Episode #555 - What if your business could scale globally with just 25 people — and no external funding? - with Lilia Stoyanov
Release Date: 12/22/2025
Episode #588 - ScaleUp Club - Focus, AI Multipliers and The Checklist Advantage with Victor Carpio
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 we are doing something slightly different. This episode was recorded live during one of our ScaleUp Club sessions, where we bring together founders and leadership teams to explore the real challenges of scaling a business. The session included our regular AI Pulse update, a live Q&A...
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Episode #587 - ScaleUp Shorts - Scaling isn't about choosing between numbers or people
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio Shorts, Kevin Brent and Louise Blunt dive into two seemingly contrasting, but ultimately aligned, scaling philosophies from recent guests Jeremy Middleton and John Hibbs. On the surface, one is a data-driven investor focused on predictable growth and cash flow. The other is a people-first founder measuring culture, wellbeing, and connection. But the real insight? 👉 You cannot scale what you do not measure. This episode unpacks why both financial discipline and people metrics are essential if you want to build a resilient, scalable business. What...
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Episode #586 - From University Dismissal To A Realisation That You Need To Measure What Matters For Success
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 John Hibbs, founder of Coefficient, a platform designed to help leaders measure the human side of their business — things like culture, psychological safety and engagement. In this conversation John explains why so many businesses track revenue and profit but struggle to...
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Episode #585 - From Near Failure to FTSE 100: The Power of Predictable Revenue - with Jeremy Middleton
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist Jeremy Middleton. Jeremy is best known as one of the early backers of HomeServe, a business that grew from a struggling plumbing service into a FTSE-100 company before its eventual acquisition. Today he leads Middleton Enterprises, investing in profitable founder-led businesses and helping them scale from around £500k profit to £5m and beyond. This episode explores the real lessons behind scaling successfully: pivoting business models, building predictable revenue, hiring the right people and...
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Episode #584 - ScaleUp Radio Short - Strategy Over Hope: What Three Founders Teach Us About Scaling Smarter
ScaleUp Radio
In this special ScaleUp Radio Shorts episode, Kevin Brent and Louise Blunt distil some of the most powerful insights from three recent interviews with founders working at the cutting edge of marketing, AI, and business growth. Featuring lessons from Andreas Voniatis, Benjie Hughes, and Serge Nguele, the discussion explores what really drives successful scaleups and where many businesses go wrong when trying to grow. While each founder operates in a different space, a common theme runs through all three conversations: clarity of strategy beats blind activity every time. From diagnosing...
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Episode #583 - Digital Diagnosis Before Ad Spend – with Serge Nguele
ScaleUp Radio
What happens when a former medical student applies diagnostic thinking to marketing? In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Serge Nguile, founder of Your PPC Doctor, a PPC and digital strategy agency built around one powerful idea: diagnose before you prescribe. Serge shares his fascinating journey from medical studies in Ukraine to becoming a PPC Director, and ultimately launching his own agency after redundancy. He also opens up about founder burnout, mindset shifts, and why purpose now sits at the heart of his business model. As always, our discussion is structured in...
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Episode #582 - AI Search Is Rewriting the Rules. Are You Still Playing the Old Game? - with Andreas Voniatis
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent sits down with Andreas Voniatis, founder of Artios.io, to explore what might be the biggest shift in search since Google began. Traditional SEO as we know it is fading. AI search is changing how content is discovered, prioritised, and rewarded. And Andreas saw it coming early. In fact, Artios built its own Large Language Model back in 2019; years before ChatGPT entered the mainstream. This conversation dives into: Why traditional SEO is becoming a back-office function Why most AI content strategies are fundamentally flawed What “information...
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Episode #581 - ScaleUp Club: Take Control of Your Week - with Ryan Slaney
ScaleUp Radio
This ScaleUp Radio episode is a ScaleUp Club special — recorded live in February — and it’s packed with practical ideas you can apply immediately. Kevin Brent opens with the month’s theme: gaining control of your week, moving away from reactive firefighting and towards deliberate, high-value leadership time. You’ll hear a simple framework to help you protect the work that really moves the business forward, rather than letting your diary become “a democracy”. Then we switch gears into a short AI Pulse update from Paul Rhodes, founder of Green Gorilla Software, who shares a...
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Episode #580 - Scaling a Personal Brand Without Becoming the Bottleneck
- with Benjie 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 Benjie Hughes, founder of Hopeless Marketing. Benjie works with B2B service businesses turning over between one and thirty million pounds who feel stuck, plateaued or unclear about their positioning. His philosophy is simple but powerful; hope is not a strategy. Most businesses...
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Episode #579 - ScaleUp Short: Scaling Does Not Need To Be Complicated
ScaleUp Radio
Welcome back to ScaleUp Radio Shorts, where Kevin Brent and Louise Blunt distil the best insights from our recent full-length interviews and turn them into practical, actionable takeaways for ambitious business owners. This week, we’re bringing together two very different voices with a surprisingly aligned message: Jack Molyneux – former Merchant Navy Master Mariner turned tech founder, building a disruptive superyacht platform, IDOSY. Lindsey Burden – Intuitive Business Coach with over a decade of experience helping founders stop overcomplicating and start executing. Different...
info_outlineIn this episode of ScaleUp Radio, I’m joined by Lilia Stoyanov, the CEO and cofounder of TFY (Transformify Ltd), a bootstrapped, AI-powered global workforce management platform.
TFY enables businesses to hire, onboard and pay contractors in 184+ countries – all from one platform. And it’s not just another HR tool — it’s a human-centred, AI-powered engine that automates compliance and payments, so finance and HR teams can focus on strategic growth.
In this episode, we cover:
- How TFY achieved 90% profit growth in 2024 with zero external investment
- The three-phase scaling strategy that took them from niche to global player
- Why they require a full business case for every new hire – and how that drives a near-zero attrition culture
- The systems behind managing 350,000 contractors with just 25 people
- Lilia’s leadership approach – and why TFY avoids inflated job titles in favour of responsibility and results
We also explore how Lilia and her team avoided the "fake stability" of VC funding, and how they built a high-trust, global network by partnering with local legal and financial experts.
The one key thing?
Scaling globally doesn’t require massive headcount or funding — it demands laser focus, financial discipline, and relentless clarity on ROI.
Quick heads-up — we’re also looking for a handful of founders to test our new AI-powered Smart90 Lite app.
It’s designed to help you stay accountable and actually deliver on your goals in just a few minutes a day. It’s free while we’re in testing, and your feedback will help shape the final version.
Interested? Just email me at kevin@biz-smart.co.uk.
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 Lilia.
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/
Lilia can be found here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilia-stoyanov-tfy/
https://www.instagram.com/ls_transformify/
Resources:
Blitzscaling by Chris Yeh - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/blitzscaling-the-lightning-fast-path-to-building-massively-valuable-companies-reid-hoffman/3593117?ean=9780008303631&next=t