This year we expect to train and certify 50-60 Scale Up! expert facilitators. If you are one of them, here are nine ways you can run Scale Up!
Accelerating entreprenurship with Scale Up!
Globally, 1000’s of founders, investors and ecosystem developers have built their ‘scale up skills’ with Scale Up! From introduction to cap table math, accelerating seed-stage founders or training investors on deal structures, partial liquidity mechanisms and IPO readiness, over the years we have seen a broad range of use cases of Scale Up!
Expert Expert facilitators like Scott B. Newton, Rick Rasmussen, Rumbi Makanga, Enrico Maset, Sanjana Raheja and many, others are pushing to create new best practices in Scale Up! delivery.
African accelerators, European family offices, Middle Eastern fund-of-funds, Nordic innovation clusters, US business schools, global impact accelerators and global entrepreneurship organizations are just some of the 100’s and 100’s of users who have picked up Scale Up! in recent years; but how can you run Scale Up!?
Well, in our work, we have identified nine different ways you can run Scale Up!
Before we start
Before getting into the details, the first question is always, “are you running this online or in-person”.
Scale Up! has been delivered 100’s of times in both formats. But what are you planning?
Some people strongly prefer the online version, noting the flexibility of adding new content, combined with nobody needing to travel. For many, the online format can be perfect. Others prefer the in-person setup. Being in the same room together. More energy, more collaboration, more engagement, more teamwork.
There is no right or wrong, it’s simply up to you, which format you prefer.
1. “Bits and pieces”
Duration: Varies, from 30. Minutes to days
Format: online or in-person
Example: Hatch Founder Workshop
The “Bits and pieces” format allows you to extract certain pieces from the Scale Up! kit and work with it, without having to run the entire simulation.
This is great if you are running shorter sessions, focused workshops or want to zoom in one a certain topic, without bringing the full kit. Expert facilitators like Enrico or Javier, regularly use the Scale Up! Strategy cards in founder coaching conversations, while I run multiple exercises for founders on the Investor Map and Long-term funding roadmap, combined with a handful of Scale Up! Investor cards.
There is no one best way to run this, feel free to mix and match the bits and pieces as you see fit.
Or, if you prefer the in-person format.
2. Discovery
Duration: 2-3 hours
Format: Light, easy, introduction level
Example: Strategy Tools hosted online discovery session
Imagine having friends over for dinner, and all you serve them is an appetizer and that’s it. That’s a Discovery session for you. It is a taster. Nothing more. But for most people, it is great way to get a first taste, a first chance to see Scale Up! in action. Just be clear on format and expectations. This is not a full program. It not even a full introduction. But for a couple of hours, it serves as a great appetizer.
3. Pilot
Duration: 1 day
Format: Beginner and intermediate, introduction focused
Example: Scale Up MENA! pilot in Dubai
Pilots are a great way to get people introduced to and initially started on Scale Up!
A good pilot session is usually a full-day (5-8 hours), something most founders can carve out time for. A good pilot will have four sections throughout the day. – Welcome & introductions (20. Minutes) – Opening lecture (30. – 90. Minutes) – Hands-on, in teams, running Scale Up! (3-6 hours) – Debrief, next steps and how to move from pilot to full program
We recommend most new facilitators to plan for 5-20 Pilot sessions per year, as it has proven to be a great way to get going with Scale Up! in a new market or ecosystem. Most founders, once they have tried a pilot session, usually want more – and soon.
4. Workshop
Duration: 1-3 days
Format: varies from light, entry-level, to advanced, depending on the group
Example: 2-day Scale Up! workshop with the Ocean Startup Project in Canada , or 1-day with EO Dubai.
The workshop format is standard, full-scale delivery. But a workshop tends to be shorter, slower and less advanced in terms of content than a Masterclass. We have done 100’s of workshops. They are great. But think about workshops as the little brother against the Masterclass.
In a workshop format, you would aim to run Scale Up! from start to successful exit (end); but you have more flexibility in terms of content (take things out), pacing (slow things down), and adjust to the topics the group wants to focus on. A workshop is a very flexible format.
Often, the workshop format ties well into ongoing client engagements, where you decide to run Scale Up! as a part of a larger engagement. We frequently do this with angel networks, family offices, incubators, accelerators and ecosystem developers with great effect.
5. Masterclass
Duration: 2-3 days (3 days recommended)
Format: advanced level, complex, fast-paced, challenging, but also incredibly engaging
Example: Bahrain, DNB, Dubai, Cairo and many, many more
A Masterclass is an advanced, fast-paced, stand-alone delivery of Scale Up! It usually runs over three days, in some cases 2,4 or even 5 days.
What makes a Masterclass stand out is the full-on pace, advanced content and focus on taking all teams through the best possible experience we can.
A Masterclass is planned down to every 15. Min slot, and covers a number of Founder Tasks, Breakout exercises and Strategy Tools canvases. A robust Masterclass will take participants through every step of the scaling up journey, and focus significant attention on the later-stage issues, such as Outcome Canvas, partial investor liquidity and a full exit transaction. Depending on the level of the participants, an exit transaction can end out in a ‘quick M&A’ (takes around 20. Minutes to complete) or a full-scale IPO process (takes around 3-4 hours to complete).
