For founders of established South African businesses
Build your next chapter of growth.
Growth bringing new challenges? Or harder to find than it used to be? We work with you and your leadership team to move the business forward, drawing on Scaling Up and our own experience of building and exiting companies.
Founder to founder. Let’s talk about where you want to go, what is getting in the way, and whether we can help.
Supporting South African founder-led companies to scale
01 — The premise
You have built something worth growing.
You have customers, a team and a business that matters. The next chapter asks different things of you: new choices, stronger leadership and the space to think beyond the day-to-day.
Take the next step together.
02 — The problem
More potential. Something in the way.
Whether growth is stretching the business or has slowed to a standstill, some of this may feel familiar.
01
Profit
“Turnover is up every year. The profit isn’t.”
02
Momentum
“We’re working harder, but the business has stopped growing.”
03
Focus
“We have plenty of opportunities. We can’t agree which ones to back.”
04
The bottleneck
“I took two weeks off and spent most of it on my phone.”
03 — How we work
Experienced founders. In your corner.
01
Experience you can draw on
Our coaches have led businesses through the decisions, setbacks and growing pains you face. Four have exited a company. That experience shapes the questions we ask and the perspective we bring.
02
Your leadership team, in the room
We work with you and the people who lead the business. Shared direction and real ownership give growth a stronger foundation than the founder carrying it alone.
03
Progress that carries through
Clearer priorities, better decisions and a team that follows through. We help you keep the important work moving when the day-to-day demands your attention.
04
An honest sounding board
Someone who can challenge your thinking, listen properly and stay alongside you as decisions turn into change. With respect for what you and your team have already built.
05
A proven foundation
Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up gives the work a foundation. Our experience helps you apply it to the business, people and ambitions in front of you.
06
No lock-in
We continue because the work is valuable to you. There is no long contract keeping you here.
04 — The foundation
A clearer way forward.
Your next chapter might mean finding growth again, making growth more profitable, or building a team that can carry more of the business. We start with what matters to you.
The Scaling Up foundation. Experienced entrepreneurs alongside you.
Our work brings together Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up methodology and the judgement of entrepreneurs who have built businesses themselves. Four connected areas help us explore what is holding you back and where the opportunity lies.
01
People
A leadership team with the capability, confidence and ownership to take the business further.
02
Strategy
Clarity on where your next growth will come from and which opportunities deserve your focus.
03
Execution
The follow-through that turns good intentions into progress you can see.
04
Cash
A business that can fund its ambitions and turn growth into greater financial strength.
05 — The proof
Different ambitions. Real progress.
A stronger business means different things to different founders. Here is how two clients describe their progress.
21South African companies we have worked with
4company exits across our coaching team
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.”
We know what it means to carry responsibility for a business and the people in it. Based across Cape Town, the Winelands, Johannesburg and Durban, we bring that experience into the room with your leadership team.
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.
Jamie Surkont
Paarl
Founded and led getWorth to an R800M exit to Motus. Former CEO of Electronic Toll Collection SA.
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.
Simon Hartley
Cape Town and Hoedspruit
Founded WumDrop and sold it to Massmart. International retail and logistics executive.
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.
07 — Who this is for
Is this your next step?
Your business
A South African business where the founder still helps shape the direction.
An established business with a leadership team responsible for the next stage of growth.
An established company, in any sector, ready to invest in its next phase.
Growing and facing new challenges, or ready to get growth moving again.
You and your team
You see potential in the business that you want to realise.
You want your leadership team to share ownership of what comes next.
You welcome an experienced outside perspective and honest conversations.
You and your team are willing to make time for the work and act on the decisions you make.
08 — Straight answers
The questions you were going to ask anyway.
Do we need to be growing already?
No. We work with founders whose businesses are growing and becoming more complex, and founders who want to break through a plateau. The starting point is where you are now and what you want to change.
Is this for me or my leadership team?
Both. You bring the ambition for the business; your leadership team helps make it happen. We work with you together, so the responsibility for progress is shared.
What happens in the first conversation?
You and Nicholas talk about the business, your ambitions and what is getting in the way. It is a chance to see whether our experience and approach fit what you need, and to ask the questions that matter to you.
How long do we work together?
The initial work runs over the first two quarters. Beyond that, we continue while the relationship is useful to you. There is no long-term lock-in.
Where do you work?
Our coaches are based in Cape Town, the Winelands, Johannesburg and Durban. If your business is elsewhere in South Africa, let’s discuss what would work.
Are you an official Scaling Up partner?
We are independent coaches. Our work draws on Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up methodology, paired with our own experience of building and leading businesses. We are not an accredited Scaling Up partner.
09 — Let us talk
A conversation, founder to founder.
Tell me what you want the next chapter of your business to look like, and what is making it difficult to get there. We’ll explore whether ScaleUp could help.
