Scale-up Confessions
Episodes
We're struggling to keep good people – how do we attract and hang on to top talent?
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s scale-up confession comes from Harriet, a CEO of a growing SaaS company that provides cybersecurity risk assessment software for profess...
Our teams don't understand each other – how do we get on the same page?
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Scale-up Confession comes from Luke, who runs a SaaS company that provides HR and payroll automation software. Responding to Luke's lett...
We keep missing milestones – how do we hit deadlines on time?
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Scale-up Confession comes from Ed, the founder of a software business focused on supporting financial advisory firms with performance an...
Our team is stepping on each other's toes - how do we clarify roles?
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Scale-Up Confession comes from Sophie, who runs a software company that specialises in project cost estimation tools for architecture fi...
Our company sales pipeline is drying up - how do we bring in new leads?
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Scale-Up Confession comes from James, who runs a software company that simplifies compliance management for mid-sized manufacturers. Res...
Our customers are jumping ship to competitors - what should we do?
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Scale-Up Confession comes from Tom, the founder of a SaaS company specialising in workflow automation tools for construction firms. Resp...
What do I do when my team can't agree?
14 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s scale-up confession comes from Emma, an entrepreneur running a growing eco-conscious marketing consultancy. Responding to the letter, Ro...
What will it take to sell your business for £10m or more?
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan Dunn is Co-owner and CEO of Initium Corporate Finance, with 25+ years of experience in the UK and international M&A market.In this episod...
How can you get your Vision 'shared by all'? (Preview of Simon Vella's EOS Europe Community Conference workshop)
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Simon Vella is a Certified EOS Implementer with 20+ years experience holding various senior leadership roles in the ICT industry. He credit...
The CFO who became a Visionary Founder
23 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sylvie Milverton is Co-founder and CEO of Lynx Educate (a learning benefit platform to help companies retain workers by differentiating their benefits...
Getting employees 'in the game of business' by sharing numbers and profits
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ryan Markewich is a business coach and a Great Game of Business certified practitioner. Having run a successful landscaping company for over 29 years,...
The personal scorecard - how to ensure your your belt size doesn't grow in line with your business!
09 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Rob walks listeners through the personal and business scorecards he uses to keep his life on track...
What to do if you suck at financial and operational forecasting
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Rob explains why so many Founder suck at financial and operational forecasting, why that's a probl...
Rob's "Process, Practice & Peace" formula for a happier entrepreneurial life
25 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Rob explains his view that a happy entrepreneurial life rests on 3 pillars: process, practice and ...
Preview of Sid Jashnani's masterclass at the 'We Run on EOS' European Conference (27 Sep 24)
15 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Are your frontline people so busy ‘doing the work’ that you fear rolling out Level10 meetings and other EOS Foundation Tools down to their level?S...
How to build a profitable business, stay in control and then use it to do good things!
07 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jonny White is the Founder of Ticket Tailor, a bootstrapped SaaS ticketing platform which helps event organisers sell 1 million tickets per month.In t...
Preview of Alice Jordan's masterclass at the 'We Run on EOS' European Conference (27 Sep 24)
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Can the Leader of an entrepreneurial company ever 'outgrow' being accountable for People & Culture? And if you do need a 'People Person', what’s...
Preview of Dean Breyley's masterclass at the 'We Run on EOS' European Conference (27 Sep 24)
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you're into EOS, be sure to print a copy of your Accountability Chart and take it to Dean Breyley's "The Devil is in the Accountability Chart" mast...
How to scale a b2b services business
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tyrone Croome-Carroll is a 3-time COO and accomplished people-centric leader, currently with Cadence (the leading language solutions provider to the g...
How to identify and strengthen weakness in a Finance Function
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julie Wilkinson is an accountant on a mission to save the world from failed acquisitions. Her firm, Wilkinson Accounting Solutions, works on business ...
What it takes to go from scale-up Sales Leader to Founder CEO
03 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tom Lavery is Co-founder CEO of Jiminny, a software platform which helps commercial teams maximize their revenue through conversation intelligence. Ji...
Getting the right people in the right seats on a Founding Team
27 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jo Harley has co-founded two businesses: Korero, a tech platform which enables leaders to have great career conversations with their teams and gives o...
What does a Chief Operating Officer do?
20 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rob Gibson trained as an accountant and rose to become a divisional Chief Operating Officer for Real Estate giant JLL. Today he’s a consultant, coac...
'The Struggle' - what is it and how can a Founder avoid or escape it?
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, host Rob Liddiard recites 'The Struggle', an iconic chapter from Ben Horowitz's startup leadership...
How to sustain high performance and avoid founder burnout
30 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Peralta is Co-founder and Chief Wellbeing Officer of Unmind, a leading workplace mental health SaaS platform that helps organisations create bet...
The Business Case For Happiness with Matt Phelan
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew Phelan is Co-CEO of The Happiness Index, a SaaS platform that helps organisations measure their key employee engagement and happiness drivers....
