UK’s Disruptors, Innovators and Growth Hackers collide as SCALE Tables announced for April Summit
New roundtable format brings curated, peer-level conversations to SCALE SUMMIT, inviting founders, investors and business leaders to “constructively disagree” to drive growth.
SCALE SUMMIT, the UK’s leading event for ambitious, fast-growing businesses, has announced details of SCALE Tables – a roundtable experience running across both days of the Summit, designed to cut through the noise of the UK’s scale-up ecosystem and surface the honest conversations that move businesses forward.
Taking place on 22 and 23 April at London’s Business Design Centre, in partnership with City AM, SCALE Tables will bring together carefully curated groups of founders, investors and business leaders for focused, peer-level discussions that drive real progress for scaling businesses.
Sam North, co-founder and CEO of the SCALE platform, said: “We’re putting out a call to disruptors, innovators, founders and growth hackers to come together at SCALE and connect with the people backing them to grow.
“When founders, investors and ecosystem players come together in the same space to properly challenge each other, and constructively disagree, that’s how solutions get figured out – together.
“Because we keep hearing the same thing: the UK’s scale-up ecosystem is hard to navigate. Too many options, too much noise. SCALE Tables is where founders come for honest, high-trust conversations that surface real insights they can use to forge ahead.”
What Are SCALE Tables?
Summit passholders can step away from the busy show floor to exchange scaleup experiences, challenges and solutions, facilitated by some of the UK’s most respected operators, advisors and partner organisations.
The roundtables are grouped by growth stage – Pre-Seed, Seed Stage, Series A and beyond – so founders and investors can engage with others facing similar challenges at the same moment in their journey.
Founders and SME leaders will open up about what’s blocking their access to the capital, markets and talent they need to scale. Roundtable hosts will facilitate and add genuine value as trusted partners in a peer-to-peer environment.
Delegates attending SCALE Tables can expect:
• Active conversation, not passive listening
• Meaningful networking with founders and operators at the same stage of growth
• Focused learning around specific scaleup challenges – from hiring and investment to international expansion and financial resilience
• Practical takeaways that can be applied to their businesses immediately
• The chance to engage with and contribute to genuine thought leadership
SCALE Tables Highlights on Day One (22 April)
Access to Capital
The Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA) will provide expert guidance on how EIS and SEIS schemes can support founders and investors. Scribe will host a dedicated session on raising from angel investors, tailored specifically to seed-stage founders.
Access to Talent
Work Extraordinary will enlighten founders on how breakthrough growth starts with building a team that can scale with you. Offshoring experts Black Piano will address the opportunity in building skilled, affordable remote teams.
Access to markets
SmplCo brings experience of founding and exiting companies including a $2.8bn cybersecurity unicorn, and will lead ‘Attention is the New Gold’ – an extended roundtable session on storytelling and brand, equipping founders and leaders to communicate compellingly with investors, partners and customers.
Leadership
Join BSL’s table to tackle the hidden HR costs that hold growing businesses back, or join Action & Achieve for the Founders Thinking Room – an extended session designed as a safe space for smart people to leave with real solutions.
Women Who Scale
Entrepreneurs, investors and allies are invited to join a conversation with The Gender Index as they present the commercial case for backing female founders as part of The Women are Good Business Campaign.
SCALE Tables Highlights on Day Two (23 April)
Access to Capital
UK Private Capital are hosting dedicated Founder-Investor conversations focused on closing the UK scaleup capital gap and Venture Capital and the UK Industrial Strategy. Scribe returns for seed-stage founders looking to understand the mechanics of raising from angel investors.
Access to Talent
Reed.ai brings 65 years of recruitment experience together with the latest hiring technology in a session on finding and securing top talent. Akaina Talent will focus on interviewing and hiring smarter.
Access to markets
For founders with global ambitions, Intralink provides a practical guide to doing business in Asia. Gifftid AI explores how risk, readiness and resilience intelligence is driving financial inclusion for modern SMEs globally.
Leadership
Sir Richard Harpin and his Business Leader team will share insights from his 9 Steps to Business Growth.
Women Who Scale
Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN UK) will facilitate a discussion around why women founders asking for more capital can lead to a yes from investors, delivering longer term investment and faster growth.
Marc Ortmans, Chair of the Global Entrepreneurship Network (UK) said: “Women founder teams often pitch a lower ask from investors, resulting in generating perceptions of lack of confidence, a sense of risk aversion, and perceived low ambition. At SCALE London, we are going to talk about the how and why women asking for more can lead to significantly increased chances of achieving success.”
Christiana Stewart-Lockhart, Director General of the Enterprise Investment Scheme, said: “The EIS and SEIS are incredibly powerful tools for founders raising capital, but they can also be complex to navigate. These roundtables are designed to help founders understand how the schemes can support their fundraising and growth, and to give them the chance to ask any questions in an open setting.
“We’ll also be bringing EIS investors into the room so founders can connect directly, enabling conversations that could ultimately help unlock the investment their businesses need to grow.”
Karim Palant, Director of External Affairs, UK Private Capital, said: “I’m delighted that UK Private Capital is partnering with SCALE to host focused discussions that bring together investors and founders to explore how to close the scale-up gap and how venture investment will be central to driving progress of Industrial Strategy priority sectors including AI, deep tech, life sciences and defence.
“Our sessions at SCALE are designed to enable candid and practical conversations about the opportunities and challenges scale-ups are experiencing, and to provide opportunities for attendees to build their professional networks.”
Grace Almendras-Castillo, founder of Gifftid.ai, said: “Many SMEs are doing the right things operationally, commercially, and socially, yet remain invisible to finance because traditional systems cannot interpret their signals. At SCALE SUMMIT London, we will share the decision-grade intelligence needed for institutions to see and act on the real signals of modern SMEs, unlocking finance where it was previously not accessible.”
Mike Millar, co-founder of SmplCo, said: “Every day, the best ideas in the world fail, not because they aren’t good enough, but because no one is listening. ‘Attention is New Gold’ is a roundtable for anyone leading start-ups and scale-ups and wants their brand and stories to stand out in the most distracted era in human history. Learn lessons you can use straightaway, ask the questions you’d never raise in front of a full auditorium, and find solutions alongside SCALE attendees who have the same challenges as you.”
Access to SCALE Tables is included with a two-day SCALE SUMMIT delegate pass. Register now at scale-london.comto secure your seat.