A podcast to match the ambition of our subjects
Scotland’s next big economic success stories are worth talking about, writes Nick Freer
With so many podcasts around these days, is there room for another one featuring a dyed in the wool PR guy banging on about startups from Scotland?
It’s a fair question, and one I’ve been asking myself on repeat as we prepare to launch Beyond the Startup, a new podcast series alongside former Skyscanner growth executive Lisa Venter.
Supported by Scotland’s largest AI consultancy, Create Future, and next generation enterprise CMS platform Forrit, we’re setting out to explore a subject that hopefully deserves a bit more attention: how Scotland builds more globally successful technology companies.
Not simply more startups, important though they are, but businesses capable of scaling internationally, creating substantial employment and generating lasting economic value.
Our first guest is Richard Lennox, an experienced scaleup operator, author of the recent Framing Scotland’s Entrepreneurial Economy report, and a regular guest writer for this column.
Richard has spent much of his career helping ambitious technology businesses grow at pace, and his argument is compelling. Namely, that Scotland is pretty good at supporting companies through their earliest stages, but less so when helping them to scale.
We rightly celebrate new businesses, university spinouts and entrepreneurial success stories, but the bigger economic prize lies in helping more of these companies go global.
Today, consider Wordsmith, Simple Online Healthcare, or Chemify. Different sectors, different business models, all demonstrating the potential for Scottish companies to compete well beyond our borders.
Imagine the impact if Scotland could produce significantly more businesses of this calibre. More high-value jobs, greater exports, stronger supply chains, and experienced entrepreneurs reinvesting their knowledge and capital into the next generation.
That’s the conversation Lisa and I want to encourage. We bring different perspectives. Lisa has experienced the realities of scaling a global technology business, while I’ve spent much of my career advising and writing about Scotland’s entrepreneurial community including some of our most celebrated tech companies.
We’re interested in the personalities, decisions, challenges and, where possible, the uncomfortable truths behind building successful businesses. Not simply another round of congratulatory exchanges about how wonderful our entrepreneurial ecosystem is.
There’s also something appropriate about launching a podcast focused on scaling companies when the podcast itself resembles a startup. Our first iteration will undoubtedly be a little raw around the edges. We’ll learn what works, discover what doesn’t, and hopefully improve with every episode.
Like any early-stage venture, we have an idea, some ambition, supportive partners, but absolutely no guarantee of success. I guess the challenge is turning that initial enthusiasm into something sustainable and genuinely valuable to the audience.
Perhaps that’s a useful reminder of what entrepreneurship involves. Starting something can be relatively straightforward. Building something that lasts is way harder.
Scotland has become good at celebrating the beginning of that journey. With Beyond the Startup, we hope to spend more time discussing what happens next.
Because the real prize for Scotland isn’t simply creating more startups. It’s building more companies that change the world, and our economy along with it.
Nick Freer is the founding director of corporate PR agency Freer Consultancy and co-founder of Beyond the Startup podcast
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.