Episode #537 - Rebuilding Financial Modelling from the Ground Up – with Joe van Gelder
Release Date: 11/10/2025
Episode #551 - ScaleUp Radio Shorts: The Engineer and The Artist – Balancing Structure with Spirit in Scale-Ups
ScaleUp Radio
This week on ScaleUp Radio Shorts, Kevin and Granger reflect on two standout interviews that bring together the worlds of engineering precision and artistic expression in leadership. On one side, we have Jono Taylor, a grounded product design engineer scaling his service-based business with a flexible freelance model. On the other, Nigel Hughes, a ballet-trained serial entrepreneur helping leaders inspire from within. Despite their wildly different backgrounds, both guests shared strikingly similar insights around resilience, team dynamics, and the importance of values in scaling. 💡 In this...
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Episode #550 - From Performer to Purpose-Driven Leader: Vision, Inspiration & Personal Discovery - with Nigel Hughes
ScaleUp Radio
Hi there and welcome back to another edition of ScaleUp Radio, the podcast brought to you by Smart90, inspired by the Entrepreneurial ScaleUp System and designed to make navigating our ScaleUp journeys that little bit easier by learning from others' experiences. I’m Kevin Brent, and in today’s episode I’m joined by Nigel Hughes, a former professional performer turned leadership advisor and founder of Outstanding Global. Nigel’s journey is anything but ordinary. At just 13 years old, he chose ballet over the Marines — a decision that marked the beginning of a 20-year career on stage...
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Episode #549 - Designing Products That Change Lives, Innovation, Resilience and Radical Teamwork - with Jono Taylor
ScaleUp Radio
Hi, I’m Granger Forson find me at or connect on and in this episode of ScaleUp Radio we dive deep into the world of product design engineering with Jono Taylor, founder of Relay Industries. Jono has spent ten years building a business that brings breakthrough physical products to life, helping solve real-world problems in medical, industrial, scientific and connected technology sectors. From life-saving blood pumps and IoT telematics hardware to quantum physics instrumentation, Relay Industries stands out by combining creativity with deep manufacturing...
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Episode #548 - You Can't Scale Chaos
ScaleUp Radio
In this punchy ScaleUp Radio Shorts episode, Kevin Brent and Granger Forson take a deep dive into two recent ScaleUp Radio conversations, one with Hamish Yates, founder of Neptune Infrastructure Associates, and the other with Steve Johnson, MD of Scaling Sales. At first glance, managing offshore wind farms and building a sales team might seem worlds apart. But when it comes to scaling, the core principles of focus, systems, and people are universal. 🎯 Key Themes Explored: Niche Down, Scale Up Both Hamish and Steve highlight the importance of narrowing your focus to accelerate growth....
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Episode #547 - Scaling Sales: The Right Way, At The Right Time - with Steve Johnson
ScaleUp Radio
Hi there and welcome back to another edition of ScaleUp Radio, the podcast brought to you by Smart90, inspired by the Entrepreneurial ScaleUp System and designed to make navigating our ScaleUp journeys that little bit easier by learning from others' experiences. I’m Kevin Brent and in today's episode I’m joined by Steve Johnson. Steve’s a founder who’s been in the trenches, he grew his SaaS business from £750k to over £5 million ARR in just three years. In this conversation, we break down his proven 3-stage framework for scaling sales the right way, starting with the founder doing...
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Episode #546 - From Wind Farms to Wisdom: How Neptune Infrastructure Powers Renewable Success - with Hamish Yates
ScaleUp Radio
Hi, I’m Granger Forson, and you can find me at or on . In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, I’m joined by Hamish Yates, founder and CEO of Neptune Infrastructure Associates, a fast-growing advisory firm dedicated to helping asset managers optimise the performance of renewable energy projects across Europe. With experience advising on over £2 billion of projects powering more than two million homes, Hamish brings a rare blend of engineering rigour and entrepreneurial purpose to the clean energy space. We explore how Neptune was built on a...
