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Fast growth secrets

Our fast growth secrets series helps you learn from the experiences of successful tech founders and investors to grow your business faster and avoid common pitfalls.

Top secrets of tech founders

Starting and growing a successful business is no easy feat. But it's even harder if you're trying to do it on your own. That's why it's so important to learn from the experiences of others who have been there and done it. But unfortunately, when battle-hardened founders get together to share experiences, it’s usually behind closed doors.

Part one of our fast growth secrets reports cover the following key points:

Scaling requires founders to adopt a new mindset that prioritises efficiency and flexibility – failing to adapt can prove fatal.

Make sure you’ve found a robust product-market fit before scaling – the best way to do this is through exploration.

Seeking external investment isn’t the right route for everyone – but it can prove transformational.

Remember, investors can offer much more than just a cheque – look for an investor who’s the right strategic fit.

The Cambridge and Oxford experience

For the second part of our fast growth secrets report, we joined Richardsons accountants for a roundtable discussion to explore the fast growth secrets of technology businesses comparing the experiences of those based in Oxford and Cambridge. 

It came at a time when our relationship with science and technology was under intense scrutiny. The government was setting out its agenda to become a ‘science superpower’ and challenging debate over the regulation of social media and AI businesses, and there had been recent international recognition for the creation of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine programme.

Government support, education and, of course, funding are often at the heart of these discussions and will undoubtedly remain so for many years to come. In this thought leadership report we look to address some of these challenges and opportunities across three broad areas:

  • The Oxford and Cambridge experience
  • The national ecosystem
  • How we inspire the next generation of tech entrepreneurs

We also offer our thoughts on the steps that might be taken to improve the standing of science and technology businesses, not only in Oxford and Cambridge but across the entire UK.

Embedding ESG into the DNA of your business

We held a roundtable discussion to explore the fast growth secrets of technology businesses and why they should embed ESG into the DNA of their operations. Part three of our fast growth secrets report captured these insights, challenges and opportunities across these areas; how fast growth technology businesses use ESG strategies for competitive advantage and how fast growth technology businesses can also use ESG for employee engagement and retention.

How to use ESG strategies for competitive advantage?

ESG is more than a marketing or tick-box exercise. It is the bedrock of corporate culture, shaping the way business is conducted, the relationship it has with stakeholders, and driving a real and measurable competitive advantage.

Yet those drivers are complex and varied. ESG compliance is often required to work with national governments and by high-profile businesses substantiating their own ESG credentials. Increasingly, being transparent about your ESG performance is demanded by customers and employees (current and future).

It is, said one panellist, “no longer possible to just say ‘we do ESG’ and move on.” It needs to be part of an organisation’s DNA, implemented in a demonstratable way, with employees empowered to act. And for good reason.

Technology businesses that do not meet the ESG demands of their customers or regulators will find themselves sidelined. To work with large real estate businesses in London, for example, businesses need to show how they are actively reducing their Scope 3 emissions. In public sector procurement, evidence of social value is “a must” accounting for up to 10% of criteria.

One of the challenges facing businesses is understanding the drivers behind the ESG strategies of clients and customers. Where strategies are not aligned there is the very real risk of “tactical greenwashing”.

A clearer regulatory ESG framework will help. In its absence, it “is very difficult to control ESG strategies” and that is likely to “catch businesses out”.

Investors are also alive to the risks of greenwashing, with one investor panellist saying they require evidence of “how companies cover their [ESG] claims” before any investment is made. In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority will investigate and take action against sustainability claims that are misleading and cannot be proven. In the US greenwashing is increasingly becoming the target of class actions.

Those that successfully defended themselves “have the technology and the data to prove their claims”. But first, says one investor panellist, “you have to collect the data”.

Intense investor scrutiny is understandable, with a recent McKinsey study suggesting businesses can expect a 2% revenue boost from strong ESG credentials, with multiple sustainability claims having an amplifying effect. ESG delivers more than just a competitive advantage.

How tech businesses embed customer and people experience 

The UK has long harboured ambitions in becoming a global technology superpower, and in many ways that ambition is being achieved. Whilst the UK may not yet have produced businesses with the global impact of Google, Amazon or Alphabet, its entrepreneurial fast-growth businesses lead the world in many fields from drug discovery, renewable energy, artificial intelligence and many more.

The success of UK technology businesses, as we have explored throughout the Fast Growth Secrets campaign, is varied. Our world-class academic institutions play a key role with the Golden Triangle of Oxford, Cambridge and London packing a global punch. The funding landscape is excellent in supporting early-stage and scale-up businesses, supported by a worldleading professional services environment.

But as we explore in this white paper, fast-growth businesses share one thing in common: an unending passion for delivering the best customer experience possible. And that, says participants in this roundtable discussion held in Manchester, starts with people.

Manchester is one of the top tech start-up hubs in the UK with a thriving fintech, blockchain, AI and cyber scene. This tech boom has been driven by the region's collaboration between the public, private and academic sectors. The region has done a lot to promote tech and tech investment, and has just reclaimed its status as the UK's number one regional "tech city".

The Eastern opportunity

We spoke to experienced tech founders and investors in Norwich and East Anglia on tech in the region and how to grow your business faster.

Norwich is blessed with a warm and supportive tech community. Our historic city is rapidly transforming into a tech hotspot. Norwich’s creative, science, digital and tech industry is booming, with tech businesses at the heart of our region’s growing economy. The University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park and Norwich University of the Arts play a big role in the success of this industry, as well as the dynamic, innovative and supportive tech community in the area.

A recent national study pinpointed Norwich as a ‘vibrant technology cluster’. With organisations such as Tech East, Hethel Innovation and Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor existing to accelerate the growth and amplify the success of the tech ecosystem in the East of England, it’s no wonder our region is a bustling hub for science, technology and innovation.

Mills & Reeve is proud to be the legal advisers behind some of the region’s most successful and exciting organisations, including, Tropic, Optimise Media, Lotus, Epos Now and Artlist UK. Our tech expertise is complemented by our experience in related sectors, such as agritech, industrial biotechnology and fintech.

We work closely with local networks, recently supporting the East of England Tech Collaboration with University of East Anglia and Cambridge Tech Week and serving as a judge, for the second time, of Norwich Research Park’s Innovation Hothouse Competition. We also sponsor Eastern Promise and supported their recent conference at Norwich Research Park.

Our podcast collection

Learn from the experiences of successful tech founders and investors to grow your business faster and avoid common pitfalls.

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