Upscale CEO & Co-Founder Dominic Gamble and Co-founder & CTO Ben Backx recently joined fellow founders and portfolio companies at the 5I Ventures Annual Portfolio Workshop in Singapore. The three-day programme brought together companies from across the portfolio to exchange ideas, hear from experienced speakers and discuss some of the opportunities and challenges that come with building and scaling technology businesses.
The value of a founder community
Building a growing technology company means constantly balancing immediate priorities with longer-term decisions. Products need to evolve, clients need to be supported, teams grow and new markets bring new requirements.As a business develops, the questions facing its founders evolve too. Portfolio gatherings like the 5I Ventures Annual Workshop create space to consider those questions from a different perspective. While companies across the portfolio may operate in very different sectors, many of the challenges associated with growth.
From hiring and product development to enterprise sales, organisational design and international expansion are shared. Bringing founders and operators together creates an opportunity to exchange practical experience around those challenges, including what has worked, what has not and what others have learned along the way.
A valuable moment for Upscale
The workshop came at an important stage in Upscale’s own development.The business has evolved from its original focus on content engagement technology into a broader AI-powered engagement and transformation partner for wealth and asset management. Today, our work spans a core technology platform, strategic advisory and tailored solutions designed around the specific workflows and requirements of financial institutions.
At the same time, Upscale is working with a growing international client base, bringing new opportunities as well as new considerations around how we scale. As we expand into new markets, we are continually thinking about how to maintain deep industry specialisation while growing internationally, how to scale enterprise delivery without losing agility, and how our technology should evolve as AI changes what financial institutions expect from their technology partners. Spending three days with other founders and operators provided a valuable setting to exchange perspectives on many of these questions and bring new thinking back into the business.
More than capital
The workshop was also a reminder of the wider role a strong investor can play in a company’s development. Capital is one part of that relationship, but access to other founders, experienced operators, new perspectives and a wider network can be equally valuable as a business grows.5I Ventures has been a strong partner throughout the Upscale journey, and the Annual Portfolio Workshop provided another opportunity to deepen those relationships and learn from the wider portfolio community. Thank you to 5I Ventures for bringing everyone together, and to Dieter Schlosser, Lars Godzik, Dominic Pfisterer and Kevin Chang, alongside the speakers and fellow portfolio companies who contributed to the three days. As Upscale continues to grow, opportunities to exchange experiences with other founders and learn from the wider 5I community remain an important part of the journey.
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