Building in the Open: What BETT 2026 Meant for Starlight

Last week, we stood on the exhibition floor at BETT 2026 for the first time as a company.

Not as an idea. Not as a prototype quietly tested behind the scenes. But as STAR21, the company behind Starlight, open to conversation, challenge, curiosity and, most importantly, real users.

It is hard to overstate what that moment meant for us.

Listening before speaking

From the moment the doors opened each morning, the conversations came thick and fast. Classroom teachers. Heads of department. Senior leaders. MAT CEOs. Coaches working nationally with early career teachers. Colleagues from procurement teams and government bodies. Visitors from the UK and from around the world.

On several days, we spoke almost continuously between 10:00 and 16:00, stepping away only when the hall lights dimmed and the conversations finally slowed.

What struck us was not just the volume of interest, but the quality of it.

People did not come to be sold to. They came to talk about teaching. About coaching. About workload. About feedback that actually helps, rather than overwhelms. About trust.

And they recognised something in Starlight.

Seeing the product through other eyes

For our engineering team, BETT was something special. This was an opportunity to speak face-to-face with teachers using a product they had helped build line by line. To hear what lands well. What could be clearer. What could be simpler. What matters most in the pressured reality of schools.

Those conversations have already shaped our next steps. Since BETT, development has continued at pace, directly informed by what users told us they need and value.

A signal we did not expect to ignore

We were humbled by how clearly Starlight resonated beyond our immediate context. Interest came not just from UK schools, but from colleagues thinking hard about coaching, professional learning and teacher development in other systems, other languages and other cultures.

We are being careful and thoughtful about what comes next. And we want to acknowledge that BETT confirmed something important for us: the need Starlight addresses is not niche, and it is not local. It is human.

Launchpad and what comes next

We were delighted by the number of schools who chose to join our four-week Launchpad programme during BETT. Supporting these schools through their first steps with Starlight feels like a responsibility as much as an opportunity.

This phase matters. It is where listening continues, quietly and carefully, and where trust is either earned or lost.

Why the image matters

On the final day, I took the photograph above, just outside ExCeL London. Three men, mid-task, building together. It stopped me in my tracks.

We are three co-founders at Starlight. We are building something that did not exist before, piece by piece, in the open. The image felt like a metaphor for the week and for the journey ahead.

Gratitude, first and always

Above all, this is a thank you.

To the teachers who trusted us early. To the schools who helped shape Starlight before it ever reached an exhibition hall. To the people who stopped, asked hard questions, shared generously and reminded us why this work matters.

We feel privileged to be doing this work. We feel a deep responsibility to do it well. And we are more motivated than ever to build a platform that supports teachers to be the best they can be for their students.

We are only just getting started.

Spark Insight with Starlight and join our journey today.

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The Insight Engine is written by Adam Sturdee, co-founder of Starlight—the UK’s first AI-powered coaching platform—and Assistant Headteacher at St Augustine’s Catholic College. This blog is part of a wider mission to support educators through meaningful reflection, not performance metrics. It documents the journey of building Starlight from the ground up, and explores how AI, when shaped with care, can reduce workload, surface insight, and help teachers think more deeply about their practice. Rooted in the belief that growth should be private, professional, and purposeful, The Insight Engine offers ideas and stories that put insight—not judgment—at the centre of development.