Daniel Isenberg and Waltnel Sosa are brisk and impatient.
The former is the founder of the Scale Up ecosystem, the world’s first accelerator for medium-sized businesses, a professor at Columbia Business School and an associate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, amongst other things.
The latter is a sought-after consultant who returned to TT after a stint in international finance, and serves on a number of boards, including that of state-owned First Citizens bank.
Prof Isenberg’s project, Scale Up, has now spread to more than 15 cities, following an early success in the Colombian city of Manizales, where its graduate companies grew by 35 per cent each, creating “1,291 new jobs, 1,451 new contracts and 12 new exporters.”
Seeing a major productivity gap in TT, with anaemic historical growth, Sosa reached out to Isenberg, alongside Nigel Edwards, the executive director of the Unit Trust Corporation, about launching locally. The result: the first successful cohort of companies graduated on June 29.
The success stories have spoken for themselves. In just a few examples, Amaranth Business Solutions grew monthly sales by 19 per cent; JD Cairn increased training-school revenue by 75 per cent; and TRICON increased market share in Puerto Rico to 20 per cent, representing 40 per cent monthly growth.
These are impressive numbers that should no doubt have companies beating down the door.
But how did they do it? I sat down with Isenberg and Sosa to find out why.
[caption id="attachment_899682" align="alignnone" width="545"] Daniel Isenberg -[/caption]
What are some of the success stories from your programme?
Isenberg: You will hear from the companies themselves. They’re exporting for the first time or earning foreign currency for the first time, finding access to larger markets.
We (TT) have more competitive strength than you realise. We’re exporting to Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Guyana.
There are many examples of companies acquiring new customers, and collaborating with each other spontaneously. There’s a pretty wide variety – ranging from services to technology to small manufacturing, retail, B2B. A much larger minority of companies than people can think that can grow.
Startups can take years to grow. With the profile of companies that we work with, we see the path to increasing their growth is weeks and months.
Despite that diversity, they each have a lot to learn from each other. We have companies from light manufacturing in Tobago, three in agro-processing. We have a few technology companies as well. Even in difficult times, companies can still grow.
What are some of the problems that they were able to identify with the programme’s help?
It’s the 80/20 rule. If you can acquire and develop new customers, you’ll grow. If you can develop more cash from your operation, you can have access to more resources.
For example, going into new market segments, you have to understand wh
