Scaling UK Software Startups Globally with Phill Robinson Exploring the challenges and opportunities for scaling software startups in the UK and Europe to compete on a global stage.

The UK has long lagged behind the US in producing global software leaders, hindered by fragmented markets, cultural barriers, and limited collaboration. Phill Robinson, co-founder and CEO of Boardwave, is on a mission to change this by fostering a thriving, connected community of tech leaders across Europe.

What barriers do UK software start-ups face in scaling globally, and how is Boardwave helping to address these?
The US has completely dominated software and technology in the internet era, helping its economy expand more rapidly than the UK & Europe and building well-known global giants including the likes of Google, Meta, Salesforce and Amazon. When we look at the formula for success, whilst it's not a perfect science, scaling to £100m+ in revenue is often the point at which a software business has the size, scale and resources to push on to become an international or global leader.

Previously, there were several advantages that US-based tech firms have over their UK counterparts. In particular, proximity with other start-up entrepreneurs living in Silicon Valley's tight-knit community creates a breeding ground for success, connecting tech whizzes, investors and advisors. In other words - it's not what you know, it's who you know. PayPal is the perfect example of this. The connections made within the business led a number of the founders, and many of its senior executives, to go on and build massively successful projects following their departure, including Tesla, LinkedIn and YouTube. This phenomenon is known as the "Founder Factory" - the skills developed in one great business provide the foundations for teams to eventually leave and build another. There is a natural recycling of capital and expertise. And this happens time and time again, until Silicon Valley has created an entire industry of global leaders.

In stark contrast, the UK and European software market has been highly fragmented, by distance, language and culture; meaning it's much more challenging for a start-up founder or CEO to find and share wisdom, knowledge and expertise with others that have previously followed a similar path. This is exactly why we founded Boardwave 2.5 years ago. To create these conditions for success to build a passionate and active community that will nurture and develop the tech giants of tomorrow from the UK and Europe.

Why has the UK produced only one major global software company (Sage), and what needs to change for more success stories?
The UK has not produced a large successful software company since 1982, when Sage was founded in Newcastle. Our software industry is at a critical juncture. We have the talent, innovation, and increasingly, the capital to grow. However, achieving the same "rate of scale" as in the U.S. requires overcoming structural challenges. A McKinsey report recently noted that only 14% of European tech companies manage to scale up, compared to 21% in the U.S. To close this gap, UK businesses must prioritise efficiency, focus on global markets, and make bold moves—especially in emerging technologies like AI (Artificial Intelligence).

Whilst we are a relative laggard, there remains any opportunity to lead. Sage was born before the Internet generation and has a £13bn public valuation. Tiny compared to today's trillion-dollar valuations of key internet players like Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon with AWS.

But each time there is a major technological shift all bets are off, and the disruptors become the disrupted. Just look at the Gen-AI battle between Google & OpenAI - will we consume the web in the future through a search interface or an agentic-AI bot? AI is still nascent, we are in the equivalent of the internet's "dial-up" phase, pre-boom & bust. So, now at the beginning of the AI era, we have a chance to disrupt and lead the next technology era in Europe. But things are moving fast, and we must behave with a sense of urgency.

What misconceptions do UK investors and entrepreneurs have about building global software businesses, and how can they be addressed?
We seem to follow a narrative that the UK cannot build successful scaled software companies here in the UK. That there is no capital, no skills and a fragmented European market to sell to, creating significant barriers to success. Not only that, but we also say our founders are risk averse, when they sell their companies early to strategic acquirers effectively extinguishing the potential of the business or leaving it in the hands of their US colleagues.

This is like looking in the mirror, and the road behind you. Rather than looking at the opportunity that lies on the road ahead. Whilst it's not perfect there is more capital available to good UK software companies than ever before, and we have the skills. The UK is noted for the talent pool in AI, developed at places like Google Deepmind which is UK-based. #As an example, Sachin Duggal moved from the US to the UK, to start Builder.ai, as the economics were favourable and he believed our AI skills were as good as the US. Kim Lecha, CEO of Typeform, just returned from the US, having successfully scaled his business beyond $100m revenue. Not to his native Spain, but to the UK.

And the fragmented European market is flattening, with cloud giving you centralised control of your software, and instant European & global distribution via the web. AI can instantly translate any language in your software product, and post-pandemic selling over the web is an accepted business practice. With a centralised sales, customer service, digital marketing and engineering and product, we can view Europe as one market, of a similar size to the US.

