ScaleApp Podcasts with Prof Dan Isenberg

Professor Daniel Isenberg
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ScaleApp is chock full of content and interviews with successful scalers that will help you grow your company better. DO NOT LISTEN IF YOU ARE A STARTUP: ScaleApp is for growing ventures, not starting them. (But if you are a startup with serious growth aspirations, ScaleApp IS for you).

  1. Episode #34 — 3D Printing America's Manufacturing Future — Jay Rogers, CEO/Co-founder, Haddy.life

    2D AGO

    Episode #34 — 3D Printing America's Manufacturing Future — Jay Rogers, CEO/Co-founder, Haddy.life

    Jay Rogers is a serial entrepreneur who doesn't just learn from failure — he codifies it. His previous venture, Local Motors, 3D printed autonomous vehicles and deployed 150 of them across 29 cities and three continents. The technology worked. The pricing worked. They raised $100 mm or so in capital. Regulation slowed everything down and they never learned how to sell.  The company failed as an investment, but the genetics survived. Between Local Motors and Haddy, Jay sat down and wrote out his critical lessons: stay out of highly regulated industries, make products with few components you can build entirely under one roof, and — here's the subtle one — choose assets that are financeable. He wanted a robot he could pay for with an SBA loan, not venture equity. That distinction between capital-intensive and equity-intensive is one of the sharpest insights in this conversation (disclosure: I am an investor in Haddy). What emerged is Haddy — a 3D printing "world builder" running a robotic micro factory in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. Furniture, boats, molds, lighting, architectural elements, defense products. Jay went from Princeton to manufacturing in China to banking to dropping out of Stanford to join the Marines for seven years — and every chapter shows up in how he leads Haddy today, including a Marine-bred commitment to vulnerability that might surprise you. Favorite Quotes – "We've orphaned an enormous amount of tribal knowledge — how to mine, how to forge, how to do tool and die. America has lost a lot of making capability. That's what Haddy is here to address." – "Double, double, double to me is sluggish." – "It's a capital-intensive business, but don't hear that it's an equity-intensive business. Those things are often confused. We're a capital-efficient, capital-intensive business — and that's a deliberate choice." – "With Local Motors, I went out with a technology and built ahead of the market — and we were early. With Haddy, I got an order from a furniture company before I raised a dollar for the business." – "Vulnerability is being willing to get curious. Are you willing to shut up and listen? That vulnerability is worth its weight in gold." Key Themes Reshoring manufacturing through robotic micro factories  Haddy is rebuilding the "tribal knowledge" America lost over two decades of offshoring, using 3D printing and robots instead of scarce skilled labor Failure as a design document — Extract lessons from failure and hardcode them into a new business model, from avoiding regulated industries to choosing financeable assets Capital-efficient, not equity-intensive — a deliberate distinction that shapes everything from equipment choices to fundraising strategy, using SBA loans and debt rather than dilutive venture capital Customer before capital — Jay secured a furniture order before raising a single dollar, reversing the Local Motors approach of building ahead of the market Vulnerability as leadership — learned in the Marines, refined in business, Jay argues that shutting up, listening, and admitting mistakes creates stronger teams and better customer relationships

    37 min
  2. Episode #33 - Kevin Kilty/Hubpay - From "too early yesterday" to "$100 mm tomorrow"

    FEB 13

    Episode #33 - Kevin Kilty/Hubpay - From "too early yesterday" to "$100 mm tomorrow"

