Home / How I Help / Start-ups & Scale-ups
For Start-ups & Scale-ups

When great start-up ideas get stuck, or scaling up stalls, I can step in.

Whether you’re a start-up finding its feet, a scale-up whose momentum has flattened, a key commercial leadership skill missing in your team and stalling growth, or a board needing a steady, experienced pair of hands through change, you need real expertise on your side now, focused on outcomes, and gone the moment the job’s done. Let me show you the way.

Zed with the London skyline, ready to step in
How I help
Senior experience by your side, advising, navigating and inspiring your success journey
Your momentum restored, focused on how to drive growth, fast
A marketing and sales engine that lands revenue, not just activity and noise
Your team motivated and aligned to perform through the change, and to own the vision
The right organisation shape for your stage of growth
A growth plan you and your team can actually execute
Independence, not dependence, me gone the moment the job’s done
Judgement from someone who’s walked the same road

Unlike a consultant who diagnoses then leaves, I work with you, take the chair, build the systems and the organisation that runs, own the outcome, then step away, free to help with your next stage.

I’ve done it before

At StepJockey, appointed CEO by investors after a difficult 12-month period of zero revenue, I took revenue from £0 to £300K in year one while restoring 67% gross margin. Across sixteen years of sector-agnostic mandates I’ve achieved 6–100% revenue growth and up to 100% profit improvement.

Client Story
In their words
“
Zed was recruited as CEO at a difficult time. He quickly re-connected the business with the market, re-examined its value proposition and built a constructive, empowered culture, combining strategic vision with real operational strength.
Dr Vivek MuthuDr Vivek Muthu · Director & Investor, StepJockey
STARTRISK-FREE.
BOOK→Grab an hour, on me. See where you are, and whether I can help. SCORE→A fast, free diagnostic, so we both know the terrain first. CONTACT→Tell me your specific challenge, and I will reply with how a 90-Day Growth Tree© can start you. BUILD→Let us scope a proposal: sprint, advisory or mandate, sized to the job.

“I collect nice people. Some become clients. All become friends.”

Common questions
Fractional or full-time CEO?
Fractional when the need is urgent or time-boxed and you want senior experience without a permanent cost.
How quickly can you start?
Usually within weeks, often days if a situation genuinely needs it.
How is it priced?
However works for you, hourly, a day rate, a monthly retainer, a flat project fee, and where it fits I’ll put my money where my mouth is with a results-based fee. All scoped to the mandate and agreed upfront. No catches, no surprises, just results.