Scaleup Research

What does it take to transition from Startup to Scaleup?

Scaleup research can tell us a lot about the process of building a successful tech company. The research presented here is the result of 18 years spent in an attempt to figure out what factors lead to the creation of rapidly growing world class companies. It is the result of research that has gathered over 1 million data points on thousands of companies and is presented in over 40 research papers with more than 800 pages of analysis.

It covers topics such as market development and corporate finance as well as policy development and leadership. Fundamentally, it is a study of the economics of growth. This is one perspective of many valid ones about scaling and we are pleased to be part of a broader discussion on scaling.

 

 

The Narwhal List

We’ve updated the Narwhal List and released a new report for 2020. Canada’s tech community continues to make progress but we haven’t created a new Unicorn since 2015. The technology sector has doubled the number of companies that are on track to become Unicorns but the healthcare sector continues its slow decline.

Market Development

The impact of marketing and sales cannot be underestimated in the process of scaling. If you want to create a world class company, the first thing you will need is a large market within which to grow. And if you’re in a large market you’ll have competitors and if you want to beat them, you’ll need to spend lots of cash on marketing and sales to get the word out there. 

Capital

Capital is perhaps the biggest driving force in scaling companies. Having too little will impede growth and having too much will harm valuations. How much is enough is a big question but we can learn alot from successful companies, ones that have raised capital, grown rapidly and gone on to an IPO. This section looks at a number of different aspects of capital.

Leadership

One of the greatest challenges a scaling company will have is finding and nuturing the right leadership. What is right for one phase of growth might not be right for the next phase. This research looks at various leadership practices to determine why what woks and what companies could be doing differently.

Policy

The current narrative about innovation in Canada misses the mark. Our problem isn’t the amount we spend on research and development. Nor is it the number of patents we take out or how much our productivity lags that of the US. Our problem is that we are not creating enough world class companies.