Humans Race
Last week was The Endgame.
This week was mostly humans trying to make sure the endgame had nothing left within our capacity to blame on us. Routes prepared. Agreements finished. Research aligned. Project work waiting. People ready. And today, the final administrative sequence reaches the point where preparation stops being useful.
The rest belongs to probability, bureaucracy, God, the universe, or whichever department currently handles fate. We did our part. The remaining step is administrative, not operational.
Whether implementation completes this afternoon or moves into next week does not alter the roadmap.
Product
Mk-X is entering the Stage II → Stage III transition.
The programme around Mk-X advanced further. MTC has confirmed that WP1 — Preliminary Concepting and Design can begin this year, with project management and technical leadership already assigned.
The sequence is now:
WP1 Mobilisation → Concepting & Design → Validation → 2027 Pilot
Mobilisation is targeted for the week of 19 October, contingent on the transfer completing. Less pilot talk; more engineering.
In simple terms, the product is materials science, but the downstream is where it gets exciting: Use ambient mechanical energy to extend battery life and reduce servicing where vibration, pressure or movement already exist. Bimetal thermal differential pressure is disregarded for now; potential routes include distributed sensing, autonomous systems, vibration-rich machinery, remote monitoring and resilience applications.
Technology → Environment → Validation
The next public Iterations update will therefore move to the end of October, after the Stage III alignment produces its first reportable milestone.
R&D Focus
The research architecture became considerably more coherent this week.
Robert Gordon University returned our first agreement, signed by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Kilbride, establishing the formal framework for KTPs, joint grants, research, technical development, knowledge exchange and related commercialisation work.
We completed countersignature today.
Piezoelectric Materials → Battery Research → Experimentation
Not a factory announcement. Not a premature KTP headline. Just research.
As part of our support for the student we hosted and now intend to support further, preparation for the CHIIR Industry paper continues toward ACM submission, while the Open Evidence Map and related engineering-information is being prepared for internal capability.
Final continuation packages are prepared across the current group, with the intended next step remaining 1 November.
That work covers:
engineering-intelligence & evidence traceability
retrieval and agentic workflows & support
technical knowledge systems & decision-support tooling
The objective is not to become a software company. It is to make a research company better at remembering, testing and understanding what it knows, even for startups without Y Combinator.
Evidence → Systems → Repeat
Preparing for an exploratory exchange regarding Piezo-Module utility in maritime defence applications, we have reached out to NEXMARIS. Intending to reality-check our assumptions we are preparing a focused assessment covering technological maturity, IP position, demonstrators and the specific maritime / defence application for review. Expert opinions are hard to get; the opportunity to ask questions and have someone smarter look at our ideas should never be undervalued.
Ecosystem
External momentum continued to build.
The Web Summit Startup Programme invited KCM into a startup conversation.
Tech Nation, First Citizens Innovation Banking and Latham & Watkins invited us to Beyond Borders in November, focused on raising, scaling and international expansion.
Tech Nation + Sage, Barclays Eagle Labs, the UK National Quantum Technologies Showcase and November's London events are already scheduled.
And looking slightly further ahead, we intend to attend Innovate UK Business Connect's Advanced Manufacturing Showcase in Manchester on 2 February 2027 as well.
The event brings together manufacturers, investors, policymakers, researchers and scaling technology businesses around commercialisation and the future of UK advanced manufacturing. Innovate UK is also currently seeking demonstrable technologies for the exhibition floor, with expressions of interest closing 13 November. That is considerably closer to our preferred definition of visibility.
This contrasts neatly with another notable and arguably more outrageous “offer” this week we want to highlight. We were “selected” for a London Managing Director of the Year 2026 recognition by a business magazine with >100,000 Subscribers. Given the smell of sales around the associated “editorial and recognition package”, costing ~£700, and that even in our most braggadocious, delusional moments, such a title is inherently false and phony, we declined.
We would rather spend $700 on a bonus for the team, a centrifuge, an experiment or basically ANYTHING other than on a trophy. How about we focus on content instead of representation until one just becomes the consequence of the other?
Visibility should follow substance; we refuse to stay the eternal startup.
Structure
The structure is now simple. As of Thursday, our banking counterparts had raised no new requirements. One tax clearance remains before banking can proceed.
Behind it, the sequence is already fully prepared and professionally reviewed:
PSC → Accounts → Share Issue → Records
This week, we prepared every downstream step rather than waiting for the first one to finish. The November operating budget has been held behind the same clearance, so routes were checked in advance and the corporate direction remains unchanged.
Operations
The last phase is over; the next phase is now clear and out of our hands:
Clearance: final administrative step
Corporate: PSC → Accounts → Share Issue → Records
Mk-X: Pilot preparation with MTC WP1 ready
RGU: research framework moving into effect
Birmingham: CHIIR publication + Software continuation
Compliance: EdgeComply ready to enter our consortium
Iterations: next public update at the end of October
Then the forward calendar:
29 Oct: Tech Nation + Sage
1 Nov: planned Software / continuation start
2–6 Nov: Barclays Entrepreneurs Festival
6 Nov: UK National Quantum Technologies Showcase
11 Nov: Tech Nation / First Citizens / Latham & Watkins
11–12 Nov: London ecosystem events
13 Nov: Advanced Manufacturing Showcase exhibitor EOI deadline
2 Feb 2027: Innovate UK Advanced Manufacturing Showcase, Manchester
The current phase is execution.
Outlook
We have reached the point where further preparation or prediction would add little. After a year of being stunned by the tides of bureaucracy, our commitment remains: The research can continue. Collaboration now has a formal framework.
Publications and systems moving forward.
External expert technical assessments.
Mk-X development governed by milestones.
One corporate approval remains underway.
After that, there is no conceptual leap left.
Only work. Humans race because time matters.
But sometimes the useful thing is knowing when the race has reached the starting line. We are there. Finally.
Energy. Time. The Future.
— The KCM Team 🚀