Build or Buy? Alfie Lambert on 'Acquisition Entrepreneurship'
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alfie Lambert is a Co-Founder (Product and Growth Lead) at BizCrunch, an advanced off-market deal discovery platform which helps business users identi...
How to meet, inspire and keep your first customers in B2B Software
05 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Freddie Szydlowski is a CoFounder of Embargo, the UK's & Poland's no1 plug&play digital loyalty wallet & CRM platform helping coffee shops...
Before and after implementing EOS as CEO of Yapster
30 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, host Rob Liddiard explains how the Six Key Components of EOS (Vision; People; Data; Issues; Proces...
What does Elon Musk have that we don't?
17 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ashley Harris is an experienced Operations Leader used to working in fast-growing and high-pressure companies. He spent 5 years working at Tesla, wher...
The founder who bootstrapped a multi-million pound exit 4 years after quitting his day job
11 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 4 years, Eddie Whittingham went from working 9-5 (first as a policeman and then as a lawyer), to bootstrapping a cyber-security startup as a sole f...
Early Adopter Stories: Dara Howley from RAF Museum & Volunteero
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Do you know what a great early-stage customer looks like? Customer-side Visionaries like Dara Howley of the RAF Museum (speaking In this episode...
Venture Special Situations - how to find an "off-ramp" from the VC path
27 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Eyal Malinger is a Partner at Resurge Growth Partners, helping growth businesses thrive in a market where capital is scarce. He takes a more active in...
Scaling the Finance Capability Pyramid, with Andrew Lynch
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Andrew Lynch is a well-known X (formerly Twitter) finance thought leader with experience in companies of all sizes and a wide range of industries indu...
Coming to terms with failure - and coming back!
10 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kris Ingham is the Founder of https://liquidation.store/ , the excess stock e-retailer which saves good stock from landfill via flash sales, offering ...
Sometimes you have to start slow to go fast
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rob Smith is Co-founder at Slick, the fastest growing online booking solution for Hair and Beauty. In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast,...
The Difference Between B2B & B2C Startups in Hospitality
15 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Tingsager is Co-Founder of Pulse Kitchen (The plant-rich meal solution for Food Service) and Host of Hospitality Mavericks Podcast Show. With ...
How to boost organic growth with corporate acquisitions (and keep growing teams aligned)
07 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Sharp is Founder and Managing Director of Nuvo, a leading firm of Chartered Certified Accountants providing accountancy services for owner manag...
The difference between leading and managing - Scott Brown on the journey from lawyer to Visionary entrepreneur
17 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Brown is Founder & CVO of Heriot Brown In-House Legal Recruitment and host of the Lessons I Learned In Law podcast. In this episode of the F...
The Role of Process in Getting Your Startup Acquired
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Meg Payne was EOS Integrator and Operations Director for Yapster when it was acquired by Sona with Google backing in 2022. In this episode of the Firs...
Reigniting growth in a VC-backed company
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ian Jones is Managing Director at Care & Independence Limited, a venture-capital-backed company which provides a range of products to aid mobility...
How to get what you want from a restaurant business (using EOS)
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Adam Johnson is the owner of The Plough, Harborne - "The place where people feel good". In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Adam...
John Mason - what happens when you see further into the future than clients can?
17 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
John Mason is a serial entrepreneur, currently on a mission to make workplace learning more spontaneous, inclusive and continuous through his technolo...
Stephen Phillips - why do so many new restaurants fail?
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Phillips is a passionate restaurant professional, with a reputation for driving standards and bottom-line targets for the UK's favourite casua...
Alan Williamson - How to Think Like a CTO
26 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Alan Williamson is an experienced Chief Technology Officer and provider of operating partner services in technical and data analytics for private equi...
Rob Dumbleton - why 'skipping steps' in sales & marketing usually trips up growth
21 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rob Dumbleton is a B2B SaaS expert and entrepreneur, with a focus on high growth stage (start-up and scale-up) SaaS, who has successfully started, led...
Jeremy Dunderdale - Digital transformation in hospitality and how to sell to an IT Director
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jeremy Dunderdale is an IT and Security leader, with experience working for top Hospitality companies such as TGI Fridays, Cote and Sodexo. In this ep...
Matthew Dashper-Hughes - how to cold call C-level executives when you don't have much to offer yet
23 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew Dashper-Hughes is International Director and a Business Coach for GunnerCooke, the UK's fastest growing law firm. Prior to his role with Gunne...
Lina Olea - what it's like being married to an entrepreneur
17 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lina Olea is a mission-driven Marketer, currently serving as Marketing Director for UK Hospitality wifi and data insights provider, Wireless Social. L...
Steve Carpenter - how to sell to a big brand like Krispy Kreme
14 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Carpenter spent 30 years leading people functions for fast-growth businesses like TGI Fridays, Pret A Manger, Caffè Nero, Hotel Chocolat, and K...