Date: Thursday, 28 May 2026
Time: 5:45 PM – 8:00 PM
Venue: CodeBase Edinburgh, 38 Castle Terrace, EH3 9DZ
TechTalks #8 is landing at CodeBase Edinburgh with two talks that tackle the same problem from opposite ends of the funnel — getting users and keeping them.
Talks
Stop Funding Hope: Build Metrics Discipline and Use Paid Ads to Validate Fast
Sid Kathirvel
Organic growth isn’t free — it has a cost, just a hidden one. In this talk, Sid makes the case for metric discipline over hope: how to build a North Star metric framework, why random acts of marketing burn runway without signal, and when paid ads are the faster, smarter path to validating your acquisition funnel.
Stop Day-1 Churn: The Behavioural UX Fix for Leaky Onboarding
Yana Varankova
Paid ads get users to click. Your onboarding has to keep them. Yana explains why perfectly functioning products still lose users on Day 1 — and how to architect a First-Time User Experience (FTUE) that protects your acquisition ROI by applying behavioural science principles from the very first session.
Agenda
| Time | What |
|---|---|
| 5:45 PM – 6:15 PM | Welcome · pizza · drinks · networking |
| 6:15 PM – 7:00 PM | Talk 1 & Opening |
| 7:00 PM – 7:10 PM | Q&A · break |
| 7:10 PM – 7:50 PM | Talk 2 & Closing |
| 7:50 PM – 8:00 PM | Q&A · networking |
| 8:00 PM onwards | Afterparty at a nearby pub |
Speaker Spotlights
Sid Kathirvel — Strategic Growth Partner @ Unlock Growth
25 years helping global brands, SMEs, and tech founders build growth systems that work. Sid works across customer insights, positioning, messaging, growth experiments, paid acquisition, and go-to-market strategy. He mentors early-stage founders through Techscaler, Barclays Eagle Labs, and Opportunity North East, and has supported companies from pre-revenue through to £4M+ in funding. He’s direct, data-led, and allergic to random acts of marketing.
Yana Varankova — UX Strategist & Behavioural Designer — LinkedIn
Yana bridges the gap between “building a product” and “building a habit.” Blending an MSc in Psychology with AAA gaming experience (World of Tanks, Dead Island 2), she combines behavioural design and game mechanics to drive retention from the first click. Currently leading UX Strategy at a Scottish HealthTech startup and mentoring via UoE Edinburgh Innovations and Heriot-Watt GRID, she translates cognitive science into product architecture with her proprietary Deep Retention framework.
Partners
CodeBase · Dougray · Scottish Technology Club · Beyond Tech · Lyxonn
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