of your living room, with comfy sofas and a real relaxed feel to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Cinema](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Cinema-room-Climb-25.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Cinema room, Climb 25<\/p>\n
One of the speakers in this room is Laura Harper, partner at Lewis Silkin, which recently won \u2018Firm of the Year\u2019 at the Lawyer Awards 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really prestigious award for us,\u201d she tells me after being on a panel chaired by Game Republic managing director Jamie Sefton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Laura specialises in advising businesses in the gaming and creative industries, where AI is even more of a key figure than it is elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She adds: \u201cI think it is very important. It solves quite a lot of complicated problems in terms of regulatory issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can also use assistive AI to monitor content on a game or a platform, for example, or to monitor chats and user content.\u201d<\/p>\n
From New York to London to Leeds<\/b><\/p>\n
Most Climb 25 attendees would\u2019ve got their steps in on the first day, but not many would\u2019ve travelled as far as Nell Daly over the past few days.<\/p>\n
![\"Nell](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Nell-Daly-Climb-25.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Nell Daly at Climb 25<\/p>\n
Despite the \u2018slight jet lag\u2019 after a Transatlantic flight, the American-born practising psychotherapist, TV regular and now-venture capitalist is still determined to tell her story in West Yorkshire.<\/p>\n
Nell used to be a social worker and saw first-hand the discrimination people had suffered.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This fuelled the fire to launch Revenge Capital \u2013 a London and New York-centred, evergreen, sector-agnostic venture capital firm focused on investing in usually-overlooked founders.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re a psychotherapist, you become obsessed with the idea of self-agency and people being able to live free lives and fully expressed lives,\u201d she explains to me in the media room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was treating a lot of people with depression and anxiety in my office as a psychotherapist, and I realised that what I really needed to do, after doing that for 13 years, was to make that move.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to figure out how I can help more people have economic empowerment in their own lives in order to improve their mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n
Revenge Capital is now a $70m fund \u2013 just five years after the self-taught investor birthed the idea.<\/p>\n
The harsh truths\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cNobody likes being told that their baby is ugly,\u201d specialist mentor Nicky Dibben tells the Elevate Stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She isn\u2019t to be taken literally, but metaphorically \u2013 responding to being quizzed by Naomi Timperley on why some entrepreneurs are too scared to have conversations with potential customers and investors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we just continue developing the way we thought we were going to develop, nobody\u2019s going to tell us what not to do,\u201d she continues.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut also, when you\u2019re going out there into the market, I keep saying, \u2018you\u2019re having conversations, they\u2019re only conversations\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re only making notes, you\u2019re not making promises. You don\u2019t have to pivot just because someone suggested it. Your strategy is not the last sentence the last person said to you in the last meeting \u2013 it\u2019s much more than that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you have to balance getting this input. You make notes and you ask them who else you should speak to and you keep repeating that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the customer discovery and market research side of things that\u2019s tricky if you haven\u2019t done it before, but you have to remember: don\u2019t ask people what they want, because they can\u2019t tell you.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople can tell you what they don\u2019t want and they can tell you what they\u2019ve done before, but they can\u2019t tell you what they want. So if you go out saying, \u2018what do you want?\u2019, you\u2019re not going to get the right answers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going for Gold<\/b><\/p>\n
It would be wrong to miss out on listening to Britain\u2019s most decorated female Olympian and the first British woman to win gold medals in three consecutive editions of the iconic Games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In case you needed a reminder, Dame Laura famously won gold at London 2012, Rio 2016 and finally at Tokyo 2020 \u2013 after giving birth to her son, Albie.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Dame](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Dame-Laura-Croft-Climb-25.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Dame Laura Croft, Climb 25<\/p>\n
Despite being a national hero, she exudes modesty when discussing her achievements.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always going to come back (to competitive cycling after giving birth), there was no question about it,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember one of the first conversations I ever had with Sir David Brailsford, and he said to me, \u2018what do you want to do after?\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just talking for a while and I said, \u2018I really want to be a young mum\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, when I said it, I\u2019d never really thought about an \u2018after\u2019. I was 19, I didn\u2019t even know Jason (Kenny) at the time, but then we got married and I was in a position where I really wanted to pause my career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople thought I was absolutely mental in doing so. To be honest, I didn\u2019t start questioning myself until Christmastime; it was just after I had told my mum and dad.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pregnant and I remember sitting up in bed on Christmas Eve at about 3am and I was saying, \u2018Jason, I can\u2019t do this\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHis response was: \u2018Well, you should have maybe told me that before. This is happening.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this is way too much to have to deal with on its own, but even with those thoughts, I always knew I wanted to try and win another gold medal. I wanted to prove that it was possible and you\u2019ve got to set insane targets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were obviously times where I was thinking, \u2018why have I done this? This is just beyond me, it\u2019s just way too hard\u2019, but I\u2019ve surrounded myself with a really tight group of people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like to work with a big team. It\u2019s never really been me, and my people managed to get me to where I was.\u201d<\/p>\n
There will be more exclusive BusinessCloud content from Climb 25 as the crowds flock to Leeds for day two of the event.<\/p>\n
And after getting my tech festival chops, I\u2019ll be heading to Lisbon in November for Web Summit!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Something felt different about Climb 25.\u00a0 Maybe it was following a live band performance with speeches from entrepreneur…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,25554,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-240669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-businesscloud","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-leeds","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114801908744287017","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}