ScaleUp
A ScaleUp working session around a boardroom table, the plan on the glass behind

The business still needs you more than it should.

Peers who have built and sold their own companies, working with your whole leadership team to install a rhythm the business runs on. Not consultants on the sidelines. Partners in the room.

Book a discovery callNot ready yet? Start here ↓

One hour, founder to founder. If we are not the right fit, you will leave with clarity anyway, and we will say so first.

Supporting South African founder-led companies to scale
iNOVOSupernova BrandsSmartenUpMatriarchRadixTrieSearchKingsNet Nine NineSolarAfricaOneDayOnlyAxessyouth@workPelagic Resources
01 — The premise

You start a business
by yourself.

Every founder we work with got here on their own judgement. That is exactly what stops working somewhere around thirty people.

Three people at the top of Lion’s Head above Cape Town at first light

You scale it together.

02 — The problem

These are symptoms of scale. Not failure.

Four sentences we hear in almost every first conversation.

01

Profit

“Turnover is up every year. The profit isn’t.”

02

Speed

“Decisions take three weeks that used to take an afternoon.”

03

People

“We’re losing good people to the chaos, not to the money.”

04

The bottleneck

“I took two weeks off and spent most of it on my phone.”

03 — How we work

Not consultants on the sidelines. Partners in the room.

01

Peers, not consultants

Everyone on the bench has built and scaled a company of their own. Four of us have sold one. Nobody here is advising you from the outside of something they have never done.

02

Your leadership team, in the room

The work happens with the people who run the business, not in a standing one to one with you. A plan the team built is a plan the team executes.

03

A rhythm, not a report

The meeting cadence and the accountability are the product. They are what carry a quarter when everyone is busy, which is every quarter.

04

We challenge you, and we stay

Direct conversations when they are needed. Then we are still there ninety days later, when the change gets uncomfortable and most engagements have quietly ended.

05

The tools are free

One page tools your team actually fills in, not a binder that goes in a drawer. We give them away because the value was never the template.

06

No lock-in

No long contract. You are happy, we continue. You are not, we stop. Simple.

04 — The method

It starts with two days and a page.

The first two quarters install the operating system. After that it is a rhythm, and the rhythm is what does the work.

A used copy of Scaling Up, tabbed, on a desk beside a printed one-page strategic plan and a pen
The book, and the page it turns into.
01

A day with your leadership team

Everyone who runs the business, in one room, off site. You leave with one page: where the company is going, what it will take to get there, and the list of things you are choosing not to do this year.

02

The first ninety days

Three or four priorities with one name against each. A weekly leadership meeting that ends in decisions. A daily huddle that takes eight minutes. What most teams notice first is that the meetings got shorter.

03

A day every quarter, from then on

Every ninety days the team stops, scores what was finished and what was not, and sets the next three. One of us is in the room each time. That is the commitment: a day a quarter, and a couple of hours a month.

04

What it looks like when it is working

The leadership team decides without you. The quarter finishes what it started. You can be out of the business for two weeks and it does not wobble.

Decision 01

People

The right people in the right seats.

Decision 02

Strategy

One page, and the long list of things you are not doing.

Decision 03

Execution

A cadence that survives a busy quarter.

Decision 04

Cash

Growth eats cash. Know which levers fund the next phase before it arrives.

Built on Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up, adapted to the South African reality and run in 21 South African companies.

05 — The proof

35% year on year.
Ten months to sold.

Two of the numbers below belong to named founders who will take the call.

A client leadership team at the end of a ScaleUp session
21South African companies we have run this in
4exits on the bench, not four opinions
35%year on year growth at OneDayOnly
10months from starting to sold at SearchKings, on a two year plan
“We were working incredibly hard, but not always on the right things. We are no longer stuck in the day-to-day, and we have grown 35% year on year.”
Laurian Venter, OneDayOnlyE-commerce, Cape Town, about 295 people
“I wanted to be sale-ready in two years. We sold ten months after we started.”
Brett Perlstein, SearchKingsDigital marketing, Johannesburg
06 — Who is behind it

Five operators. Four exits.

Spread across Cape Town, the Winelands, Johannesburg and Durban on purpose, so whoever works with you can be in the room. Nobody on this bench is advising you from the outside of something they have never done.

Nicholas Thiede speaking to a room of founders
Nicholas Thiede
Nicholas Thiede
Cape Town

Built four companies of fifteen to a hundred and seventy people. Exited Semigator AG. Ex-BCG. EO Cape Town, and founder of EO Tanzania.

LinkedIn
Jamie Surkont
Jamie Surkont
Paarl

Founded and led getWorth to an R800M exit to Motus. Former CEO of Electronic Toll Collection SA.

LinkedIn
Andrew Shuttleworth
Andrew Shuttleworth
Johannesburg

Co-founded and scaled Brave Group to about a hundred people, sold to private equity in 2025. Former MD at McCann and Grey across sixteen African markets.

LinkedIn
Simon Hartley
Simon Hartley
Cape Town and Hoedspruit

Founded WumDrop and sold it to Massmart. International retail and logistics executive.

LinkedIn
Justin Lewis
Justin Lewis
Durban

CA. Led his family’s motor group, the country’s largest Isuzu and Stellantis retailer. Founder of Pace Capital, investing in SMEs.

LinkedIn
07 — Who this is for

It works in some companies and not in others.

It works when
  • A founder owner still shapes where the company is going, whether or not they run it day to day.
  • Roughly 30 to 400 people, with a real leadership team of three or four plus a CEO.
  • Profitable, or financed well enough that this is not a stretch.
  • Either growing hard and feeling it, or stuck against a ceiling you can name.
It does not work when
  • Startups and pre product companies. The work needs an organisation to bite on.
  • No founder owner in the picture at all. We take those only on a strong referral, and rarely.
  • Anyone who wants a report. We are here to change how the business runs, which is slower and more uncomfortable.
  • Anyone who wants us to work with the founder alone. Those engagements do not hold, and we have stopped taking them.
08 — Straight answers

The questions you were going to ask anyway.

Are you an official Scaling Up partner?

No, and we do not claim to be. The method we install builds on Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up. We have run it in 21 South African companies and changed the parts that needed changing for this market. If you want the accredited route, we will tell you where to find it.

How long does this take?

The setup runs over the first two quarters. After that it is an ongoing rhythm, and most clients stay because the rhythm is the thing that works, not because of a contract.

What if it does not work for us?

You stop. There is no lock-in and no notice game. We would rather you leave in month four than sit through a year you resent.

What do you expect from us?

The founder in the room, not sending a deputy. Your leadership team for a day a quarter and a couple of hours a month. And the willingness to say the thing that everyone in the business already knows and nobody has said out loud.

Where do you work?

Cape Town and the Winelands, Johannesburg and Durban. The bench is spread on purpose, so whoever works with you can be in the room.

09 — Let us talk

One hour,
founder to founder.

If we are not the right fit, you will leave with clarity anyway, and we will say so first. No pitch, no deck, no follow-up sequence.

Two founders in conversation
Book a discovery callNot ready yet? Start here

Cape Town and the Winelands, Johannesburg and Durban. Whoever works with you can be in the room.