The Art of Scaling

The Art of Scaling is our unique scaling methodology. Based on research on thousands of ventures, and confirmed by working closely with over 130 scale-up teams, we identified what differentiates those that scale from those that stall: the Scaling Success Factors.

There is no single formula for scaling. But you can learn from those that came before you. Here, we translate our empirical research into knowledge that informs you on your scale-up journey.

The Art of Scaling Report

The difference between a scale-up and a “stall-up” comes down to about 20 success factors. Read the full The Art of Scaling report to learn about the must-have practices for your company in order to scale.

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Research Articles

Our team of researchers continuously conduct R&D projects to collect data and develop insights on success factors of impact-oriented scale-ups. This is the output of their work.

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Storytelling for impact

Menno van Dijk & Valeria Mecozzi put together their passion for storytelling in this short book. It provides frameworks and tools for scale-up founders and CEOs to tell their impact story.

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Enhance your storytelling skills

Menno van Dijk & Valeria Mecozzi put together their passion for storytelling in this short book. It provides frameworks and tools for scale-up founders and CEOs to tell their impact story.

Read the book

3 steps to create a beachhead

Creating a beachhead is no easy feat, but it is crucial in order to scale. Our research shows that there are 3 steps to achieve it. Find out what they are in this article.

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Turn your customers into allies

Scale-ups put too much emphasis on attracting new customers and not enough on delighting existing customers. But you won’t scale without delighted customers. We looked into what will delight your customers and how you can accomplish this.

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Delight your F&A customers

The food & agri industry is a notoriously difficult sector to innovate and succeed in. We asked our scale-up community, faculty, and expert advisors: “how can F&A scale-ups improve the effectiveness of their sales process?”

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Scaling circular innovation in construction

How can the extremely polluting construction industry become more sustainable? Our researcher Florent Maccario created a handbook about the unique challenges and success factors of circular construction.

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Start learning the smart way

Although the romantic image of entrepreneurs learning from failure prevails, this painful way of learning becomes much too costly as more and more is at stake. We looked into how scale-ups can start learning the smart way, not the hard way.

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How to hire to scale

To successfully transition into a scale-up, you need to bring in new talent that will quickly build sales momentum, produce at volume, create processes, and drive the organization. But do all employees need to be full-time employees?

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Scale your impact to change industries

We interviewed 45 scale-up CEOs and analysed 3,500+ organisations in search for what allows companies to scale their impact in such a way that they end up changing their entire industry. Read the article to learn about the four success factors shared by all trailblazers.

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What does it take to be a trailblazer?

We have identified a small group of companies that aim not only at making a positive impact with their offer, but at changing an entire industry. We call them trailblazers. Find out what defines them.

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How to finance your social impact

In order to scale your impact and profit you have to find investors who support your dual aims and are willing to do so long enough for you to actually be able to scale. Learn about the 3 things you need to do to make that happen.

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Building high-level partnerships

What does it take to build partnerships with key players that can support you in leveraging change in the industry? Find out how to scale an innovative solution to a societal challenge in this article.

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Are you a scale-up?

A scale-up is a venture that has achieved initial revenues and now faces either the “second valley of death” or exponential growth. You might consider yourself a scale-up if you’re growing from a team of about 15 employees and are experiencing the following transformations:

  • From founder team to management team
  • The birth of strategy
  • From MVP to innovation pipeline
  • From product orientation to commercial orientation
  • From informal team to structure and processes
  • Going international
Going from startup to scaleup, companies face a second valley of death. They need to transform themselves to survive

Is this what your scaling journey feels like?

Webinar Series

The Art of Scaling: Real Conversations

Open discussions with scale-up CEOs about their scaling journeys

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The Art of Scaling: Position your brand for impact

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The Art of Scaling: Real Conversations with Fieldbee & Facilicom

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Why the Netherlands? With Oost NL, Willicroft & Farmforte

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Our Research Approach

Our R&D team is dedicated to researching the art of scaling and translating learnings into new knowledge and tools that support impact scale-ups. 

Our research is made possible by the support of Deloitte, Goldschmeding Foundation, Utrecht University School of Economics, New Venture, EFRO, Province of Noord Holland, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Rabobank.

creative commons logo

Having a common language about scale-up success factors will contribute to the scale-up ecosystem. It provides a shared way to talk about investments and priority setting. Therefore we promote every practitioner to use these materials and others on our website for their own benefit. Lawyers call this “creative commons.”