Personally, the 3-day Masterclass is my favorite format, as participants tend to lean in, work hard and we can see massive progress with just a few days of work.
6. Program
Duration: 30-90 days, could be more
Format: Usually quite advanced, depending on the group. Covers a broad range of topics, with Scale Up! being very central.
Example: 30-day Investment Readiness program with Katapult Accelerator, Savant Accelerator, Link Capital or GIZ
A program structure means Scale Up! is just a small piece in a larger entreprenurship program. This can be a one week program, a four week program, a 90-day program or longer. With Katapult, we run a 30-day, high-intensity program.
In a program format, we usually plan for Scale Up! as one of the cornerstone activities, but we also plan for a lot more work and content than just Scale Up! Over the years, we’ve run a significant number of the 30-day Investor Readiness Sprint, a 30-day, intense, packed program to get founders truly investor ready, and radically increase their chances of successfully raising their next round of equity investment. In this format, we recommend founders to allocate 100-150 hours per startup team, with Scale Up! taking less than 15 hours.
In your work, you can probably see many program structures where Scale Up! can be a small piece of the bigger picture.
7. Education
Duration: From one day to a full semester
Format: Depends on learning goals, levels and target outcomes.
Example: FHV, Northwestern, ESCP and many, many more levels: Scale Up! is used in educational programs from High School (Canada), Business School (Europe and the US) and technical universities (Europe)
The first time we brought Scale Up! into a classroom was in Dornbirn, Austria (truly, in the Austrian alps) in October 2021. Since then, 100’s and 100’s of entrepreneurship students have experienced Scale Up! as a part of their educational programs.
In Canada, Stuart and Michael have been running an innovative space tech x Scale Up! high school program, as well as multiple university programs. In Germany, Austria and Italy, Enrico has been teaching with Scale Up! across programs. In Silicon Valley, Rick has been educating future startup founders with Scale Up! In London, Vishal is teaching entreprenurship with Scale Up!
8. Multi-year programs
Duration: Runs into years
Format: Varies significantly, but usually several Scale Up! sessions over time
Example: Reinventing the Norwegian innovation cluster program
A multi-year program might take the shape of a larger ecosystem development initiative, a national transformation program, a business angel development program or simply upskilling
In Norway, from 2017-2021, we ran a multi-year program on reinventing the national, Norwegian innovation cluster program. Here, Scale Up! was a cornerstone in the project. Over these 4-5 years, we probably ran 30 Scale Up! sessions of different lengths and formats. In Cairo, working with Tiye Angels, we run a multi-year program covering early-stage founders, scaling founders, angel investors and ecosystem coaches.
For anyone who might have a chance to plug Scale Up! into a multi-year development program, expect to see huge improvement in your own expertise and mastery in how you run Scale Up!
Looking ahead, we can see many forms of these multi-year programs:
- Boosting the Nordic tech ecosystem
- Scaling the European startup ecosystem
- Taking the UAE and MENA ecosystem to the next level
- Upskilling a generation of startup founders in Saudi Arabia – Developing stronger financial and fundraising skills in South East Asia
- Boosting accelerators and Business Support Organizations in Latin America
- Building deep skills in entreprenurial finance, cap tables and fundraising in Africa
These are just a handful of the Scale Up! multi-year programs we would love to see coming up, led by you, as the new expert facilitators.
9. Train-the-trainers
Duration: From a few days to multiple months
Format: Blended, online or in-person (most do blended)
Example: Scale Up MENA! TTT, Strategy Tools Master Trainer, Katapult TTT
One day, hopefully, some of you might want to start training and supporting new Scale Up! expert facilitators in your ecosystem. Go for it! One of the best ways to learn is by teaching others.
We have taught, trained and certified 70+ Scale Up! Facilitators, closer to 300 if we count everyone that has been through the Train-the-trainers, but not necessarily taken up Scale Up! as a professional track.
In your case, if you have an accelerator team, local business school faculty or a network of consultants and investors you work with; go for it. Put together a new, innovative Train-the-trainers program in your ecosystem, or let’s work together with you running our standard TTT program, in your part of the world.
Who knows, maybe you will be the one to unlock 100’s of new Scale Up! facilitators, you just don’t know it yet.
The best way? Just get started
In this blogpost we have outlined ten ways you can run Scale Up! From classrooms to workshops, from multi-year programs to discovery sessions; the choice is yours.
Regardless, the best way to run it is simply getting started. Enrico, one of our most experienced Scale Up! facilitators, once said, that new facilitators (like yourself) should aim to run 20 sessions, minimum, in the first year. With 20 sessions, you build muscle memory, confidence and quickly gain mastery. Just get started.
On our end, we are excited to see what you will do with Scale Up! in the coming years – ultimately supporting startup founders to build and scale better companies in your part of the world.