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Episode #545 - Contrasting Paths to Growth: How Kat Wellum-Kent and Phil Harding Are Scaling Their Businesses
ScaleUp Radio
In this edition of ScaleUp Radio Shorts, Kevin Brent and Granger Forson distil powerful insights from two recent ScaleUp Radio interviews with: Kat Wellum-Kent, founder of The Fractionals Group, and Phil Harding, founder and MD of BBB Drinks. While their businesses differ in sector and style, finance/HR versus premium drinks distribution, both founders offer hard-earned lessons on how to scale smartly and sustainably. 🎯 What You’ll Learn in This Episode: ✅ The power of specialisation – Kat’s fractional model brings strategic and operational finance/HR under one...
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Episode #544 - Scaling with Heart and Strategy: How Authenticity and Team Culture Fuel the Fractional Revolution - with Kat Wellum-Kent
ScaleUp Radio
Hi, I’m Granger Forson, and you can find me at or connect with me on . In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, I sit down with Kat Wellum-Kent, founder of The Fractionals Group. A business built on the powerful idea that scale-ups deserve fractional support that truly integrates into their teams. Kat shares her inspiring journey from accountant to entrepreneur, revealing how a chance lunch with a friend in Australia sparked her leap into creating Fractional Finance and later Fractional Human Resources. From just an idea to a 12-person team...
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Episode #543 - Change The Model And increase The Chance of Success - with Phil Harding
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, I’m joined by Phil Harding, the founder of BBB Drinks, a business that’s not only disrupting the traditional drinks distribution model but also redefining how emerging brands grow and scale in an evolving market. From a shift in consumer drinking habits to a unique retainer-based model, Phil shares how BBB Drinks is tackling the industry's deep-rooted inefficiencies head-on – and helping new brands get the attention and traction they deserve. This episode is structured in three parts: The Business & Model: We explore BBB’s innovative business...
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Episode #542 - From Marketing the Cure to Discovering It: Two Founders, Two Frontlines
ScaleUp Radio
In this powerful ScaleUp Radio Shorts episode, Kevin Brent and Granger Forson contrast two founders tackling very different ends of the healthcare and life sciences spectrum: Michael Colling-Tuck, founder of Agency Medical Marketing, is on a mission to ensure life-changing innovations get adopted by clinicians and patients. Prasun Chakraborty, founder of Genevation, is developing personalised cancer vaccines using cutting-edge AI and immunotherapy. One is solving the problem of visibility and market traction. The other is solving for scientific possibility and clinical impact. Yet both share...
info_outlineIn this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Joe van Gelder, CEO and co-founder of Powdr – a SaaS-enabled consultancy that’s revolutionising the way businesses build and use financial models.
Joe shares the journey of transforming a traditional consultancy into a product-led business by solving a real-world pain point: fragile, expensive, and ineffective financial modelling tools. With Powdr, he’s helping scaling businesses make better strategic decisions – faster and more affordably – using robust, investor-grade financial models.
The conversation follows the typical ScaleUp Radio three-part format:
- The Business & Model – We explore Powdr’s journey from a founder-led consultancy to a scalable SaaS-enabled platform.
- Scaling Challenges – Joe opens up about raising £1M in just 3 months, navigating panic post-investment, and the shift from referrals to structured marketing.
- Quickfire Questions – Including what success looks like, key influences, and the one piece of advice he’d give to others on the scaleup journey.
Key Takeaway:
Use your own product to prove your value – it’s the most powerful pitch you’ll ever make.
Make sure you don’t miss any future episodes by subscribing to ScaleUp Radio wherever you like to listen to your podcasts – and why not give us a follow.
For now, continue listening for the full discussion with Joe.
Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.
If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here:
https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/kevin
You can get in touch with Kevin & Granger here:
Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!
Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brent explores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.
More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/
Joe can be found here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-van-gelder/
Resources:
The Rest Is History podcast - https://www.youtube.com/@restishistorypod
The Rest Is Money podcast - https://www.youtube.com/@restismoney
The Rest Is Politics podcast - https://www.youtube.com/@restispolitics
Fathom app - https://www.fathom.ai/