Scaling a Start-up From Inception to Investment

Every entrepreneur eventually faces the same pivotal question: how do I scale the business I've built? Since starting CybaVerse in 2018, my co-founder, Gemma Blake, and I have successfully scaled our business from two people to 40 employees, with one acquisition under our belt, and millions secured in investment over two funding rounds, with our latest Series A netting £5m. It's been an incredible and rewarding journey, but not without its obstacles. There are a lot of aspects of scaling a business you can't be taught – like raising a child - that only comes with experience. So, here are a few important lessons I've learned to help other aspiring entrepreneurs turn their own dreams into successful realities.

Plan ahead, but stay flexible
There's no one-size-fits-all way to grow a business. Founders often begin with grand, detailed plans, but the truth is that growth requires adaptability. Markets shift. Customers evolve. Teams expand. Strategies must be capable of moving with them. While it's important to have goals and ambition, planning everything out in meticulous detail isn't necessary, and can actually hinder progress. Organisations must adapt to the environments they operate in as this can introduce new opportunities and necessitate the organisation to change direction. Establishing a roadmap, even just for your next quarter, will provide a structure, allowing you to conduct regular reviews, track progress, and ultimately get a sense of where the business should head for a successful future. Using a quarterly plan, you can prioritise and ask important questions, such as what you need to do to reach certain milestones, within a given timeframe.

Fundraising: Prepare for perseverance
Fundraising is long, rarely straightforward, and requires real perseverance. When you pitch a business to investors, you're subjecting it to a large amount of scrutiny, often from domain experts who are hungry for returns. You need to be prepared for many of them to push back, and be willing to have an open mind if and when they question what you're doing. Equally, meeting investors and establishing a clear understanding of each other's expectations is critical. As with customers, you need to establish your idea of an ideal investor. What interest do they have in the business? What sort of returns are they expecting? It's tempting to simply go out and pitch to anyone and everyone, but building up an understanding of your ideal investor will help direct your efforts towards the people who truly matter. You want investors who understand your business, where you're taking it, and who share a sense of alignment with you. You also want to know that you can work together and that the relationship won't be one-sided. You must also be willing to talk openly and directly.

Keep investors happy, without going crazy
Getting investors onboard is time-consuming. Securing investment won't happen overnight, no matter the interest you have. Set expectations early so you don't drain time, energy or capital assuming deals will close quickly. I thought I could bypass the months-long funding process because I already had some level of interest, and with a bit of hard work closing deals would take weeks. In reality, our seed and Series A both lasted around six months from start to finish. This was a valuable experience for me: it taught me that when starting fresh, you need to have a realistic understanding of the time frames you'll be working over. You may be able to fundraise in a stricter time window with a prior network and track record, but when starting from the ground up, you will spend a large amount of time reaching out to investors, pitching to them, gauging interest, all while continuing to run your business. My rule of thumb is to take the amount of time in which you're expecting to raise funds, and triple it. Do you think it will take you a month to lock in fundraising? Prepare for three. That way, you're setting a timeframe in which you can juggle your pitch effort, while continuing to drive the business.

Staying resilient
Ultimately, growing a business is about resilience: having the ability to deal with unexpected problems, commitment in the face of rejection, and having the patience to stick it out and keep yourself aiming for growth. As with people, no one business is the same, and every business has different needs and faces different circumstances. Your resilience is key. It's also safe to say, it's worth it. Seeing what we have achieved at CybaVerse over the last few years is incredible, and as a fellow entrepreneur, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing your ambition turn into a highly successful reality. For entrepreneurs taking their first steps, remember: scaling isn't just about building a larger company, it's about building the endurance, perspective and confidence to make that growth possible and lasting.