The Way to Scale
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The document discusses strategies for scaling startups in Northern Ireland, emphasizing the importance of a robust sales capability, leadership development, and leveraging the diaspora for mentorship and business model innovation. It identifies common challenges faced by entrepreneurs and proposes structured support programs designed to help companies achieve significant revenue growth. Key initiatives include sales strategy mentoring, a CEO development program, and collaborative workshops with experienced industry leaders to foster a growth mindset and enhance company capabilities.
The Way to Scale
- 1. The Way to Scale C R E A T I N G A N E N V I R O N M E N T W H E R E S T A R T U P S C A N S C A L E U P
- 2. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E Why scaling, why now? Northern Ireland is a great place to become an entrepreneur. There is lots of support available to early stage companies with programmes But what happens when these teams do achieve product market fit?
- 3. We have a thriving startup culture but it’s time to talk about building capability to... SCALE UP — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E
- 4. Reid Hoffman Partner at venture capital firm Greylock Partners People naturally focus on two (kinds of scale): growing your revenues and growing your customer base… if you don’t get those right, then nothing else matters. But very few businesses can succeed on those fronts without also scaling. An organization’s size and its ability to execute determine whether it can capture customers and revenue. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E
- 5. More companies not less will go big — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E Globalization is a form of network, combining networks of transport, commerce, payment and information that flows around the world. In this environment, startups have to move much faster, because competition can now come from anywhere and beat you to scale. Software is a natural enabler of scale as the marginal costs of selling into huge markets are virtually zero. AI will supercharge this capability to scale – making ‘blitzscaling’ more pervasive with more companies (not less), aiming to go big and do so at pace. We set out on a journey to explore the potential for companies in Northern Ireland to achieve scale.
- 6. We focused on companies that have achieved product market fit and are therefore ready to scale. We used Paul Graham’s ‘startup curve’ as our reference: — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E
- 7. How might we (Connect / Catalyst Inc / Northern Ireland) provide new help to enable more startups in Northern Ireland to get to £10M — £100M in annual revenue? — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E We started by asking a simple question
- 8. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E We interviewed a number of CEOs in our network as well as a group of veterans that have scaled and exited businesses. We learned about the challenges facing startup founders as well as what worked for leaders that got to scale. Then we ran a series of workshops to define common themes and design potential solutions that address our stated problem. The Process DEFINITIONPLANNING RESEARCH IDEATION LIVE CEOs EXITED CEOs NEXT STEPS
- 9. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E What we learned from founders Tap into the NI diaspora - harvest them and get them on board. Ability to hire good salespeople is missing - lack of sales talent in NI. Focus on sales and really looking at how we develop really good sales capability than the pure technical stuff. We’re pretty well served on the technical side. Give them exposure, increase their ambition and show them what’s possible. Lessons learned from CEOs that have been through it, so these CEOs can ask ‘how did you go about doing that?’. Give entrepreneurs exposure and inspiration to get them investor ready. Great people leave well paid jobs because they’re inspired to throw their shoulder into the story. That’s what we all sign up for. The mission. We should recycle CEOs who’ve been there and done that – those who have the ambition to go back and do it again, but bigger this time.
- 10. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E We turned what we heard into a set of themes 1 People Power Great companies need great teams. How might we hire and grow the best? 4 Leading the Way How can I develop my leadership team as well as my own leadership capability? 2 A Foot Up to Funding How might we maximise our value for maximum investment and how can I get ready? 5 Sales, the No.1 Priority The way to scale is surely through sales. Does anyone know how to do that around here? 3 Laser Focus How to know where to focus? With so much to do where should my attention be? 6 Trust Me, I’m a Founder! How can we surround ourselves with experts who can help us to accelerate?
- 11. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E And then we looked at how others are dealing with scale...
- 12. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E Carol S. Dweck Author, Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.” How do we get to scale when not everyone possesses a ‘growth mindset’? We asked a second group of entrepreneurs - a cohort of people that have achieved global scale and exited at least once. We learned that that in Northern Ireland context, CEOs of startup companies aren’t thinking about scale – as they’re preoccupied with more pressing, immediate concerns. Considerations such as access to talent, their next funding round and product development. So does our community of entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland want to achieve scale? Do we really have the potential?
