Shott Scale Up Accelerator

The Shott Scale Up Accelerator is a twelve-month programme that develops, nurtures and strengthens the leadership capabilities of senior decision-makers in high-growth engineering and tech SMEs to scale their business to the next level.

We know the leap from technical expert to business leader can be difficult to navigate on your own. The Shott Scale Up Accelerator places the personal development of leaders at the heart of its activities, with opportunities for peer learning in cohorts dedicated to deep tech SMEs.

The Shott Scale Up Accelerator is funded by DSIT and Ian Shott CBE FREng, a highly successful entrepreneur, who has played a pivotal role in establishing and growing the Enterprise Hub since its inception in 2013. Ian believes “supporting the growth of a dynamic, home-grown SME sector is vital to UK economic recovery and is delighted to be able to support a new generation of entrepreneurial engineers to scale their businesses and succeed.”

We believe connections should be built to last, so participants can expect a lifetime of support through connection to an exceptional community of engineers and innovators, mentors, coaches and over 500 Enterprise Hub Members and Academy Fellows

All support is at no cost to you or your company, we do not take equity or charge fees.

Our impact

We believe in the value of the individual for the success of high growth businesses, and because of this, we invest our time and energy into transforming the personal development of decision-makers of engineering and tech SMEs from across the UK. Together, we've supported tech leaders to initiate real business growth, including the creation of more than 1200 jobs, as well as:

What does this programme offer?

We support leaders with a unique package of funding and training over twelve months:

• 36-hour growth training programme with a cohort of 15 deep tech leaders
• 1:1 leadership coaching to focus on your development as a leader
• 1:1 business mentoring from our unrivalled network of the UK’s leading engineers in industry, who have founded, scaled and sold successful enterprises many times over
• £10,000 grant to pay for leadership courses anywhere in the world
• Access to our 100+ investor network
• An individual relationship manager to make connections to investors, corporates, experts and the Academy’s network of 1,700+ Fellows
• Lifetime access to our co-working and meeting room spaces in London, Belfast and Glasgow.
• Fully-funded access to Culture+, our equality, diversity and inclusion platform designed to help SMEs develop and sustain an inclusive culture as they scale.
• Lifetime membership of the Enterprise Hub's exclusive events, connections and mentoring opportunities.

Key growth areas

The focus of our growth training programme will be on the following six key areas:

1. People and culture
2. Good governance
3. Customer acquisition
4. Product and service development
5. Securing growth capital
6. Access to new markets

These modules reflect fundamental growth barriers facing leaders today, each module includes workshops led by subject experts and seasoned entrepreneurs, as well as individual practical "surgeries" with the trainers.

Who is the programme for?

We are looking for:

• senior leaders (e.g., CEO, CTO, CPO)
• in a UK-based engineering or technology SME
• in a high-growth company that has raised at least £1m in equity investment, or turnover in the last financial year (or a combination of both). If operating in MedTech, grants will also count towards total investment raised.

For more details, please see our full eligibility.

Your journey