One of the most significant growth chapters of my career began not with a new product or funding round, but with stepping into a scaling SaaS business at exactly the right moment in its evolution.
When I joined Hicomply as a fractional CRO, the company had already achieved what many early-stage businesses struggle to reach: strong product-market fit, seven-digit ARR, and a growing client base in a large, underserved market.
The ambition was clear. What needed sharpening was the engine that would carry that ambition forward.
Like many scaling SaaS businesses, Hicomply’s early growth had been highly founder-led. Ed (Barlett); our CEO at the time, was deeply involved across investor relations, marketing, sales, and customer success.
That level of involvement isn’t unusual and is often what drives early traction – research from leading go-to-market (GTM) and talent partner for fast-scaling B2B tech companies, ScaleWise, suggests that around 50 per cent of Series A CEOs still directly lead go-to-market.
But as complexity increases, the business benefits from clearer ownership and a more structured commercial model.
Timing mattered. Hicomply didn’t have the luxury of a long hiring cycle, so they took a fractional route and sought support from ScaleWise, who identified different fractional options for them – and fortunately, I proved to be the right fit for the role.
From there, everything moved very quickly, and the time between the first conversation with Hicomply and me being in the seat was around three weeks.
Coming in on a fractional basis allowed me to focus immediately on diagnosing the revenue engine.
Within the first few weeks, it was clear that demand generation and sales execution needed greater alignment.
Marketing was working hard, but pipeline creation lacked consistency. Account executives were spending too much time qualifying opportunities that should have been filtered earlier. The result wasn’t a lack of effort but friction in the system.
We restructured the go-to-market function with clearer accountability. Marketing focused on demand generation and early pipeline development. Qualification criteria were tightened. Account executives were freed up to concentrate on progressing well-defined opportunities and closing higher-quality deals.
Alongside this, we refined our ideal customer profile and brought more rigour to pipeline management.
The results came quickly. Within weeks, Hicomply delivered its strongest month of new sales in 18 months, and we began securing higher-value customers on longer-term contracts.
That momentum proved pivotal as the company entered its next funding round. Investors look for evidence of repeatability and efficiency as much as growth.
Demonstrating a more scalable GTM engine materially strengthened our position and supported a successful raise.
The move from fractional CRO to full-time CEO wasn’t the original objective. It evolved naturally as the business gathered pace.
As the commercial function stabilised and performance accelerated, the board and Ed agreed that separating operational leadership from board-level oversight would give the company greater capacity for the next chapter.
Ed transitioned into a board role, maintaining continuity and strategic input, while I stepped into the CEO position full-time.
What changed for me was perspective. As CRO, my focus was revenue performance. As CEO, the lens widened to product direction, capital allocation, talent density, and long-term positioning in a vast compliance market.
The commercial engine remains central, but it now sits within a broader leadership remit. Moreover, I was able to draw on my past experiences as a CEO, non-executive director, and chair, in PE and VC-backed SaaS companies to align revenue generation with the revised long term strategy.
This experience reminded me of something I’d felt before but hadn’t seen so clearly: scaling isn’t about throwing out what got you here. It’s about making sure the way you run the business catches up with the pace you’re trying to grow at.
When that clicks into place, progress becomes a lot more repeatable, and the next stage starts to feel possible.