We work with organisations at the point where existing approaches have stopped working, but the need to act remains. When the gap between how you were built to operate and what the world now requires has become impossible to ignore.
We stay small so we can stay close. Same senior team throughout—from strategy through to execution & operations. That closeness is how we help you act with ambition and confidence, and become the template others want to follow.
We help you see what’s true early, commit to what matters, and follow through. Founded in 2016. Based in London, working internationally.
The situations are different. The pattern is the same.
Projects we’ve worked on
- Filter work
- strategy
- technology
- Dana-Farber Cancer InstituteProduct Training for E&D Leaders 2026
- Dana-Farber Cancer InstituteDeveloping scenarios for AI in health and care for the NHS’s innovation arm, to inform its future AI Strategy.
- SerpentineFuture Art Ecosystems - yearly publication series. 2018 — 2025Serpentine R&D team
When you work with Rival, you work with us.
BENEDICT DEMIREN SINGLETON
is the director of Design for RIVAL. His path into strategy began in neuroscience, moved through philosophy of intelligence, and culminated in a PhD on cunning and ingenuity—work that produced the essay Maximum Jailbreak, now translated into 17 languages. Before Rival, he worked as an independent consultant on emerging technology and digital government, and taught postgraduate architecture at the RCA, and the Strelka Institute. He tends to find the crack in the system where movement becomes possible.
MARTA FERREIRA DE SA
is the director of Strategy for RIVAL. Her path into strategy began with the question of how technology transforms organisations—pursued through a mix of strategic advisory, creative agency work, and documentary film. She has held posts at MIT Design Lab and Strelka Institute, taught service design at the RCA, amongst others, and served as a specialist advisor to the UK Design Council. She tends to see what's structurally true before it becomes obvious.