As a founder, if you look to solve a customer problem that is international or universal, you can quickly scale your business today and accelerate that scaling by embedding AI within your solution.

What steps and strategies should UK entrepreneurs take to build tech giants like Google or Amazon?
There is an enormous opportunity lying in the adoption of new technologies such as AI across all sectors, to enable any business to compete in a world where "products" are a blend of physical and digital. The role of these new transformative technologies is set to rapidly impact and redraw the boundaries of many industries and our society as a whole.

Currently, the UK is lagging behind in this transformation. A transformation that is likely to be at least as significant as the Industrial Revolution. If the UK allows other regions to control these and other future pivotal technologies and doesn't make a step change in supporting our next generation of software companies as they scale-up, we stand to lose an economic opportunity of a lifetime believed to be worth $2-4 trillion a year.

There are a number of success factors that rely, not just on the founders and leaders themselves, but also the support they have around them. As a country we must look at businesses and sectors that have the highest potential to grow quickly. In the UK right now, this means scale-ups and software businesses.

We know that the tech founder community wants better collaboration with the new Government and one of their priorities must be to consider better ways they can bring together leaders from across the software sector. Alongside this, they must involve academic institutions and business schools to rapidly develop and deploy free education and training resources related to the application of AI, in particular. This will be an essential focus to boost efficiencies and product innovation across UK business.

What's the most important mindset shift UK entrepreneurs need to make in order to think and act on a global scale?
UK software's path to long-term global leadership is far from straight and narrow. We need to look at the UK and European market as a community, not a collection of separate states, if we are to build the next global leaders here.

Historically, the European market was fragmented along national lines. Software founders would achieve "product-market fit" locally in their own country, each of which being relatively small in comparison to a single contiguous US market, before deciding to attempt a market-entry and expansion into the next country. Consequently, this has been a major factor in UK and European software companies scaling more slowly than those in the US.

If they aspire to be a global leader, today's founders need to think "global" from the beginning, building transversal technology from the very start and solving business or consumer problems that are universal, not national in focus. This would make scaling less traumatic, less capital intensive, and with lower risk.

What is the one lesson you've learned in your career that could dramatically change how UK start-ups approach global expansion?
Having lived in Silicon Valley as CMO of Salesforce, I saw a huge number of early-stage businesses, who relied almost entirely on their network and the local software community to start and to build their business, based on the knowledge, expertise and guidance of those that have been there before them. We have rarely seen this type of industry-wide teamwork in Europe.

And, as such, when starting a software company there, founders have the confidence and connections to try to solve global problems, and local investors have the confidence to support them.

As a Founder or early-stage CEO, it's important that you cannot do this on your own. There are many people that have walked in your shoes or done something similar. Why make the mistakes they made again? I would say always ask for help, guidance and support from those willing to give it. Your decisions will be better informed and more likely right if you can get good advice from other great software leaders, and there are many in Europe that are willing to advise you. Within Boardwave, we have already collected nearly 2,000 members in 2.5 years, to share that ethos: to behave as a community or industry together, for our combined benefit. We have leaders at every growth stage, from £1 million in turnover, to billions. From every sector and every country in Europe. By being members, they are open to being helpful to others.]

Looking ahead, what do you hope the UK tech ecosystem will look like in five years, and how can we get there?
At our events, we regularly talk with our member CEOs and founders about a vision for 2030. In fact we recently launched a whitepaper that looks 10 years to the future and poses questions around how Europe can become a global software superpower in the next decade. Some of what we've included discusses innovation and advancements in new technologies, collaboration with Governments and also the overall emphasis that must be put on supporting and scaling UK businesses.

The Boardwave community offers access to all the experience and knowledge that can help drive the UK software community to this stage. Not only does it help leaders to pinpoint the most relevant mentors that can help them - who, in turn, could be successful CEOs or founders in their own right - but it also offers access to capital. Currently, we have over 150 angel investors (who are also Founders & CEOs), and 35 of Europe's leading VC and Private Equity investors. As well as access to partners offering support services in strategy, product, technology, legal, corporate banking, advisory, go to market and marketing. ]

It's worth noting that, if your readers did want to join - membership is free for software CEOs and founders, on approval of their membership application. Our community is funded by a partner consortium of 80+ blue chip organisations who have agreed to share the cost of this initiative between them and are aligned with our vision.