Slingshot: a scale-up accelerator across seven cohorts
As partner and growth lead in Slingshot, the scale-up accelerator for companies on Norway's west coast, co-designed and ran seven cohorts of growth sprints with companies such as W3Schools, Really!, Odda Digital Systems and Novotech. The alumni have created 340 new jobs and raised, or are raising, more than 450 MNOK.
My contribution
Co-designed the programme and its content, and ran growth strategy and experimentation sprints with the leadership of the participating companies across seven cohorts.
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Situation
Slingshot is a non-profit accelerator for post-revenue companies on Norway's west coast, typically with 10 to 100 MNOK in revenue and 5 to 50 employees. These companies had products that could scale or export, but needed a clear growth plan and the capacity to execute it.
Task
Design and run a programme that works on each company's real growth challenge, with goals set at the start and measured at the end.
Action
Architecture
From plan to execution in one programme. Before the start, each company prepared its strategic direction, problem statement and gap analysis. The programme then ran in three phases: a kick-off workshop and strategy sprint, two-week execution sprints with tailored deliverables, and a sustain-and-measure phase.
Consultants as an extended team. The consultants worked alongside each company's leadership on the problem itself, using design thinking, OKRs and agile sprints, rather than teaching in a classroom.
Implementation
- Programme design and content for seven cohorts.
- Growth strategy and experimentation sprints with the C-suite of each company.
- Go-to-market work: business models, sales funnels and preparation for investment.
- Participants included Odda Digital Systems, Sensar Marine, Friend, Coowner, bagID, W3Schools, Wenn, Enluminite, haptiq, Really!, ThrustMe, Beyonder, Seid, Blue Lice, Novotech and Justify.
Verification
- Each company's goals were set at kick-off and measured at the end of the programme.
Result
- 340 new jobs across the alumni.
- More than 450 MNOK in capital raised or being raised.
- Outcomes from individual alumni: customers +200%, conversion rate +600%, sales +200%, partnerships +300%, sales pipeline +50 MNOK, and two business model shifts.
- Seven cohorts delivered with top customer satisfaction.
Skills evidenced
- Accelerator and programme design for scale-ups.
- Growth strategy and go-to-market with C-suite teams.
- Facilitation of workshops and execution sprints.
- Business model innovation and investment readiness.
Portable lessons
- Work on the real problem. Companies grew when the sprints tackled their own growth challenge, not a generic curriculum.
- Set the goal before the kick-off. Measuring against a goal agreed at the start kept every sprint honest.
Want to discuss the decisions behind it?
Over fifteen years of consulting and growth, and hands-on AI delivery from discovery to daily operations. I can share my CV and talk through how I connect business outcomes with systems that run.
Available for a chat. In person in Stavanger, or remotely worldwide.