    In Episode 33 of ScaleApp Podcasts, Kevin Kilty and I unpack the messy, honest reality of building a cross-border payments platform from the UAE — one of the world’s fastest-growing trading hubs. HubPay is now approaching $10 million ARR (already at a $10mm run rate), profitable, with 58 people across Dubai and London, and a Series B in motion.  Kevin launched HubPay in 2019 with a clear vision: a one-stop-shop for businesses to move money globally — fast, cheap, and simple. The problem? The infrastructure wasn’t ready. Bank APIs, virtual IBANs, regulatory tech — none of it was there yet. HubPay spent two years grinding through $1–2 million ARR while the market caught up. As Kevin says: “50 fintechs came before Revolut with pretty much the same plan. They were just too early.” HubPay nearly was too. But Kevin held on, pivoted from retail remittances to corporate cross-border payments, and when the critical infrastructure came online in late 2024, growth exploded. Now profitable at $10 million ARR (expected Q2), the Series B isn’t for survival — it’s for expansion into the UK, Europe, and Saudi Arabia. Kevin sees $100 million ARR in two to three years. (Disclosure: I am an LP in Emkan https://www.emkan.vc a VC investor in HubPay.)  Favorite Quotes “Timing is everything. We had the right thesis, just the wrong year. Revolut wasn’t the first with the plan — 50 fintechs came before with pretty much the same idea.” “Execution is key. The idea is not quantum computing. But the plumbing behind it? That’s where you earn your stars. The customer demands are relatively simple.   “At first people were getting burned out. You don’t mind working hard. But you get burnt out when you’re working hard and it’s simply not working.” “We are a team, not a family. Your family is with you no matter what. You don’t do a good job, your family’s there. Your team is certainly not — you must execute.” “Three pieces of advice to my younger self: Make the leap earlier. Community is everything. And when you raise money, be way more disciplined in how you spend it.” Key Themes –  Timing is the silent killer: HubPay had the right thesis but launched before the infrastructure existed. Surviving “too early” without burning through capital became the defining test. –  Simple value proposition, brutal execution: Customers want speed, global reach, and fair pricing. Delivering that across borders, regulators, and banks is where the real work lives. –  Team, not family: Kevin runs a flat, execution-driven culture — 15+ languages in the Dubai office, mutual respect, but no room for passengers. –  Financial discipline unlocks optionality: Profitability at $10M ARR on a shoestring means Series B is entirely for growth — UK/European licenses, Saudi expansion, and AI-driven product innovation.

    31 min

  3. JAN 28

    Episode #32 - Sam Smith, SuperScalers and £50 million finnCap

    In Episode 32 of ScaleApp Podcasts, Sam Smith and I unpack her 24-year scale journey: building FinnCap from an in-house corporate finance desk into an IPO-listed £50 million revenue financial services firm, staying profitable throughout. At 24 – “I literally had no clue what I was doing” after painstakingly building to £3 million revenue, a step change along with a management buyout created real ownership, a clear vision, and the freedom to scale. After leaving FinCap, Sam built Superscalers to address a stark gap in the UK’s scale ecosystem. Using data to track outcomes, Superscalers connects and equips underrepresented founders already past £1M revenue to push through the next doublings — and to create more businesses that break through to £50M and beyond. Favorite Quotes “It was literally a desk, a phone, and me.”“We built from there to over 50 million revenue and IPO listing.”“Those patterns are the doubling principle.”“It doesn’t come with 0.2 of a person.”“Who started here is not going to be who ends here.”“Assume everyone becomes an alumni.”“I’ve not worried about competitors, I worry about customers!"Key Themes Why ownership, vision, and incentives mattered — and how the MBO unlocked the next chapter of scale. The ‘doubling principle’: Why growth compounds in leaps (1→2→4→8→16) and why teams/capability can’t be built in tiny increments. Culture through constant change: Hiring for growth mindset — and accepting that different stages require different people and skill sets. Exits as alumni, not endings: A practical approach to protecting culture by treating departures as ongoing relationships.

    39 min
  4. Episode #31 - Clarity Pediatrics - Upping the Care for Childhood Disorders - Christina LaMontagne

    12/21/2025

    Episode #31 - Clarity Pediatrics - Upping the Care for Childhood Disorders - Christina LaMontagne

    Christina LaMontagne on Scaling Healthcare with Conviction Scaling in healthcare is never just about growth—it’s about trust, discipline, and conviction. In this 31st episode of ScaleApp Podcasts, I sat down with Christina to unpack what it really takes to build and scale a healthcare business that works for patients, parents, providers, and payers alike. Christina’s journey is grounded in first principles. Before chasing growth, her team doubled down on unit economics, playbooks, and proof points. As she puts it, you have to “understand exactly how your model works before you deploy your Series A capital to scale it.” That discipline shaped every expansion decision that followed. Rather than spreading thin, Christina embraced a land-and-expand strategy. The focus was narrow and intentional: one condition, one state, executed exceptionally well. Only once the model was proven did the company raise capital to scale further. This approach reduced risk, built credibility, and created a repeatable engine for growth. A central theme of the conversation is the flywheel of trust. Expansion wasn’t just geographic—it was relational. By delivering consistently for pediatricians, the company earned trust that translated into referrals, relevance, and long-term value for families. Growth, in this model, compounds not through marketing spend, but through reliability. Christina also challenges conventional thinking around Total Addressable Market in healthcare. With nearly half of U.S. children enrolled in Medicaid, she argues that true scale is impossible without serving the full population. Big outcomes require inclusive models—anything less leaves both impact and opportunity on the table. Underlying it all is founder conviction. Christina doesn’t frame success around exits, but around inevitability—the belief that a solution must exist and therefore will exist. That mindset deepens over time, turning ambition into responsibility. Her advice to her younger self captures the spirit of the episode: the audacity to build a completely different life is a founder’s superpower. Healthcare, she reminds us, offers no shortage of meaningful problems—and a lifetime of opportunity for those willing to solve them. 🔑 Key Themes Scaling with Unit Economics FirstLand-and-Expand as a Risk-Reduction StrategyTrust as a Growth FlywheelRethinking TAM in HealthcareFounder Conviction Over Exit ThinkingHealthcare as a Career-Long Opportunity Space

