Sustainable, continuous growth above 20% per year: this is the scale-up business model that many companies seek to achieve, as it demonstrates the company’s success and how it positively impacts society.

But, despite being an object of desire, the scalable business model is an immense challenge for any company – especially Brazilian ones. Whether due to high bureaucracy, lack of qualified labor and difficulties in the commercial area, scaling a business is not easy.

Therefore, if you want to understand what it is, what its characteristics are, the challenges to be faced and, above all, the successful cases of scale-up, keep reading the special article we prepared on the subject. Good reading!

What is a scale-up?

The scale-up business model has well-defined characteristics that differentiate startup companies belonging to the segment. The companies that belong to the segment are in a phase of accelerated growth and full development.

In addition to accelerated growth, successful scale-ups also impact society in some way. After all, it’s no use growing quickly if evolution doesn’t positively affect people’s lives.

And that requirement can be seen in numbers. Some surveys indicate that the scale-up business model, in Brazil alone, represents 0.5% of the total number of companies in the country. However, as its impact is large, the total number of vacancies generated by the group reach almost 2 million.

What are the characteristics of scale-up and steps to scale?

Now that we have briefly discussed what a scale-up is, let’s understand the characteristics of this concept. For this, it is necessary to understand that the scalable business model must have:

● Growth of at least 20% in the year;

● Three consecutive years of growth at the rate shown above;

● At least 10 employees in the first year of activity;

● Sustainable evolution, as growth cannot be generated by pent-up demand or seasonal effect.

Thus, we see that the criteria for classifying a company as scale-up are extremely strict, which makes access to the select group very restricted, but equally valuable.

Challenges and steps to scale

Before we tackle the top 3 examples of successful scale-ups, it is essential to emphasize that business scale is quite a challenge. Therefore, we will understand, below, what are the main challenges, and also the steps to achieve, to be a successful scale-up.

Qualified team

It is very difficult to find a successful company without a competent team. As much as this can happen, we understand it to be something situational, that is, it will not be sustained for a long time.

Therefore, the great challenge of the scale-up business model is to hire highly competent professionals, ready to face the market and create intelligent solutions to achieve full growth.

marketing and sales

These two challenges go hand in hand, and are one of the major problems for corporations that do not achieve high growth. Creating a marketing and sales machine is still an object desired by most businesses in Brazil.

And the lack of quality is reflected in the low commercial performance of companies, which are susceptible to fluctuations in the economy, in addition to any other factor that causes the least turbulence in the market.

Access to credit and regulatory barriers

The lack of money is also a big challenge in Brazil, although it is not the biggest one. In addition to scarce resources, we also have many regulatory barriers that hinder the life of the entrepreneur and, consequently, the company.

Thus, seeking money to facilitate cash flow, create working capital or simply invest is one of the barriers that need to be overcome to achieve scalability. When these issues are resolved, there will possibly be more companies growing steadily and healthily.

Technology

Finally, we have technology as an immense challenge for companies in the country. With the shortage of skilled labor, many businesses cannot achieve the necessary strength to evolve, as T.I. is an extremely important topic for today’s business.

Although there are solutions in IT outsourcing. to reduce this difficulty, it is necessary to be aware that the challenge of technology will become increasingly complex. Thus, the entrepreneur needs to prepare to overcome this barrier if he wants to achieve growth.

3 examples of successful scale-ups and their main product

Now that we understand what the scale-up business model is, its characteristics and its challenges, let’s get to know 3 examples of successful scale-ups to inspire and show that it is possible to achieve this status. Check out:

1. ContaAzul

The platform for business management, mostly SMEs, is one of the best examples of scale-up in Brazil. With accelerated growth, in revenue, employees and in its market, ContaAzul is fully committed to information technology to thrive.

2. Movidesk

The company from the south of the country offers a platform focused on customer service, help desk and service desk, which helps partner organizations to provide the best support for their customers. With this proposal, and its excellent service, it has become one of the most promising technological businesses in Brazil.

3. Feedz

Our last example also relies on information technology to offer a complete engagement platform for employees. This platform helps in the evolution of corporate HR through one-on-one meeting records, employee happiness and commitment to work, among other points.

Thus, with such an impactful and powerful solution, Feedz is also standing out as a large Brazilian scale-up.

Technology as a means of growth

Despite the I.T. not being the main reason for the growth towards the scale-up model, it has a large participation in the exponential evolution of these businesses. So any organization that aims for strong and sustainable growth in the coming years will need to use technology as a means to achieve that goal.

And we can see this in the 3 examples of Brazilian scale-ups, where they all bet on technology to grow in a vertical and promising way.

Therefore, it is necessary to circumvent the difficulties that technology presents today, such as the lack of qualified labor — or even the shortage of professionals of any competence.

Knowing this, LogAp is the ideal partner to help with this mission, as it offers the technology services that can prevent your company from scaling. Whether for the creation of customized systems, custom software, system maintenance or consulting for the development team, we are fully able to help.

Want to know more? Get in touch with our team of experts and bring your challenge. It will be a pleasure to help your company to become a successful scale-up.

Read too:

● Cybersecurity for Business: 5 Tips to Stay Protected and Avoid Real Threats

● Open and closed innovation: concept, differences and benefits of each model