We received some fantastic news this month.


Ceri Shaw and I have been building programmes to tackle the challenges we see every week across start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs. We wanted something to genuinely solve the problems people bring to us, with day-to-day support, practical upskilling and knowledge-sharing that helps unblock success.

Again and again our research pointed to a bigger gap in the ecosystem we work in, a lack of diverse founders and leadership, and too few environments designed to address the issues highlighted in the Pathways report.

🎉 🎉 🎉 Today we are proud to launch our first programme, Spark The Connection 🎉 🎉 🎉


We’re privileged to have been awarded funding from the Scottish Government Ecosystem Pathways Fund, which means places will be free for participants.

Spark brings open, accessible and welcoming entrepreneurship to regions across Scotland: local roadshows, hands-on workshops and curated introductions that help people find co-founders or senior team-mates and take a strong next step.

It is intentionally designed for people who do not yet see themselves as entrepreneurs but could, if given the right opportunity and encouragement, create something amazing.  Or for those who have already started their business, but struggling to make progress, and feeling like they should not even be in this space. They know there is something missing, but they’re not sure what.

Spark is about connection as much as skills. We will create space to explore other people’s strengths and ambitions, reducing isolation and increasing the chances of innovation, growth and long-term success.

Applications will open soon, for now we have started reaching out to the voices we need to hear from across Scotland to ensure we understand the challenges in different areas, find the right people who will benefit the most, and to start to create those sparks of connection we will bring to our attendees.

So we have an ask – we want to hear from you if you want to know more, if you can feed into our research to build the right programme, or offer advice or support in running the events, please get in touch.

Press play to hear more and see our first attempt at video creation – we battled wind, tourists and rather strong sunlight so forgive us for our imperfection, but perhaps embrace the fact that these are some of the faces of business in Scotland. We have our place, and we want anyone to feel the same.