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...
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Episode #541 - From Boardrooms to Breakthroughs: Building a Boutique Agency that Gives Healthcare Innovation a Voice - with Michael Colling-Tuck
ScaleUp Radio
Find me, Granger Forson, at or connect with me on . This episode of ScaleUp Radio features Michael Colling-Tuck, founder of Agency Bristol, a specialist marketing agency helping medical and technology innovators reach both patients and healthcare professionals. With over twenty years in healthcare, Michael has seen how even the most brilliant inventions can fail if no one knows they exist. His agency bridges that critical gap, giving groundbreaking products a fighting chance to reach the people whose lives they can transform. What makes Michael’s...
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Episode #540 - Curing Cancer, One Person at a Time: The Power of Personalised Vaccines - with Prasun Chakraborty
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, we're diving into the groundbreaking world of personalised cancer treatments with Prasun Chakraborty, founder of Genevation – a biotech startup on a mission to revolutionise how we treat and potentially prevent cancer. Unlike the traditional one-size-fits-all approach to oncology, Genevation is using advanced AI and genetic sequencing to create custom mRNA cancer vaccines for individual patients – in just 14 days. Prasun shares the inspiring story behind the business, the massive challenges of scaling deep-tech biotech, and his clear vision of a future...
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Episode #539 - Scaling with Heart vs Head: Lessons from Two Founders
ScaleUp Radio
In this special ScaleUp Radio Shorts episode, Kevin Brent and Granger Forson take a step back to reflect on two contrasting founder journeys shared recently on the podcast: Paul Wray, founder of Breakspeare Clinic, a values-driven physiotherapy business Joe van Gelder, founder of fintech firm Powdr, a fast-scaling tech company Although these two founders operate in completely different industries and approach business from opposite ends of the personality spectrum, their journeys reveal powerful shared lessons about scaling, leadership and founder development. What You’ll Learn in...
info_outlineIn 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. Whether it's Hamish's "Control" phase in the PACE model or Steve’s "Sales Gauntlet", it’s all about precision and repeatability. - From Founder-Selling to Sales Teams
Steve maps the 3 stages of founder-led sales and warns against jumping too soon to hire a sales director. His benchmark: two reps consistently hitting quota. - Attracting the Right People
Hamish made Neptune an employee-owned business from day one, a bold move to bring in top talent. Steve, on the other hand, advocates for hiring overlooked talent, entrepreneurial minds from other sectors, like hospitality. - Mindset & Resilience
Both guests touch on the emotional journey of scaling. Hamish spoke of the eerie silence after leaving the corporate world, while Steve stressed protecting your energy: “Take care of the asset, yourself.”
🔑 The one key thing:
You can’t scale chaos. Systems and the right people make scaling possible, but only if you protect your energy as a founder.
💬 Standout quote:
“No one really cares about you as much as you do. When you quit the corporate job, there is an eerie silence. You have to be the one to drive the noise and passion.”