Two leading groups supporting start-up businesses in Scotland are adding a third course of training to their line-up of programmes to help small firms grow much larger.
The Hunter Foundation and Scottish EDGE have launched “Pre-Scaler”, which is open to entrepreneurs operating in any sector who are based in Scotland. Successful applicants will spend five days in total between May and September taking part in online and in-person development modules to support their expansion plans.
Pre-Scaler joins the original ScaleUpScotland and ScaleUpScotland 2.0, which are backed by Ayrshire entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter’s Hunter Foundation and funding competition organiser Scottish EDGE.
Sir Tom said the programmes are designed to operate like the “rungs on a ladder”, with Pre-Scaler for those starting out on the journey and 2.0 geared to those targeting £100 million in annual revenues.
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“Start-up figures are always a concern – they have been a concern of mine for 25 years,” he said. “Start-ups are great, but it is scale-ups that move the economic dial.
“But in order to get to scale-ups, you need to fill the funnel with start-ups. Every rung of the ladder is to build really great support [from] people who have been there and done it so that they can help people get up the ladder quicker, and create the jobs and make the Scottish economy sing.”
The development events will kick off with a core module on fundraising, valuation and cost of capital, followed by sessions on people planning, leadership, sales and marketing. Board and governance training will be delivered by ScaleUp programme partners including David Sole’s School for CEOs.
“Scottish EDGE is delighted to be partnering with the Hunter Foundation to deliver this programme aimed at growing businesses,” chief executive Evelyn McDonald said.
“We know from experience that our businesses need more than just cash in their journey to scale and this series of workshops aims to help them with their development”.
The closing date for applications is March 24, with up to 20 pre-scaling businesses to be selected for the first cohort. The initial programme will be fully underwritten by The Hunter Foundation with no charge to participants for what is being described as a “market test”, after which a fee may be introduced if there is significant demand.
Judges will include Chris van der Kuyl of Chroma Ventures; Ana Stewart, partner at EOS Advisory; Ms McDonald of Scottish EDGE; and Ewan Hunter, chief executive of The Hunter Foundation.
“This is us trying to do some joined-up thinking,” Sir Tom added. “We are big supporters of Scottish EDGE with Evelyn there, and out of that we came up with ScaleUpScotland and then ScaleUp 2.0, so this is us really looking at people at the early stage, and the kind of EDGE stage, and saying right, what are we doing to help them?”
READ MORE: Scottish EDGE returns for 20th round of awards funding
“If anything that is the most difficult stage of the entrepreneur’s journey, and it is certainly the most lonely, and therefore we just felt there is definitely room here [to do more] for the businesses that are really ambitious.
“The first thing we are going to do is help create networks, because who better to learn from than other entrepreneurs? The peer-to-peer support and learning is kind of the secret sauce of all of this.”
Designed to support young firms with high growth potential, Scottish EDGE has to date invested more than £21 million into approximately 550 businesses. The competition is now in its eighth year.
A total of 42 businesses from across Scotland received £1.6m in financial backing in the latest round of the awards that concluded in December.
One of the biggest winners was Rival SC, a supply chain management platform designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses. The Edinburgh-based start-up received a total of £100,000.
It also saw the return of Net Zero EDGE, which launched in 2021with backing from the Royal Bank of Scotland. Beira Moda was awarded £50,000 for its work in using discarded fabric from the luxury fashion industry to create limited edition womenswear.
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