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Making The Grade

Making The Grade

Written by: ScaleWise Tom Glason
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About this listen

 Less than 1 in 100 Startups manage to achieve funding beyond Series D or an exit. Investors typically expect 8 out of 10 of the businesses they invest in to fail. It’s time to make building a business less depressing and scale more wisely. Tune into Making The Grade to hear first-hand experiences of venture-backed software companies in their journeys from Seed to Series B funding. Every week, we’ll be joined by Founders, Investors and senior Go-To-Market Leaders to explore the factors driving the decline in graduation rates, misaligned go-to-market operations and ineffective sales and marketing strategies. All while making you leave every episode with actionable insights and expert advice to help you navigate these common Startup hurdles and thrive in a competitive market, showing that it can be done differently.2025 ScaleWise Careers Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Personal Finance Personal Success
Episodes
  • From CMO to CRO: Florence Broderick on balancing growth with efficiency and the metrics that actually matter

    From CMO to CRO: Florence Broderick on balancing growth with efficiency and the metrics that actually matter
    Oct 2 2025

    What does it really take to make the leap from CMO to CRO and to build a revenue function that actually scales?

    In the final episode of Season 1, Tom is joined by Florence Broderick, CRO at General Index, to unpack what it actually takes to make the transition to CRO and what founders should know before hiring their first CRO.

    Florence shares candid insights from her transition to CRO, why she believes marketing leaders can make exceptional CROs, and how she’s balancing growth with capital efficiency in 2025 and beyond.

    If you’re a founder or GTM leader navigating growth right now, you won’t want to miss this episode.

    Episode Chapters

    02:30 - Flo’s career journey from dreams of big corporates to CRO

    08:30 - Managing imposter syndrome in a new role

    14:30 - Building her CRO playbook

    22:10 - What every CRO should nail in their first 90 days

    27:30 - Why ‘rockstar CVs’ often fail

    31:45 - The CRO skills that matter most in 2025

    38:10 - AI that uses the needle & metrics that matter

    46:50 - Getting more women into sales

    Enjoyed today's episode of Making The Grade?

    If you took something valuable from the episode, we'd love for you to...

    ✔️ Leave us a rating and review on your favourite podcast platform.
    ✔️ Share your ideas or guest suggestions with us at podcast@scalewise.com
    ✔️ Stay in the loop with the latest from Making The Grade and ScaleWise by following us on LinkedIn or YouTube.

    See you again next week!

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    51 mins
  • From $60m Exit to Building an Era-Defining AI Company: Sean Williams on lessons from a start-up exit to building again with AutogenAI

    From $60m Exit to Building an Era-Defining AI Company: Sean Williams on lessons from a start-up exit to building again with AutogenAI
    Sep 25 2025

    What do you think of when you hear ‘exited Founder’?

    Someone travelling the world or sitting on a remote island sipping cocktails?

    Today’s Making The Grade guest may change your perspective…

    We’re joined by Sean Williams, Co-Founder & CEO of AutogenAI, the AI bid writing software. Before AutogenAI, Sean co-founded Corndell Ltd, which he grew from scratch to 350 people and sold to THI Holdings for $60m.

    In this episode, Sean discusses how to build with an exit in mind, why you need to keep control while fundraising and why US expansion isn’t as easy as some Founders might think.

    Episode Chapters

    02:18 - From bid writer to CEO - Sean’s career journey

    08:40 - Post-exit reality & why Sean decided to jump back in the Founder seat

    14:36 - Selling a business during Covid

    18:57 - More about AutogenAI and the opportunity

    23:12 - Fundraising without losing control

    27:26 - US expansion do’s & don’ts

    29:33 - GTM in the AI-era - what actually works

    33:43 - Hiring GTM leaders

    Enjoyed today's episode of Making The Grade?

    If you took something valuable from the episode, we'd love for you to...

    ✔️ Leave us a rating and review on your favourite podcast platform.
    ✔️ Share your ideas or guest suggestions with us at podcast@scalewise.com
    ✔️ Stay in the loop with the latest from Making The Grade and ScaleWise by following us on LinkedIn or YouTube.

    See you again next week!

    Show More Show Less
    43 mins
  • Scaling Lean in a $500B Market: Ed Bartlett on going from zero to one & transitioning out of the CEO seat

    Scaling Lean in a $500B Market: Ed Bartlett on going from zero to one & transitioning out of the CEO seat
    Sep 18 2025

    In the start-up ecosystem, there are a few truths that never change - scaling is harder than it looks, over-hiring can kill momentum, and knowing when to hand over the CEO reins might be the hardest call of all.

    In this episode,Ed Barltett, Founder & CEO of Hicomply, unpacks how to successfully scale with a lean team and build a GTM engine that actually produces an intent-led pipeline.

    Ed breaks down why stage-fit leadership beats vanity headcount and how to plan a smooth CEO transition when the time is right.

    If you’re a founder starting to think about what might be next for you, then this is the perfect episode to listen to.

    Episode Chapters

    02:02 - Ed’s path into Tech
    10:40 - Finding your niche in a $500B market
    12:44 - Comparing the UK and US markets
    17:02 - Staying lean & focusing on speed of execution
    19:10 - Building a realistic GTM stack in an AI-driven world
    31:58 - Founder transition & handing over the CEO reins
    36:47 - Exit prep 101 in 2025 and beyond

    Enjoyed today's episode of Making The Grade?

    If you took something valuable from the episode, we'd love for you to...

    ✔️ Leave us a rating and review on your favourite podcast platform.
    ✔️ Share your ideas or guest suggestions with us at podcast@scalewise.com
    ✔️ Stay in the loop with the latest from Making The Grade and ScaleWise by following us on LinkedIn or YouTube.

    See you again next week!

    Show More Show Less
    43 mins
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