- 13. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E Our findings People Power Rewiring the CEO mindset to develop ambition, vision building, emotional intelligence and leadership capability. Sales Mastery Training Training for CEOs to understanding the market drivers in their particular category and close deals. Silicon Valley VC Sabbatical Two week sabbatical with Fortune 500 company. To focus on VC and sales skills transfer. Scaling Accelerator Programme Partner with best-in-class industry experts and Business Schools to create a one year programme for CEO's to focus on aspects of their business that need re-worked. Trusted Advisors Impartial advisors to lend a trusted ear and give a macro perspective on the company, strategy & board. Vision & Values Workshop Defining the core vision & values of the company to help CEOs create magnetism to attract the right talent. The Process surfaced a number of ideas...
- 14. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E The entrepreneur’s journey We noticed that all of the ideas could be neatly rearranged into a sequence. And if we put the entrepreneur at the heart of this model, we can structure ideas as steps on a journey to realising her company’s potential for achieving scale. VISION & VALUES WORKSHOP TRUSTED ADVISORS SALES MASTERY TRAINING SILICON VALLEY VC SABBATICAL CEO DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME SCALING ACCELERATOR PROGRAMME
- 15. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E What would you tell your younger self? Then we met with our exited CEOs. We discussed the various ideas we developed together, pushing and pulling to try and define what is needed really. We asked them: How might we (Connect / Catalyst Inc / Northern Ireland) provide new help to enable more startups in Northern Ireland to get to £10M — £100M in annual revenue?
- 16. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E Bringing it all together The contents of the discussion were over-layed on our original map and following a lively debate, we landed on a very distinct set of priorities. Three phases of learning and support that might provide a powerful means to helping more entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland to achieve their true potential.
- 17. SALES STRATEGY 3 Sales models: Mentoring programme to helps CEOs design the right sales model Sales talent: Mentoring programme to hire and manage sales leaders What if we could connect companies with global leaders to build sales expertise and set them on their way to scale? — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E We call this... The Way to Scale BUSINESS MODELLING 2 20 of Northern Ireland’s most successful entrepreneurs, executives and investors return home to help x2 per annum Diaspora constructively destruct the business models of 10 scaleups and open their networks to support What if we could harness our leader diaspora to constructively destruct and create better business models? CEO TRANSFORMATION 1 10 CEOs of NI scaleups per year enrol in an elite CEO development programme in Boston or California CEOs gain a cohort of peers for life What if we could fundamentally change the mindset of CEOs so they believed that scale was possible?
- 18. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E CEO Transformation What if we could fundamentally change the mindset of CEOs so they believed that scale was possible? Annual competition for 10 fully funded places on an elite CEO development programme at US institution (Babson, MassChallenge, Stanford, etc). Programme designed to fit with the time and demands on a CEO of earlier stage scaleup (Example criteria: £1m in funding or £1m in sales). Successful CEOs will join a core cohort of other NI and US CEOs to support for life. 1 Enhancing leadership & strategic capability. Building ambition and confidence of CEOs to lead scalable, innovative companies capable of growing exports and jobs. Supporting a cohort of scaleups for life, to develop a culture of thinking big in NI.
- 19. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E Business Modelling What if we could harness our leader diaspora to constructively destruct and create better business models? Catalyst Inc annually recruit 20 of Northern Ireland’s most successful Diaspora (entrepreneurs, executives, investors) into team of elite “Diaspora Luminaries”. Diaspora commit to two two-day visits per annum: — One home fixture in NI — One away fixture (New York, London, etc) Core activity of each visit is workshops to constructively destruct business models of NI companies looking to scale (Springboard final panel structure). 2 In advance, Diaspora luminary commits to help share knowledge and open their networks for NI scaleups. If they have capacity, they may get involved as non-exec directors or invest. Public events organised for Diaspora can share their stories, etc. Diaspora expenses are paid (economy class airfares).
- 20. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E Sales Strategy What if we could connect companies with global leaders to build sales expertise and set them on their way to scale? Mentorship from expanded pool of CEOs and sales leaders to perform a deeper dive into designing the optimal, bespoke sales model and go-to-market) strategy for NI scaleup. Helping scaleups with the most challenging job of a CEO – developing a sales organisation and recruiting a sales leader that can succeed. 3 Providing coaching by experienced CEOs on techniques for sourcing, interviewing and hiring sales people located outside of Northern Ireland. Providing ongoing support to nurture and develop sales leader and sales organisation.
- 21. — T H E W A Y T O S C A L E We’d like to know what you think...