Scaling Smarter: Candid Advice from Europe’s Top Founders and Investors

What does it really take to scale a business from scrappy beginnings to global success? For Louise Hill (Co-founder of GoHenry), Abakar Saidov (Co-founder of Beamery), and Erin Platts (CEO of Octopus Ventures), the answers are deeply human. In a recent Boardwave panel, moderated by Melina Jacovou, Founder & CEO of Propel, the three founders shared war stories from the trenches of growth: navigating the messy middle, building world-class teams, and holding on to culture as headcount rockets.

From Scrappy to Scale: Building With Intent

For Louise Hill, the decision to scale came from painful hindsight. Her first business, launched in the dotcom boom, grew to £5m turnover but collapsed under the weight of operational strain. “I sold it for £1 and an earn-out,” she said, dryly. “I swore that if I ever did it again, I’d build for scale from day one.”

That commitment became the foundation for GoHenry, now a global fintech unicorn with more than 6.5 million subscribers. She built not only a product, but a structure designed to grow – from scalable tech to culture-first hiring.

Culture, Not Just Growth

Abakar, Founder, Beamery

All three speakers agreed: purpose and culture matter as much as performance metrics. Louise Hill, reflecting on GoHenry’s hiring approach, explained their “culture screen” — a 15-minute call with someone outside the hiring team designed to test motivation. “It’s not about right or wrong,” she said. “But nearly every time we’ve mis-hired, the culture screen had flagged it. We should have listened.”

Abakar Saidov echoed the danger of overlooking mission in pursuit of growth. “The extra percentage of growth isn’t as important as building a great company. Once the money is out the door, it’s not coming back.”

Erin Platts, who led Silicon Valley Bank UK through a crisis and now heads Octopus Ventures, put it simply: “You can’t build loyalty when the shit has already hit the fan. You build it over years.”

Leadership Requires Constant Reinvention

Louise Hill described the challenge of evolving fast enough to meet the needs of a scaling business. “Almost every six months, I had to stop and think: what does the business need now? Sometimes that meant outgrowing people who’d been brilliant. That’s tough.”

She recalled drowning during one growth phase: “I was doing nothing well. Everything ran through me, from logins to decisions. I was the single point of failure.”

Her solution? A company-wide campaign to identify and eliminate single points of failure. “My name came up a lot,” she admitted. “But now we do it every year.”

Abakar also spoke about the need for reinvention. “Every three months, I clear my diary completely and rebuild it. So much of what we do is based on what we did yesterday. It’s cathartic to reset.”

Hiring Is Where It Falls Apart or Comes Together

All three leaders agreed that hiring is the hardest, and most important, skill to get right.

Louise admitted, “I’m not good at hiring but I think I’ve been lucky.” She laughed recalling her first-ever hire: a coffee chat that turned into an instant decision. That woman is now SVP of Operations and Global Head of Customer Support.

She later hired a chief people officer who had never worked in HR but ran top-performing Mercedes dealerships. “She told me, ‘I’ve never done an HR exam, but I’ve managed 45 people and dealt with every issue under the sun.’ She’s incredible.”

Abakar added, “Most people think they’re good at hiring. They’re not. Google studied it for years and they found no one was good.”

His advice? “Convince people you have no business hiring to work for you. Then validate that they’re actually great. And if they’re not, fix the mistake fast.”

Investors Matter - Especially When Things Go Wrong

When asked what she looked for in investors, Louise said, “Sometimes you just need the money to stay alive. You don’t always have the luxury of picking.”

But when you can choose, alignment matters. “You want someone who believes in what you’re trying to do,” said Abakar. He recommends back-channelling with portfolio founders. “When things are going well, every VC is great. When they’re not, that’s when it counts.”

He shared how valuable it is to have investors with more experience than you. “That reassurance from someone who’s seen it before, that’s gold.”

Asked what she looks for in founders, Erin didn’t hesitate: “Command of the market. Humility. And the ability to hire people you’re almost embarrassed to approach.”

Scale with Discipline, Not Ego

Scaling quickly can breed mistakes. “When things start working, there’s a temptation to spend too fast,” said Abakar. “But once the money’s gone, it’s gone. Don’t let pressure for a ‘markup’ drive bad decisions.”

Erin reflected on expansion mistakes: “Some of our offices were vanity projects. Unpicking them was expensive.” Her advice: focus on business outcomes, not ego. “If the goal is to serve your customers and your purpose, the path might zigzag, but you’ll get there.”

The Hardest Stage to Scale

Each founder was asked: what was the hardest point in your growth journey and how did they get through it?

For Louise, it was going from 100 to 200 people. “It happened so quickly,” she said. “In my head, if we got the team wrong, we were never going to succeed. That was terrifying.” Her solution was structural: reinforcing leadership layers and being ruthless about roles and org design. “Every six months I had to step back and reassess what the business needed, and how I needed to lead.” She added that hiring for future stages, not just the current one, was critical to avoid painful rebuilding.

Abakar found the 400 to 700-person stretch the most challenging. “We just lost so much efficiency and agility,” he said. “It forced me to change as a leader. I had to rethink our entire operating rhythm.” His advice? Reinvent your structure every 150 people, and don’t delay hard decisions. “I should have moved faster on team changes,” he admitted. He also warned about the COVID period: “It felt out of control. We were hiring fast and making mistakes. A year later, we were undoing a lot of them.”

Erin said the leap from 250 to 500 people brought the biggest shift. “That’s the point where you lose your command of what’s going on,” she said. “I’d built the business from four people, so my bullshit radar was pretty good. But at 500 people? It’s gone.”

Her approach? “I focused on empowering the exec team and reshaping internal

communications. You can’t scale culture by accident, you have to plan for it.”

Final Word

What defined these leaders wasn’t bravado. It was humility, clarity, and resilience. As Erin put it: “You need people better than you. You need to build trust early. And then, when crisis comes, they’ll stay and fight for what you’ve built.”

That’s how you scale. And stay sane doing it.