Building a Stronger Scaleup Ecosystem: Learnings from Our Leaders

Last month, we brought this to life with our first Scale Leaders event, which brought together leaders from the private and public sectors responsible for shaping regional scaleup ecosystems. 

Together, we explored best practices at local and global levels and discussed the challenges and opportunities in supporting the Scaleup agenda.

Through Scale Leaders, our aim is to create a ripple effect that extends beyond the events themselves, fostering ideas, lessons, and relationships that will continue to evolve and drive the scaleup economy forward.

Matt Johnson, Managing Director of Form said:

“It was a pleasure to be in the room as a diverse group came together with real determination and passion to explore innovative ways to nurture ecosystem growth”

Following a networking dinner the previous evening, setting the stage for meaningful interactions and discussions.

The following morning at Hope Street Hotel, Dr. Jo Leek from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Frances Lasok from the West Midlands Combined Authority, and Tracey Johnson from the South Yorkshire Combined Authority opened the session by sharing their approaches, strategies, and visions for the future in their respective regions.

Key themes emerged around the challenging funding landscape, the need for targeted support, and the importance of showing impact.

As Dr Jo Leek put it:

“We’ve learnt that generic business support doesn’t work for scaleups. The programmes need to speak to the sectors, clusters or specific challenges within organisations. Peer support from other businesses ‘like ours’ is also really important”

Tracey Johnson said:

“There are levers you can pull at a hyperlocal, regional, and even national level. Try to connect with and work with people who can pull those levers.”  

And Frances Lasok added:

“West Midlands is post-industrial, polycentric, there are challenges and opportunities that come with the region, it’s important to acknowledge the landscape.”

Teemu Seppala, Innovation Director for the city of Riihimäki, then shared valuable insights from the Finnish ecosystem on how best to nurture scaleup growth. 

“Scaleups need to be at the heart of the ecosystem, to have ownership of it, they know what they need. The public sector should be there to offer support, funding, be a stakeholder and then ‘get out of the way’.

Leaders of scaleup businesses from the Liverpool City Region joined the session to share their thoughts on what helps scaleups to flourish.

Kyle Reid from hi-impact said supporting access to markets was key:

“Try and keep the ecosystem collaborative and keep business local. Share the offer of your scaleups, use them, connect them with service providers.”

Paul Myers, from Farm Urban shared how it’s vital to give scaleups fast answers:

“People need to get to a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ quicker. We had a bit of a rollercoaster with equity investment resting on the promise of some large contracts and the months of indecision did really affect us. Give scaleups an answer, and then they can move forward.”

And Raina Heverin from SupplyWell stressed the need for targeted support:

“Access to the right support programmes has been transformational for us. When someone has walked in your shoes it makes all the difference. It can be emotional, and you want people who can empathise and relate to what you’re going through.”

The workshop concluded with a regional exchange where participants shared thoughts and reflections on some of the key themes.

Resource Constraints and Creative Solutions:

• “There’s never enough resources, capacity, people. The only way is to get task forces together of people who are really passionate about getting on and doing it to help scaleups thrive.”
• “Think big – could we pool money and risk appetite outside of London?!”
• “We need to normalise failing well. In Denmark, they have a red alert service that fast-tracks the closure of businesses to get the talent back into the labour market.”
• “We’ve got less resources, so we need to get creative to find solutions.”

Needs Analysis vs. Market Feedback:

• “It can be a bit of a chicken and egg situation: do you do a needs analysis first to find out what people need, or do you go for it, get it to market, and then get feedback and adjust?”
• “We need to engage with delivery partners early and always keep the impact of the support we’re designing front of mind.”
• “We need to deliver the right programs that help businesses to scale.”

Leadership, Consensus, and Market Access:

• “How can we get leadership and consensus across the UK? The UK market is quite small compared to the global market. How can we avoid it being a scrap for resources, funding, support – and have a broader vision?”
• “The public sector underestimates the role they can play in making connections between scaleups and market access. When you’re on the outside, it’s really hard to get a way in. Can we consider things like ‘meet the buyer’ events again? And the internal procurement journey?”

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Scale Leaders is a growing community for those committed to growing their regional economy. Future events will see regional authorities, ecosystem leaders, scaleups, and funders come together to continue to shape the strategy and delivery of regional ecosystems. 

For more information on the initiative or to get involved check out our landing page here or connect in with darren@form.studio.