Emerge

A topic we don't talk about nearly enough when it comes to early-stage founders... mental health. 🔥 As a founder, you're putting out a million fires at once. How do you stay productive, accountable and more importantly - how do you keep your sanity intact? In our latest Product Market-Fit Academy episode, our Venture Partner Lucy Stonehill, co-founder of BridgeU, lays out what has worked for her. From jet-setting to Hong Kong to set up a new team, to marathon Zoom calls during the pandemic, BridgeU has been a tumultuous journey over the last 10 years. Lucy shares her personal tips for staying on top of the game including: 💡The importance of flexibility and being able to change your habits to match your company's evolving needs. 🧠 The power of peer networks and the mental health benefits to having a trusted network of founder peers to lean on for support and perspective. Tune into the full episode for more.

👥 Building a senior leadership team: lessons from the trenches 👥 Forming a senior leadership team for the first time can feel like navigating a minefield. Different backgrounds, working styles, and personalities converge—how do you manage it all? 🤔 In our latest Product Market-Fit Academy episode, our Venture Partner, Lucy Stonehill, co-founder of BridgeU, shares her journey and invaluable frameworks for building and managing a high-performing senior leadership team. Having started BridgeU in her early 20s, Lucy was quickly navigating how to hire and manage a senior leadership team with decades more experience. ✨ Key Takeaways: - Humility and curiosity: As a young founder starting BridgeU, Lucy approached senior hires with humility and a desire to learn. Treating them as partners rather than subordinates fostered a collaborative environment. - One-on-ones as brainstorming opportunities: Use these meetings to co-collaborate and brainstorm, not micromanage. It’s about harnessing collective intelligence. - Versatility to specialisation: Early on, broad skillsets (Swiss army knife leaders) are crucial. Over time, investing in deep functional expertise becomes essential. - OKRs for alignment: Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) have been a game-changer at BridgeU. Lucy shares how defining and tracking OKRs at the company level empowers senior leaders to manage their teams effectively while striving towards shared goals. 🚀 Pro tip: Balance authority and empowerment with collective alignment. Give senior leaders the freedom to leverage their past successful methods while ensuring everyone is on the same page with company objectives. Don’t miss this episode for actionable insights on creating a cohesive and dynamic senior leadership team! 🎯

🔥 The truth about founder-led sales: essential or overrated? 🔥 In the early days of a startup, founder-led sales are non-negotiable. Or are they? 🤔 In our latest Product Market-Fit Academy episode, Lucy Stonehill, co-founder of BridgeU argues that founders MUST lead early sales to gain real-world exposure to customer pain points and build powerful connections with early adopters. But here's the kicker—there's a critical point when this HAS to change! ❗️Key insight: Founders who cling to sales roles too long might actually HURT their growth 😲 As your startup shifts from selling to innovators to addressing the broader market, your sales strategy needs a serious overhaul. 🌟 Why founder-led sales matter: - Deep customer understanding: Founders get hands-on experience with customer challenges. - Values alignment: Early adopters and founders often share a passion for change and innovation. - Vision selling: It's more about selling a future vision than ticking off product features. 💥 When to make the shift: - As you target the early and late 'majority' buyers (as opposed to early adopters), who demand product hygiene and lower risk. - When sales processes become more scripted and standardised. - When it’s time to build a scalable, repeatable sales process. Lucy shares how to recognise this critical juncture and smoothly transition from founder-led sales to a dedicated sales team 🚀

The top 40 emerging edtech companies for workforce development for 2024 is now out...

🚀 In our latest Product Market-Fit Academy episode, our Venture Partner, Lucy Stonehill, co-founder of BridgeU, breaks down the essential stages of organisational design that every startup goes through. 👥 Stage 1: The passionate collective - In the beginning, it's all about a tight-knit team working together in a horizontal structure. Roles are clear, but responsibilities are shared, fostering a strong sense of unity. 🔄 Stage 2: Team-based evolution - As you gain traction and hit milestones, your startup evolves into team-based structures, each serving specific goals. This is where functional teams like commercial and tech start to take shape. 📈 Stage 3: Building hierarchies - With growth in headcount and maturity, the need for a management layer emerges. Circular organisational designs and dedicated leadership teams become crucial for strategic decision-making and resource allocation. 🌍 Stage 4: Embracing complexity - For larger startups or scale-ups, matrix structures with divisional teams and regional offices come into play. This setup ensures that different projects and product lines are managed effectively, even across multiple locations. Don't miss Lucy's deep dive into how intentional org design can propel your startup to success. Watch the full episode to learn how to navigate these stages and build a resilient, scalable organisation 📺

