Any founder can attest: starting up is hard. Scaling up might be even harder. To offer a helping hand, ACE Incubator in Amsterdam started Ready to Scale a couple of years back. A programme designed to help startups take the next leap. We look back on what the programme brought, together with three Ready to Scale alumni: The New Fork, Kinase and Hero Balancer.
Massive potential
To make better use of the plethora of startups and their massive potential in the area of greater Amsterdam, ACE Incubator joined forces with supporting partner StartupAmsterdam to develop the Ready to Scale programme. Startups get the chance to receive coaching, attend masterclasses, expand their network and get guidance on raising funding.
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From its start in 2013 up until 2020, the Ready to Scale programme has supported hundreds of companies from Amsterdam or the surrounding area. The goal: get them to scale. On average, the companies joining had 7 FTE. After graduating, that grew by 19 per cent the next three years. The average revenue of participants was €430,000 at the start, which after the programme grew by 27 per cent YoY. All in all, the companies from Ready to Scale create 280 full-time jobs every year while being responsible for an increase in revenue of almost €25 million every year.
The New Fork looking for substantiation
One of the companies joining Ready to Scale in 2019 was The New Fork. “We liked the sound of it”, says Kirsten Coppoolse, COO of the Amsterdam-based blockchain startup. She explains they were basically scouted by ACE Incubator, which operates out of Startup Village like they do. “We were looking for substantiation of what we were doing back then. And of course, a question every startup struggles with is cash flow management.”
The New Fork offers a blockchain solution for the food industry, which makes it possible to map the entire supply chain of an end product. Their first offering, called the Open Food Chain, is currently being used by Juicychain which allows the process of making apple juice to be tracked in detail.
Sustainability and blockchain
The goal of the Open Food Chain is to allow for more fair, transparent and sustainable food production. To make sure their blockchain itself is sustainable, The New Fork assures they are using the energy-efficient delayed Proof of Work mechanism to produce their results. “We get many questions about that”, says Coppoolse, who was recently nominated for the Young Sustainable 100.
During Ready to Scale, The New Fork learned about the importance of recognising A, B, and C-players in their team. “Something we still use very often”, according to Coppoolse. They were also motivated to express a ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goal’ (BHAG) for their company. “It was really useful to put a dot on the horizon and work towards it with your KPIs.”
The impact of Ready to Scale on the New Fork is hard to measure, says Coppoolse. After graduating, COVID flipped the world of The New Fork upside down.”It took us a while to figure out what the impact would be”, says Coppoolse. “COVID did make people realise there are a lot of issues with the food chain. It emphasised the need that something had to happen in the system.” The New Fork did inherit something tangible from the programme. One of the coaches, Pieter van Osch, joined the advisory board of The New Fork.
Kinase disrupting healthcare organisations
Coach Pieter van Osch also made an impression on Wessel Fuijkschot. He is co-founder and general director of Kinase. Just like the biochemical process of kinase, Fuijkschot’s company works in similar ways: ‘catalysing healthcare from within.’ Kinase does so by providing consultants with a strong medical background and deep understanding of innovation and technological challenges to get healthcare organisations ready for the future.
Last summer, Kinase was ready to scale up and looking for the best way to do so. “I met Ellen (Spithoven, director of Ready to Scale) through a mutual acquaintance and she told me about the programme. We already participated in something similar, but I found that programme to be very commercial and focused on making more sales. I didn’t get that feeling with Ready to Scale at all. It was a great way to have a thorough look at the company, together with like-minded entrepreneurs.”
Transition to a growth team
Fuijkschot found that when his company started to scale, his responsibilities started to pile up. “We were in the transition to change our company from one with two entrepreneurs to one with a growth team in which more people have responsibilities. “We wanted more people in our team to become comfortable with the thought of scaling. ” By creating a growth team, others could pitch in and focus on what everyone does best.
Looking back Fuijkschot remembers his participation in Ready to Scale as a ‘good time’. “We’ve achieved all our goals, like managing the accountability in our organisation and forming a collective BHAG. We notice this every day at our work. Everyone is clear on what’s at stake now and that creates a lot of calm. The atmosphere is definitely better now”
Unfortunately, Fuijkschot didn’t find the opportunity to expand his network through the programme. As with many things, COVID is to blame. “The moments where the whole team could work on the company with coach Pieter van Osch were really great. The assignments, like forming a one-page plan or determining your playing field, were the most important.”
Due to COVID and the subsequent workload of the healthcare industry, Fuijkshot found his consultants suddenly in even higher demand. So it is hard for him to pinpoint exactly how much of his growth is due to the programme. But growing, Kinase is. “Last year we grew 40 per cent. The goal for this year was 23 per cent. We’re currently well above that.”
HERO Balancer working ‘on’ the company
Also growing rapidly is Hero Balancer, a Ready to Scale alumnus that specialises in smart, energy-efficient heating, ventilation and cooling systems for buildings. “We’re growing quickly from a development minded company to a production company”, says Ted Braakman, founder and CEO of Hero Balancer. “It was really good to work on the compan, instead of working ín the company.”
Hero Balancer joined Ready to Scale in the autumn of last year, just before the Netherlands locked down for the second time. Braakman did get to attend face-to-face meetings before being forced to switch to online. “The best part was meeting with like-minded companies. Everyone is facing the same challenges and you get a lot of peer input.”
Silver lining
One of the challenges was obviously COVID and the ensuing lockdowns. Forcing offices, schools and other buildings – Hero Balancer’s bread and butter – to close their doors. But the effect on Braakman’s business was minimal. “You have to realise that hardly any building is completely closed. The first month of the lockdown was scary, money quickly dried up. But in the summer, things reopened again and in the winter, the need for a comfortable indoor climate became more apparent.”
COVID even has a silver lining for Hero Balancer: an increased focus on aerosols and the need for proper ventilation, which can be managed by Hero Balancer’s system. “Our sales funnel is filled up right now. Around a quarter of them convert for us, so we’re hopeful we can bring in a lot of new business.”
‘Aiming for the stars’
Completing the programme brought a lot of ‘rest, rhythm and regularity’ to the company, says Braakman. “The programme gave us the tools to better structure our company. Recognising A, B and C-players for instance, was really helpful for us. Product development remains human work so the difference between a good and bad employee is very big for us. This helps us to attract the right people.”
What about the BHAG? Braakman laughs: “Right from the start, we were aiming for the stars. We want to be the biggest in the world. It doesn’t get any bigger and hairier than that.”
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