    36 min
  5. Episode #30 - Sahar Hashemi "Two-Time Scaler" - Coffee Republic and Skinny Candy (UK)

    12/08/2025

    Episode #30 - Sahar Hashemi "Two-Time Scaler" - Coffee Republic and Skinny Candy (UK)

    From Immigrant Teen to Scale Up Pioneer: The Sahar Hashemi Story What does it take to build one of the UK’s fastest-growing retail brands, lose it, rebuild yourself, and then reinvent entrepreneurship for an entire generation of women founders? In this episode, I sit down with Sahar Hashemi OBE, co-founder of Coffee Republic and Skinny Candy, and founder of the movement Buy Women Built. Sahar’s journey is a masterclass in how entrepreneurial culture is born, how it dies, and how to protect it as you scale. She shares moving reflections on immigrating to the UK at age 12, how her parents instilled “evidence-based self-belief,” and why being a frustrated customer has always been her superpower. From a single London coffee bar to 110 stores, Coffee Republic scaled at breakneck speed — only to lose its soul as “the grown-ups” took over. Sahar describes, with rare honesty, how bureaucracy can slowly extinguish customer focus, what she learned from watching her own company collapse eight years after she left, and why founders must fight to preserve agility, instinct, and scrappiness. Key Themes •Evidence-based self-belief: why childhood pushes create adult resilience. •Scaling culture: how processes, titles, and silos quietly kill innovation. •Founder relevance: the outdated belief that entrepreneurs have a “sell-by date.” •Customer intimacy: the founder’s instinct as a strategic asset, not a liability. •Women entrepreneurs: why empathy, resourcefulness, and personal problem-solving make women natural founders. •Leaping before you feel ready: Sahar’s enduring motto for starting anything new. Favorite Quotes •“Self-belief is evidence-based — you build it by doing difficult things.” •“A startup culture can quickly put on a corporate mask.” •“Back then they thought passion was flaky — today every big company wants it.” •“Women start businesses from personal need — and that’s where many great ideas come from.” •“Leap and the net will appear.” 🎧 Listen to the full conversation: https://scaleapp.buzzsprout.com

    34 min

  6. 11/16/2025

    Episode #29 - Scaling Global Services from Puerto Rico to the World - Jorge Rodriguez and Paciv

    Jorge Rodriguez, founder of Paciv, built a world‑class industrial automation and computer systems validation company from a small warehouse in Puerto Rico to a global player serving Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, and other pharma giants. The son of Spanish immigrants who arrived on the island with nothing but work ethic and discipline, Jorge translated family lessons about integrity, paying suppliers first, and “keeping the machine running” into a business that became a trusted partner inside some of the most demanding plants in the world. Paciv started as Jorge leaving a safe job at Johnson & Johnson with a single client contract and a laptop. Within months he was billing 80–90 hours a week, combining deep technical know‑how in control systems with an insider’s understanding of pharma’s regulatory pain points. The insight was simple but powerful: if you can deliver the same validated process in Puerto Rico, you can clone it in Indiana, Ireland, Singapore, or the UK—exactly what global quality and regulators expect. Favorite Quotes • “Don’t let go of something until you have something else secure. I quit Friday and started selling services Monday.”   • “Clients spoon‑fed me growth—‘we have a larger project, but you can’t do it alone… hire a few engineers and we’ll give it to you.’”   • “To drive customer intimacy, first you model it. I was 100% billable for the first 13 years.”   • “If you stop growing, you start dying.”   • “I was riding a Ferrari in second gear. If I could speak to my younger self, I’d say: take more risk and grow faster.”  Key Themes From Immigrant Household to Industrial Specialist  Becoming an Entrepreneur from the Inside  Customer Intimacy as Competitive Advantage  Scale Globally Through Clients, Not Campaigns  Radical Transparency and Trust  Professionalizing the Business: From Mom‑and‑Pop to Scale‑Up

