Senior Scottish business advisers announced as SCALE: Edinburgh mentors and executives

Shaf Rasul and business executives from the likes of Waracle and Holyrood PR have agreed to help the next generation of Scotland’s scale-up firms reach the next level as part of the SCALE: Edinburgh series.

SCALE: Edinburgh - a partnership between CodeBase and PwC - aims to provide the missing link between corporates looking to innovate and companies looking to scale by providing access to decision makers and influencers within PwC and other large organisations.

SCALE will deliver meaningful relationships for scale-ups with C-suite executives and innovation leaders as part of the extended executive network supporting the programme. Ultimately, this is the community that can provide strategic advice and help source customers and investment.

Participants on the programme will undergo a business development curriculum, receive advice across areas like Tax, R&D, Legal and PwC areas of specialism as well as access to CodeBase’s extended community of experts and the combined professional network.

The mentor executives will share their knowledge and work with the participants to overcome any hurdles they are facing. The latest announcements join Ian Ritchie of Iomart and digital strategist Sorcha Lorimer in bringing their expertise to the 10-week programme.

Shaf Rasul said: “SCALE: Edinburgh represents a fantastic platform for bringing scale-ups and decision makers together in a really forward-thinking fashion that’s setting the scene for future Scottish success.

“I’m proud to be bringing my own knowledge to the programme and look forward to meeting some of the country’s most innovative companies first-hand as part of a really dynamic collaborative experience.”

Douglas Shand, head of innovation for PwC in Scotland, said: “For scale-ups to get authentic advice it needs to come from a wide range of experts and that’s what SCALE is achieving. We didn’t want this to be about receiving advice purely from the talented teams within PwC, we wanted the wider business community to be involved and that’s what we have achieved.”

Chris Martin, CEO of Scotland’s largest Mobile App and IoT Digital Development Company, Waracle, said: “Once upon a time I was a software engineer, but (sadly) I’ve crossed to the dark side and appreciate the commercial side of a tech company is arguably more important than the tech.

“It’s a problem in Scotland as it doesn’t have a wide talent pool of commercial technology execs yet, therefore, I think programs that help share that valuable but scarce expertise are vital.

“Waracle have had plenty of help along the way by many folks and organisations, now it’s our turn to see how we can help others on their adventure.”

Scott Douglas, founder Holyrood PR said: “In an age where too many people think the only PR you need is a good product, we want to help show that there’s more to it than that. Strong proactive PR is vital for SEO, heading off any potential crises and making sure staff and external stakeholders know what you are doing.

“Having been a company that was a start-up, went through the scale-up challenges and is now relatively established I can also sympathise with a lot of the growing pains that these companies will be having so it’s good to be able to offer them advice and hopefully they can minimise the potential problems they may face.”