The Outliers Fund by Uncooked
11 fellows backed into the Oxford Cambridge Fellowship
software got cheap. the hard part moved to the physical world.
AI collapsed the cost of building software. So the bottleneck moved: to robots, chips, sensors, drones, energy and the factories that make them.
The next decade of interesting companies will be built on things that have to work outside a browser.
These fields are harder. The cycles are longer. The mistakes cost more. You don't learn them alone on a laptop.
The people building them are already here. In London and Cambridge. In Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, Leicester and Bristol. They're just spread out.
Software builders found their rooms. Physical builders are still looking. Robotics societies serve one campus. Deep tech events serve investors.
Bristol built some of the world's first autonomous robots, in the late 1940s. Today, the people who could build the next ones are spread across the country, rarely in the same place.
Being around other builders changes who you think you can ask, and how fast you think you can move. So Labs puts the people building hard things in the same room.
I believe who you're around shapes what you build more than talent does.
what we believe.
Proof over pedigree
What you've built says more than where you studied.
Rooms over group chats
Real things on the table, real people around them.
Everywhere, not just London
The talent is spread out, across the UK, Europe and North America. The rooms should reach them too.
Small egos, useful rooms
Founders explain their trade-offs. Students ask the sharp question. Everyone leaves with a next step.
All of it towards our mission:
1 million young people into meaningful opportunities by 2030.
rooms first. then a home.
Today, Labs is rooms: panels, hackathons, demos and the people you meet in them.
Next: more cities, real projects to build together, and partners who back builders early.
In time, a space of our own. Somewhere you can walk in, pick up the tools and build alongside other people. What it grows into is still open, and the people who join now will help shape it.
help build Labs and join the team behind it.
Ask anyone who's built something who got them into their first room. They'll have a name.
Labs is not for profit. It's run by people who want to be that name for someone else.
give back
Details
Hard tech session, Muslim Tech Fest
6 June 2026
Help someone into their first room.
grow Labs
United Kingdom›England
City Nation London England Cambridge England Oxford England Manchester England Glasgow Scotland Cardiff Wales Leicester England Bristol England Cities
- London
- Cambridge
- Oxford
- Manchester
- Glasgow
- Cardiff
- Leicester
- Bristol
Bring Labs to new campuses and cities.
learn from builders
Rich WalkerDirector, Shadow Robot Company
James BrownManaging Director, NextGenRI (Unitree UK)
Radhika GudipatiInnovation Lead, ARIA
10 Dec 2025Learn alongside founders and people building.
where you could help
- MarketingReach the builder who doesn't know we exist yet.
- DesignPosters, event visuals and the look of our sites.
- VideoFilm what happens in our rooms and cut it so others can see it.
- Events and operationsRun the room on the day, from venue to last person out.
- PartnershipsBring in the founders, mentors and sponsors who make a room worth coming to.
- Tech and devBuild the tools that run Labs.
- Campus ambassadorsBring Labs to your university and run events there.
- MentoringHelp a student take their next step, from first project to first intro.
how to join the team.
It's the same form you use to join Labs.
Near the end, you'll be asked if you'd like to help build Labs.
Tell us the area you'd like to work on and what you'd bring, and we'll get in touch to talk it through.
I designed the format, the networking structure, and the posters you saw around the event. Then I got to watch it come alive.
The room was packed. People weren't just exchanging contacts, they were finding their people.
