How to scale a cleantech business

Dear Cleantech friends,

This one is for the founders, entrepreneurs and cleantech VCs in my audience.

I have decided to make a difference this year. In 2020, I was grateful to have the opportunity to support and mentor some incredible founders with ambitious growth plans, who are keen to make an impact with their Cleantech businesses, through my work with Hyperion and through a number of accelerator programmes, both of which I will continue to do. During this time, I have enjoyed seeing their progress and achievement, and taking part in this process enabled me to see a number of common factors relating to the challenges that were preventing them from taking their businesses to the next level. 

 As I'm sure you know, in our world, growth is rarely purely organic! We are ambitious people with a big mission, and we work with Capital intensive solutions in order to solve environmental and societal problems and deliver value to both our customers, and the wider world around us. This often requires external investment. The past 12 months have been tough for SMEs and start-ups, who inevitably face tougher economic headwinds than larger companies during a recession. Many VCs focus on follow-on investments rather than new ones, and as such founders can suffer the brunt of tightened public and investor purse strings as funding is diverted into existing portfolios, the coronavirus response, and lower risk assets.

 I know many have had to slow progress on growth and key projects, and have now vowed to achieve their goals, and the capital they need to restart in 2021. 

 I am committed to help foster this kind of entrepreneurship within our sector to ensure successful outcomes for all of us in 2021, supporting key innovation projects and investment trends, as well as some key VC partners, to create a better future for ourselves and our businesses. Getting investment can be challenging even without the current economic climate, and can seem more like an art than a science, but in reality it is a bit of both.

 I don't know anyone better in the art of preparing businesses for investment than Nick Bradley, who has built, bought, and sold 22 businesses with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars, and now shares his expertise through his “Scale Up Your Business” podcast, which ranked #1 on iTunes’ and Spotify’s business charts, has more than 150k downloads in over 130 countries. Back in August, I enjoyed creating this Leadership Insights video in which we discuss the moving from start-up to scale-up, and I have been working closely with him for some time now on a number of Cleantech investment opportunities,  

 Why am I telling you this?

 For full disclosure, Nick is both a friend and a business partner. Following our discussions regarding the challenges facing Cleantech businesses, we have decided to host an intimate session to help founders and cleantech entrepreneurs like yourself, which I hope you will find useful and join us for. 

Between us , we will be sharing the mechanics of tried-and-tested frameworks for producing rapid growth in Cleantech businesses, along with his top strategies for preparing for investment, including the assets you need to have in place to make your business attractive to investors, to give you the best chance of succeeding.

The session, which is specifically for cleantech entrepreneurs is called ‘How to Scale a Cleantech Business’, and will be taking place on 02 February at 17:00 GMT. Places are limited, so to reserve your spot, click the following link to register today:

 https://scaleup.vip/cleantech 

 If you feel this could be of value to you as you seek to scale your cleantech business I hope to see you there.

 Best Regards,

David