proSapient

One take-away from this week’s EY Entrepreneur Of The Year - London & The South nominee and judges’ gathering has been replaying on my mind: Only 144 female-founded or co-founded businesses in the UK have scaled beyond £50m in turnover with global reach. Just 89 are still continuing to scale (SuperScalers Index). That’s up 41% vs. last year - progress, but still a remarkably small cohort. We talk a lot about starting companies. Much less about what it actually takes to scale them - and keep scaling. Because the reality is: getting to that level changes the game entirely. The challenges are different and the choices carry more weight - from hiring and structure to where you invest time and capital. What got you there has to evolve as you scale further. It becomes less about momentum and experimentation - and more about making the right strategic calls. The stakes are higher - choosing where to focus, which bets to back, and committing to them fully. Being in a room with founders at different points along that curve was a powerful reminder that this part of the journey is both rarer, and less talked about, than it should be. And increasingly, it’s a stage we’re navigating at proSapient. Grateful to Scott Kenward for the nomination, and to Charlotte Thomas, FCSI both for her role in the process and for taking the time to share such thoughtful encouragement on the night - as well as broader teams at Julius Baer and the EY teams for bringing everyone together. Looking forward to what comes next. #Entrepreneurship #Scaling #Leadership #Founders #EOYUK

Back from another roadshow in Munich & Zurich - had an amazing few days meeting 35+ Investment Professionals across tech, consumer, services, healthcare & industrials. (and yes, amazing meadow views and plenty of coffee along the way ☕ Kanso Coffee Lab in Munich is ours with Megan Walmsley's personal favourite!) Overall, a pretty encouraging tone across PE: 📈 Deal activity is starting to pick up again across most PE verticals, with tech valuations settling post-reset, and teams getting more creative, looking at new sectors and adjacencies 💸 Still a huge amount of dry powder in EMEA, so the pressure to deploy is very real, especially for top-tier assets One theme that kept coming up: information overload. With so many tools and data sources out there, the real challenge is getting to the right signal, fast. That’s where we’re seeing growing interest in proSapient's products and delivery standards: ▪️ Spotlight Reports & AI-Moderated Calls to scale early-stage insights ▪️ Combining AI with proprietary expert data to cut through the noise and build conviction earlier ▪️ Keeping a 'human-in-the-loop', making sure quality, context, and the right expert perspective don’t get lost Exciting to see how teams are evolving how they approach insights - let me know your thoughts on these trends and what you're seeing on the insights front for the deal origination and screening! Next stops: Stockholm & Hamburg (May), Amsterdam (June) - ping me if you’re around! #PrivateEquity #DACH #MarketInsights #ExpertNetworks #proSapient

I had the pleasure of heading out to SFO & Palo Alto last week with the wonderful Kadijah Mathews George Gildehaus Lawrence representing proSapient on the road - it was great to finally meet so many of our Private Equity & Consulting clients we spend 24/7 with on emails, calls, Zooms, etc. Given how AI is reshaping the way we attain and leverage expert insights, conversations were largely centered around how we doubled-down on human-in-the-loop models (alongside our exciting new products & offerings of course) to provide our clients with trusted expert insights, on demand. From new products such as AI-moderated calls, to deeper expert identification & screening for unique real insights - the potential of AI is huge. Speed, scale, and accessibility are improving across the board. But so does the risk of uncontrolled AI usage, which is where our tech-enabled, yet people-driven approach helps provide layers of expert validation, nuance, and trust. With all this, we remain a people & relationship driven industry. Beyond shop-talk, it is always a pleasure connecting with folks we spend so much time with virtually. We’ve hosted everything from:️ ☕ Coffee catch-ups (including excellent Matcha at Shoji in case you're looking for a new spot) 🥗 Lunch & learns to 100+ industry leaders 🍾 Dinner & drinks, a classic for a reason! 🦾 A Barry’s Bootcamp class (still not full recovered, but avoiding the classic "what spiking my heart rate to 198 BPM at a 7am Barry's class taught me about B2B sales"...) 💅 We hosted a "nails & catchup" hour (any excuse to meet our clients and spend quality time, if you have activities in mind let us know and we can coordinate!) AI will continue to evolve, and so will we. The core remains the same - trusted insights, delivered by real people, in moments that matter. Boston - here we come (March 24th - 26th)! Reach out on oliver@prosapient.com if you're interested in exploring tailored expert insights support more deeply.

It was a real privilege to be invited by Rt Hon Rachel Reeves to 11 Downing Street last week. She brought together founders from some of the UK’s most promising tech and tech-enabled scale-ups — businesses expected to play a meaningful role in driving the country’s future economic growth. Proud that proSapient was included in that group. What stood out was the focus on innovation and the role scaling companies will play in the UK economy. There’s a growing recognition that building globally competitive businesses here requires not just great founders, but the right alignment of capital and policy. A big part of the discussion was unlocking more domestic capital into private markets — specifically, how pension funds and other long-term pools of capital can support UK businesses over time. The direction of travel is clear, even if the exact mechanisms are still evolving. Like many founders, I think there’s still more to be done to make the UK the best place to innovate and scale a business. But it was encouraging to see that dialogue happening directly at the highest level. Credit to Carolyn Dawson, Ellie Steel and organisations like Tech Nation and Founders Forum Group for continuing to put UK scale-ups at the forefront of the conversation with policymakers.

Grateful to be included again in this year’s list of Europe’s most influential women in startups by EU-Startups. It’s a thoughtful roundup that’s been running for a number of years now, and it’s always nice to be mentioned alongside so many impressive founders, investors and operators helping to shape Europe’s innovation and economic growth. As ever, building proSapient is a team effort — so this recognition really reflects the people around me who continue to support and challenge what we’re building. Also great to see so many brilliant women featured across the list. #scaleups #europe #founders #innovation