Led by the Real Ideas Organisation, and delivered by a network of partners, including Tech Cornwall, Screen Cornwall, Creative UK and TEC Women, CreaTech Cornwall delivered targeted incubation for early-stage individuals and start-ups working at the cutting edge of creativity and technology between August 2025 and March 2026.
Tech Cornwall had the privilege of directly supporting 16 of the 27 participants with mentorship, workshops, membership and events, with a focus on business development, increasing founder confidenceand ecosystem connectivity.
Mentors provided support on MVP (minimum viable product) building, customer validation, branding, go-to-market planning, market research and launch plans, covering ideas from 3D modelling, to virtual and augmented reality, archive database building, community platforms and a whole array of things in between. Two custom workshops for the CreaTech cohort led by Sam Dickie from Skyscanner, and Oli Littlejohn from CodeBase, focused on designing, testing and launching low cost and low effort MVPs that customers can engage with from Day 1. And we saw a number of products concepted and built in just a few short hours. CreaTech participants with Tech Cornwall membership have been able to attend networking events, technical workshops, skill development training and social events to connect to other people working across tech in Cornwall, and build skills to hone their projects.
We caught up with some of the participants to find out what they’d achieved through CreaTech Cornwall and what their plans are next.
Thomas Skinner, MOLK
I’ve been developing MOLK, a place-based contemporary ceramics brand rooted in Cornwall. The idea combines craft and digital making, using 3D modelling and prototyping to help develop distinctive ceramic forms. The longer-term vision is to build a product range that connects Cornwall, making and design in a way that feels contemporary and commercially viable.
What’s changed for you since you joined the CreaTech cohort?
The biggest change has been moving from a broad creative idea to something much more focused as a commercially viable business. At the start, I was still exploring several directions across ceramics, digital processes and creative technology. Through the programme, I’ve become much clearer that the core opportunity is in building MOLK as a ceramics-led brand first, with digital methods supporting the process rather than competing with it.
I’ve also become more confident about testing assumptions, building a minimum viable offer, and focusing on what is most commercially useful rather than trying to do everything at once.
What have you achieved so far?
I’ve made progress in a few key areas:
- Clarified the MOLK concept, positioning and brand direction
- Narrowed my focus onto a ceramics-led product and business model
- Developed and refined product ideas and early prototype directions
- Started shaping a more practical route to market, including direct online sales and in-person selling
- Identified key assumptions to test around desirability, pricing and sales channels
- Built a stronger foundation for the next stage of product development and launch planning
I also attended two events during the programme to market the work, test new prototypes, and try out an interactive modular assembly idea. Through these, I sold a significant amount of stock, which helped me narrow down the most popular product ranges and gave me more confidence about what people respond to.
What have been the benefits from working with Tech Cornwall?
The main benefit has been that Tech Cornwall, and Shona in particular, took the time to really understand what I was trying to achieve with MOLK, rather than offering general advice. Through the mentorship, I’ve been able to refine the idea, simplify my thinking, and focus on the most important next steps in a way that feels specific to my practice.
They also put me in contact with relevant professionals at Falmouth University working in ceramics and environmentally conscious materials, and gave me access to a choice of other mentors that I could shape around what I most needed help with, particularly around marketing and product testing. That combination of tailored connections, relevant expertise and practical challenge has been crucial in helping me make meaningful progress.
The MVP workshops were also helpful in giving structure to areas that can otherwise feel quite abstract, especially around prioritisation and validation. More broadly, being connected to Tech Cornwall has made the process feel less isolated and helped me feel part of a wider creative and tech ecosystem in Cornwall.
What was the single most impactful part of the CreaTech programme for you?
The most impactful part was probably the shift towards thinking more experimentally: identifying the riskiest assumptions, simplifying the offer, and focusing on what I actually need to test next rather than trying to build the whole vision at once. That mindset has been very useful, not just for developing MOLK, but because I now feel I have a stronger set of skills for testing other potential products in future as well. That feels crucial, as it may take many ideas to find the most successful one, and being able to test them in as lean a way as possible will make a real difference.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone else looking to launch something now what would it be?
Start smaller than you think, and test the bit that matters most first. It’s very easy to get pulled into branding, features, or polishing things too early, but what really matters is finding out whether people genuinely want what you’remaking and how they respond to it. Before the programme, I think I had more of a tendency to want to perfect things before showing anyone. Now I feel much more comfortable sharing early ideas and recognising that they don’thave to be perfect, but they do need customer feedback to show whether they’re worth developing further.
It can also be genuinely exciting and inspiring to see how customers engage with your ideas! If you do that early, it can save a lot of time, money and potential heartache, and it can also help inspire the next step for your business.
Freyja Sewell, Danu
I am working on two film projects currently, one of which was made possible by the CreaTech program. Titled ‘Doorway to Danu’ the piece is an exploration of a concept connecting nature and technology I have been developing for several years, and it’s such a pleasure to be moving forward with it, I look forward to sharing it once complete!
What’s changed for you since you joined the CreaTech cohort?
I have some great new friends and contacts, and feel much more connected to the Cornish creative scene. As someone who has only recently moved back down to this, the place of my birth, I feel like the program helped me fit into a year that could have taken many years of researching and attending events.
What have you achieved so far?
I have got a project off the ground that I have been wanting to do for a few years. I have made new friends and work connections. I am collaborating on another film project with a new friend I made at one of the CreatechNetworking events.
The mentorship was such a useful benefit of working with Tech Cornwall, it really helped me get a clearer idea of my goals as an artist and move forward with new work that I am excited about. I particularly valued the connections that came through the mentorship, it was so great to have someone who knew you well help to find other people in Cornwall who had the skills and experience you could get value from and make those connections.
What was the single most impactful part of the CreaTech programme for you?
The single most impactful part of the CreaTech program was to create connections with new creatives in Cornwall. Sometimes being an artist can feel isolated, this program really helped me feel part of a group, and I am excited to continue to develop the friendships and professional contacts that I have gained through the program.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone else looking to launch something now what would it be?
Do what you can with what you have, don’t wait for the prefect time. If you can begin to get your idea out of your head into the world, even if it’s not yet in the way you would eventually like to do so, you can then share it with others.
Tom Ring, co-founder of Hyperion Wave
Hyperion Wave is a B2B AI-first platform that turns simple prompts into structured business outputs and automated workflows in minutes not weeks or months typical with traditional software.
What’s changed for you since you joined the CreaTech cohort?
We’ve moved from concept and prototype to signing our first contract and generating our first revenue.
So far we have refined our product focus and finalised our investor pitch deck, putting us in a strong position for customer conversations and fundraising.
What have been the benefits from working with Tech Cornwall?
Access to experienced mentors and a supportive community has helped sharpen our positioning and connect us with people who have already built and scaled technology companies.
What was the single most impactful part of the CreaTech programme for you?
The mentorship – being able to speak with founders who’ve already navigated the journey helps us to avoid potential mistakes and guides our decision-making.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone else looking to launch something now what would it be?
Speak to as many people as possible – potential customers, mentors, exited founders, people who use rival products (if any). Real conversations should shape your product far more effectively than building in isolation.
What’s next?
You can keep up-to-date with all things tech in Cornwall by signing up to our newsletter, or join Tech Cornwall as a member to get access to some of the benefits above, with memberships starting from just £128 per year.
If you have an idea for a CreaTech project, why not sign up to demo it to a friendly room of people at the next Demo Night, in partnership with Canopy Community
