Lisbon, 9-12 November 2026

There are conferences you go to because everyone else seems to be going.

And then there are conferences where, for a few days, a huge part of the global startup ecosystem effectively moves into the same city.

Web Summit is firmly in the second category.

This November, more than 70,000 people, 1,500 investors and 2,500 startups are expected to descend on Lisbon. There will be founders looking for funding, companies looking for customers, investors looking for the next big opportunity, and plenty of people trying to work out what the next big shift in technology actually means for their business. 

That scale can be both the attraction and the problem.

Because if you simply turn up, listen to a few big names and collect 50 LinkedIn connections, you might come home wondering what you actually achieved.

The real opportunity is to use Web Summit as a concentrated business development, learning and relationship-building exercise.

And 2026 looks particularly interesting.

So, what's happening at Web Summit this year?

Web Summit takes place at Lisbon's MEO Arena from 9-12 November, bringing together startups, investors, technology companies, media and business leaders from around the world. 

The headline speakers give you a pretty good indication of where the conversation is heading.

The 2026 line-up includes Richard Socher of You.com and Recursive, Matthew Prince of Cloudflare, Mike Cannon-Brookes of Atlassian, Michele Catasta of Replit, Tao Zhang of Manus AI, Danielle Perszyk from Amazon's AGI Lab, Philippe Botteri of Accel, Markus Villig of Bolt and Nancy Wang of Felicis Ventures.

There are also some interesting voices from outside the traditional technology bubble, including Zanny Minton Beddoes of The Economist, Maria Sharapova, James Vowles of Williams F1 and Real Madrid footballer and investor Thibaut Courtois. 

And the first 70 talks already give us a good idea of the themes.

There's a lot around AI agents, the future of the internet, AI and media, AI infrastructure and the changing relationship between humans and technology.

One session asks "When AI builds itself".

Another asks "The agentic internet: Who controls the web?"

And another brings together Atlassian's Mike Cannon-Brookes and Williams F1's James Vowles to discuss AI and the human at 300km/h. 

That tells us something important.

The AI conversation is moving on.

We're increasingly past "Look what AI can do" and into the much more interesting question of:

"What happens to businesses when AI becomes part of how they actually operate?"

But is Web Summit actually useful for founders?

This is probably the more important question.

A big event can easily become four expensive days of talks, coffee and conversations that go nowhere.

But there is a genuine opportunity here because of the density of people in the room.

Imagine trying to find:

• 10 potential investors
• 10 potential customers
• 5 international partners
• A handful of experienced founders
• People working on the same emerging technology
• Someone who understands the market you're trying to enter

Normally, that could take months.

At Web Summit, they're potentially all in the same place.

That doesn't mean you'll meet them.

It means you have the opportunity to.

And that's an important distinction.

The networking is probably more valuable than the stage

This is something founders can easily get backwards.

You see a huge speaker line-up and think the main value is going to be sitting in the audience listening to famous people.

Of course, there is value in that.

But there are tens of thousands of other people attending who could potentially change something about your business.

A customer.

An investor.

A partner.

A future employee.

A founder who has already solved the problem you're struggling with.

Or simply someone who introduces you to the person you actually needed to meet.

Web Summit itself has built much of its startup experience around this idea. Its platform lets attendees build connections and curate meetings before and during the event, while startups accepted into its programme get access to dedicated networking tools. 

So don't go to Lisbon thinking:

"Let's see who I meet."

Go thinking:

"Who would be genuinely useful for my business to meet?"

That's a very different approach.

There is some evidence that these connections can turn into business

This isn't just conference marketing either.

Web Summit and Crunchbase's 2025 report looked at startups that had participated in Web Summit's Startup Programme and subsequently raised funding.

The report identified almost 200 startups that collectively raised $715.5 million, with AI and machine learning companies accounting for $334.6 million. 

Obviously, this doesn't mean attending Web Summit causes a startup to raise money.

Good startups tend to attend good startup events in the first place.

But it does demonstrate that the event sits close to real fundraising activity.

And that brings us to one of the biggest opportunities for early-stage founders.

The Startup Programme

Web Summit's Startup Programme is designed to give selected startups much more exposure during the event.

There are currently three broad categories:

ALPHA for companies that are pre-investment or have raised under $1m.

BETA for launched companies, often including Web Summit alumni.

GROWTH for companies experiencing significant growth and expanding internationally, often having raised more than $3m. 

Successful applicants receive things including three passes, exhibition space, access to startup activations, Startup Showcase and PITCH, a company profile across Web Summit platforms, Startup Lounge access and networking tools.

They also get a dedicated Startup Success Manager. 

It's worth taking the application seriously.

More than 22,000 startups applied in 2025, with more than 2,700 selected.

Web Summit says it assesses applications around things such as growth potential, impact, product and team, and pitch quality. 

In other words, the application itself is a useful exercise.

If you can't explain why your company has potential, why now and why your team is the one to build it, that's probably something worth fixing anyway.

Then there's PITCH

PITCH is probably the most obvious founder opportunity at Web Summit.

It's the live startup pitching competition, with selected companies competing in front of a large audience and investors.

Web Summit says its PITCH alumni have collectively raised more than $1.45bn. 

But even if you're not trying to win it, there's something useful about the process.

Preparing a genuinely good startup pitch forces you to get brutally clear on:

What problem are we solving?

Who has the problem?

Why does it matter now?

Why is our solution different?

Why can this become a big business?

Those questions are useful whether you're pitching a VC, selling to a customer or explaining the company to someone you meet over a coffee.

Don't overlook Mentor Hours

One of the less glamorous parts of Web Summit could actually be one of the most useful.

Mentor Hours gives startups access to experienced founders, investors and operators.