✂️ 🔊 Cut the noise! What are the 40 most exciting new L&D startups?   🗓 Find out next Wednesday, 3 July, when we reveal the Emerging EdTech Top 40 for Workforce Development. 💻 Online: 3rd July 2024, 4.30 pm–5:30 pm UK BST 👩💼 All L&D / CHRO senior professionals are welcome!   🛠 This is part of the annual series of meetings run by the Emerge Workforce Development Advisory Board, chaired by Donald H Taylor   🏃♀️ Keeping up-to-date with the best emerging companies in our field is hard. That’s why each year, we publish a data-driven, crowd-sourced list of the top 40 emerging vendors. 🎯 Emerge has been at the centre of this space for 10 years, scanning the L&D startup space and tracking the most exciting developments. The goal: to be your innovation radar. We will introduce the 40 edtech companies we’ve identified as key players this year. 🥇 Emerge will profile the established players who are setting the gold standard, will identify the top rising stars who are fast making a difference, and, importantly, will also highlight "ones to watch" – new companies you might not have heard of yet who are poised to shake things up. 🌋 Compiling this list is an almost impossible job. We create it using publicly available data and suggestions from the Workforce Development Advisory Board. If you think a company should be on there, please DM us so we can add them! The list is regularly updated. #edtech #hr #startups #vc #top40 #event #workforcedevelopment #learninganddevelopment

🧩 Founders - could you be making avoidable mistakes in your org structure? As you bring in new team members, org design becomes increasingly critical to ensure everyone understands how everything fits together. In our latest PMF Academy episode, co-founder of BridgeU, Lucy Stonehill, shares some key mistakes she's seen (and made) at the early stage: 🚫 Hiring too senior, too early: In the early days, you need versatile "Swiss army knife" team members who can juggle multiple roles. Senior leaders might bring depth but lack the necessary breadth and adaptability. 💔 Holding onto people out of loyalty: It's never easy, but sometimes you have to make the tough call. As your startup evolves, recognising when it's time for a change can benefit both the individual and the organisation. 🤔 Right role, right person conundrum: Defining new roles clearly and finding the perfect fit is a delicate balancing act. Nail this to drive growth and ensure your team operates like a well-oiled machine. Check out the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/dyiHWgFi

🌟 Product Market-Fit Academy is BACK with a new episode featuring the incredible Lucy Stonehill, co-founder of BridgeU 🌟 Get ready for a deep dive into organisational design and team management, where Lucy breaks down what organisational design really is and why it’s a game-changer for startups. But that’s not all! In the full episode (coming soon), we cover: 🔥 When to transition from founder-led sales to a full-fledged sales team 🔥 Proven strategies for recruiting and managing a senior leadership team 🔥 Tips for balancing personal productivity, accountability, and mental health as a leader

Emerge is hosting The HE Edtech top 40 - the emerging companies you should know about.. Make sure to attend it on June 27.

✂ 🔊 Cut the noise! The 2024 Higher Education Edtech top 40 - the emerging companies you should know about. 🎓 This is an open meeting for Higher Education senior professionals. It is part of the annual series of the Jisc / Emerge Edtech Advisory Board chaired by Mary Curnock Cook. 💻 Online event: Thursday 27th July 2024, 4.30 pm–5:30 pm PM, BST 📝 Note: This meeting is requested each year by the Jisc / Emerge HE advisory board members. Our board members tell us that keeping up to date with the best-emerging companies in edtech for HE is both hard to do and confusing. This agenda is a first step to helping solve this by each year publishing a crowd-sourced list of the top 40 emerging companies you should all be aware of. #edtech #highereducation #startups #vc #top40 #event