    34 min
  7. Episode #28 - Raspberry Pi's Just Desserts - How to be a $250 million category creator

    11/10/2025

    Episode #28 - Raspberry Pi's Just Desserts - How to be a $250 million category creator

    Eben Upton, co-founder and CEO of Raspberry Pi, turned a Cambridge lab experiment into an intriguing scale-up stories. What began as a mission to create more programmers in the world by empowering kids to program, became a $250 million public company that has shipped over 70 million units worldwide and helped redefine accessible computing.    At its heart, Raspberry Pi is a simple but revolutionary idea: a fully functional computer the size of a cigarette pack, priced under $35, and designed to spark curiosity with extensive hardware interfaces. Eben describes it as a modern-day Lego brick—the glue between software, peripherals, and imagination. The company’s first batch of 100,000 units sold out on launch day.  Favorite Quotes  • “We sold 100,000 Raspberry Pis on the first day—and none to target market, kids. We dropped the product in the market to see where the market was.”   • “Licensing gave us a global footprint from day one—but the unit economics were brutal.”   • “We build our products at Sony in South Wales—40,000 a day, right next to two handmade broadcast cameras.”   • “Never wait—if you can grow capability without risking the organization, do it now.”    Key Themes  1. From Education to Global Scale: Raspberry Pi started as an educational charity project but when hobbyists and engineers discovered it, the product jumped from classrooms to factories and embedded systems across the world.    2. Product-Market Fit by Accident: The team didn’t find a market through focus groups—they discovered it by “accidentally dropping a product into blue ocean demand.” The first-year sales hit one million units.    3. The ARM Model and Beyond: Inspired by Cambridge’s own ARM, Raspberry Pi began as a licensor of technology and brand IP. But to capture more value, the company evolved into direct production, partnering with Sony to manufacture at scale while maintaining the agility of a startup.    4. Culture and Retention: Upton built an engineering-driven organization that balances autonomy with structure—“a startup’s flexibility with a corporation’s resources.” With nearly 100% retention, Raspberry Pi proves that culture can scale when people love what they build.

    47 min
  8. Episode #27 - Capturing the Caribbean - Reshma Advani Rojas (Advanced Commercial, T&T)

    10/29/2025

    Episode #27 - Capturing the Caribbean - Reshma Advani Rojas (Advanced Commercial, T&T)

    Reshma Advani Rojas, CEO of Advanced Commercial Equipment (ACEL), has turned a family legacy into the Caribbean’s most respected restaurant supply companies. Based in Trinidad & Tobago, ACEL serves 14 countries across the region and generates approximately $30 million in revenue. In this episode of ScaleApp Podcasts, Reshma shares how leadership, culture, and clarity drive scale—not just capital. Favorite Quotes ·       “Soft skills are not optional—they’re the foundation of company culture.” ·       “Scaling starts when you know exactly who you are as a brand.” ·       “Our diversity in T&T gives us a groundbreaking view of the world—we’re not trapped by one culture.” ·       “Breaking and rebuilding your business process and structure is hard—but it’s how real growth happens.” ·       “One big win from ScaleratorT&T was alignment—we all finally spoke the same language.” ·       “I asked my 10-year-old if she’d take over the business. She said, ‘Yes—but I also want to own a hospital.’ I love that ambition.” Key Themes • **Legacy Reinvented:** Reshma inherited a legacy company from her father but reshaped it into a modern, scalable venture with international reach. • **Culture and Soft Skills:** In a world of automation, she champions empathy and communication as a competitive edge. • **Women Leading Change:** As a woman of color in a male-dominated industry, Reshma redefines what authority and expertise look like. Her success challenges outdated cultural and gender assumptions. • **Scaling with Identity:** ACE’s success stems from deep brand clarity and consistent follow‑through. Service excellence and relationship‑based selling are what set them apart. • **The Scalerator Effect:** Through ScaleratorT&T, Reshma and her team built shared understanding and focus, aligning on what success truly means. The result: a stronger, smarter organization ready for the next level.

    39 min
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ScaleApp is chock full of content and interviews with successful scalers that will help you grow your company better. DO NOT LISTEN IF YOU ARE A STARTUP: ScaleApp is for growing ventures, not starting them. (But if you are a startup with serious growth aspirations, ScaleApp IS for you).

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