Previous mentors have included people from Oracle, IFC, venture funds and other technology and investment organisations. 

The mistake would be arriving with:

"So, what do you think I should do with my business?"

Instead, bring a real problem.

Something like:

"We've got our first 30 customers, but we're struggling to work out which acquisition channel is actually scalable. What would you test next?"

That's a conversation.

And experienced people are usually much more useful when you give them something specific to get their teeth into.

And if you're fundraising, prepare properly

Web Summit has a dedicated investor ecosystem and investor-to-startup meeting opportunities.

This is where doing the work before you arrive really matters.

Don't try to meet every VC.

Find the investors who actually fit:

Your sector.
Your stage.
Your geography.
Your business model.
Your funding requirement.

Then research the individual partner.

What have they invested in?

What companies do they work with?

What do they seem interested in?

Why might your business be relevant to them?

A warm, well-researched conversation is worth far more than walking up to someone and saying:

"We're raising. Can I pitch you?"

One of the best Web Summit stories isn't about a pitch

It's about a plane.

In 2022, entrepreneur and investor Victor Straatman happened to sit next to public-speaking coach Devin van der Berg on the flight home from Web Summit.

They started talking.

Victor mentioned how stressful pitching could be and wondered whether AI could help people structure their thinking and prepare for presentations.

Devin happened to be a professional public-speaking coach.

That conversation eventually became Verble, an AI speechwriting company. 

Neither of them went to Web Summit planning to find their future co-founder on the flight home.

Which is exactly the point.

You can plan the meetings. You can't plan serendipity.

Leave some room for it.

The bigger lessons from previous Web Summits

Looking back at Web Summit over the last few years, some of the most interesting conversations haven't actually been about specific products.

They've been about the consequences of technological change.

In 2023, Signal president Meredith Whittaker challenged the simplistic idea that AI is simply about replacing workers, arguing instead that we need to think about how AI changes working conditions and where responsibility sits. 

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales also offered a different perspective on AI and information, arguing that making Wikipedia's knowledge accessible to AI systems could potentially help improve the quality of information those systems provide.

Different perspectives, but the same underlying lesson:

Technology doesn't exist in isolation.

It changes how people work, how businesses operate and how information moves.

For founders, that's where the opportunity often sits.

What should founders actually be looking for in 2026?

I'd go to Web Summit with a slightly different mindset this year.

Don't just look for the next hot technology.

Look for business models being made possible by technology that wasn't practical a few years ago.

AI agents are an obvious example.

If AI can increasingly perform tasks rather than simply assist humans with them, what happens to:

• Customer service?
• Sales?
• Research?
• Marketing?
• Operations?
• Software development?
• Recruitment?
• Professional services?

And more importantly:

Which of those changes create a business opportunity for you?

That's a much more useful question than simply asking which AI tool you should subscribe to next.

How I'd approach Web Summit if I were a founder

I'd start well before November.

First, I'd decide what I actually want from the event.

Funding?

Customers?

Partnerships?

International expansion?

Market intelligence?

Learning?

You can have more than one objective, but I'd choose a primary one.

Then I'd build a target list.

Maybe:

10 investors
10 potential customers
5 partners
5 founders I'd genuinely like to meet

Then I'd research every one.

Not just their LinkedIn profile.

Actually understand what they do.

And where possible, start conversations before Lisbon.

Because:

"Hey, are you going to Web Summit?"

is a much easier opening than:

"Hi, we've never spoken before. Can I tell you about my company?"

And once you're there?

I'd resist the temptation to spend four days running from stage to stage.

Watch the sessions that genuinely matter to you.

But leave plenty of time for conversations.

Ask people about what they're building.

What they're struggling with.

What they're seeing in the market.

What they're excited about.

And listen.

You might learn more about where your own industry is heading from ten 20-minute conversations than from ten hours of keynote presentations.

The bit most founders get wrong: what happens afterwards

You can have a brilliant conversation in Lisbon and completely waste it by doing nothing afterwards.

Follow up while the conversation is still fresh.

But don't send:

"Great meeting you at Web Summit!"

Give them something to continue the conversation.

If they mentioned a problem, send them something relevant.

If you promised an introduction, make it.

If there's a potential partnership, suggest the next conversation.

If they're an investor and the timing isn't right, stay in touch.

The objective isn't to get something immediately.

It's to turn a four-day event into relationships that continue for months or years.

So, is Web Summit worth going to?

There isn't a universal answer.

It's expensive.

There are flights, accommodation, tickets and four days away from the business.

And if you go without a plan, you could easily spend thousands of pounds and come home with nothing more than a tired brain and a very long LinkedIn connection list.

But if you know what you're trying to achieve, the equation changes.

Because you're not really buying a conference ticket.

You're buying access to an unusually concentrated group of people, ideas, companies, investors and opportunities.

The value comes from what you do with that access.

The NEXUS takeaway

For us, the biggest lesson from Web Summit isn't:

"Go to Lisbon."

It's:

"Get yourself into the rooms where the people, ideas and opportunities that matter to your business are already gathering."

Sometimes that will be Web Summit.

Sometimes it will be a smaller industry event.

Sometimes it will be a founder dinner.

Sometimes it will be a 30-minute coffee with someone who has already built what you're trying to build.

The event is only the catalyst.

The real value comes from who you meet, what you learn, what you do with it and what happens next.

And if you're heading to Lisbon this November, don't ask yourself:

"What talks am I going to see?"

Ask:

"Who do I need to meet, what do I need to learn, and what could be different about my business because I went?"

That's where the real Web Summit opportunity starts.

If you're interested in starting, running or scaling your own business, then why not enquire about NEXUS membership here

...and if you're interested in featuring your entrepreneurial journey on the NEXUS Startup Diaries blog, then get in touch and let's share that story with the world!