Over the past seven years we have delivered 300+ sessions with nearly 4.500 people through Scale Up! This month, we are rolling out the latest version, Scale Up MENA! and Scale Up Africa Rising! (launching in Q1 ’26). Here are the first observations from running the next generation of Scale Up!

It was one of the most intense, exhilarating and engaging Scale Up! sessions we’ve run in Norway (and we’ve run 60+ to date). The 30+ participants were highly capable. Angel investors, accelerator managers, ecosystem builders, founders, early-stage investors; all coming together to work on the ‘scaling up’ part of the ecosystem.

“Are you ready to scale?”, we asked, “do you have what it takes to scale from Bergen, Norway to the world?”, we challenges them. And they stepped up – big time, scaling five tech companies across energy, health, AI and seafood, ultimately ending up with a string of highly successful M&A exit transactions – and a string of zoo animals along the way.

Here are the top differences we observed in the new version of Scale Up! this week.

From financing to all round founder leadership and scaling development

The single biggest difference is the need for world class leadership and team collaboration. The moment the CEO steps back, the team steps down. The moment the Investor Relations Manager zoom out, the investor pipeline dries up in minutes. Leadership, more than ever, matters.

From equity to value

Previous generations of Scale Up! have largely been equity focused. Now, suddenly, ARR, revenue, revenue growth, margin expansion, building out the sales organization and revenue velocity matter. But beware of the famous year 10 hockey stick!

From investor landscape to commercial markets

With 35 markets to choose from, teams need to carefully select their beachhead and growth markets.

From linear to multi-level complexity

Five team members, each with a unique role, responsibility, KPIs, cards, boards and management dashboard.

Why it matters?

Globally, countries are competing on entreprenurship. But too often, the focus is on top-of-the-funnel, early-stage entreprenurship. Incubators filled, not IPO’s realized is often the metric of success. We developed Scale Up! to support more founders, innovation agencies, accelerators, ecosystems and countries in their efforts to scale, to scale up!

To date, nearly 4.500 people across 50 countries and 300+ programs have been through Scale Up! Globally, 50+ people are trained and certified to deliver Scale Up! programs. This month, we are training another 40 future facilitators.

This month, we are also rolling out Scale Up MENA! (from idea to exit in the Middle East) and getting ready to launch Scale Up Africa Rising! (from idea to exit in Africa). Next year, we are working on another two new outlines…..

Tomorrow, we’re off to Saudi Arabia and Dubai, where we will be running five Scale Up MENA! Masterclasses.

Read more and meet us in Dubai.