During the Fireside Chat with Clive Butkow on 4th March 2025, we gathered a room full of CEOs and business leaders to discuss one of the biggest challenges in business: scaling beyond the founder. Clive, with his extensive experience in helping build Accenture SA to a 2,500-person consulting powerhouse, leading Kalon Venture Capital, and now running Conducive Capital, shared the hard truths that many founders struggle to accept—but need to hear.
The key message? What got you here won’t get you there.
One of the first wake-up calls Clive delivered was that founders who try to manage everything and everyone are the biggest bottlenecks in their businesses. Micromanagement doesn’t scale—leadership does.
As businesses grow, founders must shift from being involved in every detail to hiring the best possible talent and letting them do their jobs. This means bringing in specialist leadership—a financial manager, marketing head, and sales leader—and trusting them to execute.
Most founders are the primary salesperson in their business, but Clive made it clear that this must change for the business to grow. While founders should still be involved in the big deals, they must start building a scalable sales function.
That means:
✅ Hiring dedicated sales talent to own and drive revenue growth.
✅ Documenting every step of the sales process to ensure repeatability.
✅ Creating the necessary sales assets so the team can sell effectively without constant oversight.
A business owner in the room struggled with this idea, questioning if they could really let go of sales. Clive’s response? If sales still relies on you, your business isn’t scalable. The key is building a system that generates revenue beyond just the founder’s efforts.
Another major challenge Clive highlighted was holding onto underperforming leaders. Too often, founders promote top-performing employees (like sales reps) into leadership roles they aren’t suited for. The result? They struggle, teams underperform, and the business stagnates.
To scale effectively, founders must:
✅ Evaluate whether their leadership team can perform at the next level.
✅ Make tough decisions—if someone isn’t up to it, changes must be made.
✅ Understand that leadership is a skill, not just a reward for past performance.
The brutal reality is that a business can never outgrow the capabilities of its leadership team. If the leaders can’t scale, neither will the business.
One of the biggest mindset shifts Clive emphasized was the difference between growing from $0 to $1M versus scaling from $1M to $10M.
At the early stage, founders and their teams wear many hats, and generalists thrive. But to break through the next ceiling, businesses must transition from generalists to specialists. This means hiring experts in finance, marketing, sales, and operations rather than relying on a small, do-it-all team.
Clive introduced the concept of the "T" entrepreneur—someone who has a broad understanding across multiple functions (an inch deep on many topics) but goes deep in one area. Founders must recognize where their strength lies and hire experts to lead in other areas.
5. Business is Hard - Get Help
Clive didn’t sugarcoat it: building a business is hard, hard, hard. Every founder experiences moments of doubt, challenges they didn’t anticipate, and decisions that feel impossible.
That’s why he strongly recommends that founders get help—whether it’s through mentors, business coaches, or advisors who can walk the journey with them. Having someone who can challenge your thinking, call out your blind spots, and help you make better decisions can be the difference between stagnation and real growth.
The Takeaway: Scale Requires Letting GO
This Fireside Chat was filled with eye-opening moments, challenging many in the room to rethink how they lead, hire, and scale. Clive’s message was clear:
🔥 Stop micromanaging—start leading.
🔥 Stop doing all the selling—build a scalable sales function.
🔥 Stop holding onto the wrong leaders—build a team that can grow with the business.
🔥 Stop relying on generalists—hire specialists who can take the business to the next level.
🔥 Get help—because no one scales alone.
Scaling a business isn’t about working harder—it’s about thinking differently and making the
right strategic shifts.
What’s the next shift you need to make in your business? Let’s continue the conversation.