Where the Next Food & Drink Winners Are Being Built: Reflections from The Meals Collective Big Meetup London
There’s a different kind of energy at The Meals Collective events. It’s less about corporate theatre and more about learning, collaboration, fun, authenticity, passion, growth, & doing what is right.
You’re not always looking at finished brands; you’re looking at brands in formation, and that’s exactly why it matters. This is where the future of food and drink isn’t just discussed, it’s actively being built.
What The Meals Collective is actually doing (and why it matters)
At its simplest, The Meals Collective connects founders with each other, retailers, investors and partners they need to grow.
But that’s only part of the story. The real power sits in its core ambitions. It’s not just about helping brands scale; it’s about reshaping what food can and should be. From making meals accessible to real lives and real budgets, to championing healthier, more nourishing options, to creating food that delivers genuine moments of joy and connection. Alongside this sits a clear commitment to cleaner ingredients, greater transparency, and a more sustainable food system. Taken together, these ambitions go far beyond a typical network, they set a direction for the future of food, and a standard that the brands within the community are working towards.
Why System1 is part of it
Our partnership with The Meals Collective is deliberate, not just because it’s visible, but because it’s valuable.
This is the stage where the biggest decisions can still be fluid: what the product is, who it’s for, and how it shows up in the world. By the time most brands come to us, those things are already locked in, and at that point you’re not shaping success, you’re diagnosing risk.
Being part of this ecosystem means we can help brands make better decisions earlier, understand how people will actually feel about their ideas, and avoid the trap of building something that’s “good” but ultimately invisible.
The event itself: why it works
The Big Meetup in London had that rare quality of substance over show. There was plenty of energy and ambition, great food, refreshing drinks, but what stood out most was the quality of conversation.
Founders weren’t speaking in vague terms about disruption; they were asking more grounded and commercially relevant questions. Would this actually cut through? Is this different enough? Are we building something people will choose, or just tolerate?
That’s a very different level of discussion, and it’s a clear signal that the bar is rising.
What you notice when you’re in the room
Spending time across the event, a few things became clear.
Firstly, progress is real and compounding. Brands we’ve seen before have moved forward significantly, with sharper propositions, better focus, and stronger commercial thinking. You can feel the momentum building.
Secondly, new brands are starting smarter. There’s less blind optimism and more awareness of what it actually takes to win. That shift alone will have a meaningful impact on the quality of innovation coming through.
However, for all the progress, neutrality remains the biggest risk. There is still a large amount of “quite good” innovation, products that make sense and are well executed, but ultimately don’t make you feel anything. That’s where things quietly fall apart.
A quick reminder from the keynote
In my talk, I showed three real products with very different emotional responses. One performed well, another divided opinion but created real feeling, and the third was simply fine.
And “fine” is where most innovation dies.
There is of course risk if people dislike your product; but not feeling anything at all is just as damaging. Emotion is what turns a product from “another option” into something people actually notice and choose.
The conversations that mattered most
At our stand, one theme kept coming up repeatedly (aside from “my god, your pink stand looks amazing”) was how do we know earlier if this will work?
Not after launch, and not once everything is locked in, but earlier.
Founders instinctively understand the challenge. By the time you’re asking whether something will succeed, most of the answer is already baked in. This is why working with System1 at all stages of the process, across the whole insight ecosystem, is critical.
The bigger takeaway
If there’s one thing The Meals Collective reinforces, it’s that winning happens earlier than most teams think.
Success isn’t decided on the shelf; it’s decided in the thinking before it. It’s in the idea you back, the positioning you choose, and the emotion you create (or fail to create).
That’s why this community matters. It brings together the people, perspectives and partners that help brands get those decisions right before they become expensive ones.
Looking ahead
The quality of brands coming through this ecosystem is mind blowing. However, the ones that will truly break through won’t just be better formulated, better branded, or better distributed.
They will be the ones that make people feel something.
Because in a world of endless choice, feeling something is still the only thing that truly cuts through. And the best founders in that room are already realise it.