Team JudgeMentor participated in the the King's Entrepreneurship Lab's inaugural LLM X Law Hackathon on 23^rd June, an event inspired by the well-established CodeX initiative at Stanford University. Read more about their experience and inspiration for developing a scalable machine-learning tool that focuses on overlooked linguistic and conceptual information for analysing different judges’ legal ‘personalities’.

What transforms individuals into a stellar startup team? In the fast-paced venture world, founding-team composition is critical. Value homophily – the alignment of core beliefs among team members – has emerged as a key factor in entrepreneurial success. Ariel de Fauconberg’s PhD research explores both the benefits and obstacles of this phenomenon, challenging entrepreneurs to foster shared values while maintaining cognitive and experiential diversity. This post offers insights for effective team building across various innovative sectors.

The Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) is the University’s oldest entrepreneurship society. On the 26^th of April 2024, in collaboration with the King’s E-Lab, they hosted their annual pitch competition. A demonstration of innovative thinking, interdisciplinary engagement and world-changing ideas characterised the day. Read more about it from the President of the society here.

Social impact entrepreneurship often involves an indirect relationship with the end user of the product or service. This makes it harder to know what's working and what's not; and it can catch people up in trying to please a decision maker with different priorities or views than the intended beneficiaries. It can even fuel harmful hierarchies which make assumptions about what people need and it can drive causes that in reality fall short of the mark. In these cases, what should such entrepreneurs be wary of and how should they prioritise meaningful impact?

In this part two of solving the dementia dilemma, Coco explores the influence and potential of lifestyle and environmental factors, poses important questions that societies can and should answer, and proposes a productive approach to address the leading cause of death in the UK.

Companies spend millions carefully negotiating contracts with their suppliers, only to realise that their legal and procurement teams lack the time and resources to enforce the execution of the majority of the "long-tail" of supply contract terms. Inadequacies in management systems results in supply chain disruption and subsequent litigation costs which are passed on to consumers. Nasir.AI has launched its agentic LLM-powered supplier contract management to tackle this problem (worth more than 1.4 billion USD in Europe alone). Using a two-stage generative AI pipeline, Nasir.AI identifies the contract terms, writes executable code to monitor their completion, and autonomously notifies relevant stakeholders. This approach to supplier contract management improves contract monitoring, empowers procurement teams, and helps prevent supply chain disruption.

On 4th of March 2024, the King’s E-Lab hosted an enlightening fireside chat with Sonia Singh, Editorial Director and Anchor of the NDTV Dialogues on India's premier TV and digital news network. The session was organised in collaboration with the Cambridge India Business Forum and the Centre for India and Global Business. The focus was the monumental 2024 World's Largest Democratic Election in India and the role that women play in the Indian political landscape. The conversation was moderated by Dr. Garima Sahai, a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the Department of Geography, and a Bye-Fellow at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. Read Singh’s reflections on the event.

What are signature skills and why are they important? On 4 July, 2024, the King’s E-Lab hosted Eric Sim in a fireside chat on how the "Small Actions" you take today can put you on the path to big career success tomorrow. Following the event, Sim went to Paris to try mashed potatoes. Why? Read more to find out.

The formation of corporate partnerships is driving innovation, especially in the TMT (technology, media, and telecommunications) industries. Over 80% of US CEOs are either implementing, or plan to incorporate partnerships to grow their businesses, or move into new markets, and maximise resources. A PwC survey from 2014, indicates that deals are 53% more likely to close when corporations join together in a partnership. Given the importance of these relationships, what do the experts say about how to establish and maintain partnerships that endure and create impact?

On 3rd June , the King’s E-Lab hosted Marion Reimers, one of the most prominent figures in sports journalism in Latin America and an advocate for women’s participation in sport. In a conversation with E-Lab Associate Jose Luis Lopez, alumnus of the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge and President of the Cambridge University Mexican Society, Reimers reflected on the challenges and rewards of being a public figure and an advocate for women’s inclusion in the world of sport and journalism. Her voice and advocacy are not only a victory for journalism or for women, they are also a victory for our times.

On Wednesday 22nd May, the King’s E-Lab hosted Pete Stavros, Co-Head of Global Private Equity at KKR, in conversation with King’s College Provost, Gillian Tett. As an investor, Stavros has helped lead several successful investments across sectors and sizes and has a pioneered an innovative employee engagement and ownership model. He is a firm believer in the power and benefit of employee ownership. Read his reflections on the model, a rare opportunity for a “win-win” in business, and the kind of leaders that can make it happen.

The Ideas Space Incubator is a programme run by Cambridge Enterprise to support and develop high-impact ideas from the social sciences by providing exposure to pathways for impact, skills training, and a collaborative environment. Follow Ane Cornelia’s account of the programme in her work to revive a classic piece of British Industrial Design.

On 25 April, 2024, King’s College celebrated one of its finest—the great philosopher, economist, and mathematician, Frank Plumpton Ramsey. The day, attended by Ramsay’s grandson and his family as well as an array of illustrious academics, included a wonderful exhibition, a buzzing reception and dinner, and a brilliant lecture by Cheryl Misak, author of the widely acclaimed biography of Ramsey. Together, these helped to mark the extraordinary life of a very bright star. Read more about the day, Ramsay’s legacy, and one of the most spectacular near-misses in the history of thought.

Weekly Brunches is a series of practical workshops held on a regular basis in a consistent format for a smaller group of students committed to working on their projects over the academic year. Launched in the academic year 2023/24 and bringing together students from STEM, law, history, linguistics, business, and more, the series shows the importance of an avenue for continuous learning and the benefit of uniting such diverse students curious about how emerging technologies can change the world as we know it.

At the end of 2023, Mexico and the United Kingdom celebrated 200 years of diplomatic relations and reiterated the intentions of both countries to continue conducting efforts to improve their ties. During a fireside chat, held at King's on the 26th of April 2024, Ambassador Gonzales Blanco addressed how we should endeavour to do this, emphasising the crucial role of cultural exchange, education, and trade.

Precedent AI: Revolutionising legal aid research work. This groundbreaking tool transforms a 13-hour research workflow into a sub-30-minute process, making lawyers 26 times more efficient. By leveraging large language models, vector databases, and recently published explainability techniques, Precedent AI offers lightning-fast case reviews, pinpoint-accurate legal precedent searches, and automated memo drafting. It’s not just faster, it’s smarter; providing thoroughly researched, source-tracked responses. We aim to change the game for overworked immigration and asylum lawyers, empowering legal professionals to focus on what matters most: their clients.

On June 23rd, the King's Entrepreneurship Lab hosted its inaugural LLM X Law Hackathon, inspired by the well-established CodeX initiative at Stanford University. This event brought together a diverse group of students, academics, and industry experts from various backgrounds – law, tech, and many fields in between! It generated a lot of energy and enthusiasm, surpassing all expectations. Here's a glimpse of what inspired the event, and what happened during those exciting 15 hours.

The current state of global food security requires urgent attention. In countries across the world, we are failing to act in ways which ensure not just that we can grow “more” food, but that we can grow nutritious food in sustainable ways. Plant biotechnology can help us tackle these pressing problems and, if we embrace innovation, we can pioneer resilient and socially beneficial food systems. Read more about Nadia’s research to do just this.

Ernst Bloch was a 20th century German philosopher whose magnum opus is a three-volumed ode to hope. While the worlds of start-ups and philosophical endeavor can seem to sit at odds with one another, a closer look at Blochian thinking shows what we stand to learn from bridging the two. What we do and how we do it should be infused with a particular kind of hope.