Silicon Valley

10 May 2025 - 1 June 2025
San Francisco and San Mateo
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Objectives of the mission
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In this third iteration of our Silicon Valley programme, the cohort selection criteria has a SaaS focus to ensure maximum value for participants attending the SaaStr conference. The agenda also contained networking events, Q&A sessions with relevant VCs and Founders, and a founder showcase to raise the profile of Techscaler and the participating companies in Silicon Valley.

Agenda

12 May: Cohort Welcome Workshop
13 - 15 May: SaaStr AI Conference (San Mateo)
16 May: Cohort Q&A with DC Calahane, VC Partner at Sure Valley Ventures
20 May: Networking event at Mindspace with WITR 
21 May: Cohort Q&A with Gregor Dodson, Head of Product Management at YouTube Music
29 May: Cohort Q&A with Tom Charman, VC Partner, 3x exited founder and angel investor
29 May: Techscaler Scottish Founders Showcase

Invitation, Application and Eligibility Process

Invitation Process
‍- Existing Techscaler members at early stage, or growth stage were invited by email to fill out an application form. This was done based on information held in our CRM on company stage. We also shared the opportunity with Techscaler partners to promote to their networks.
- A total of 1,148 contacts were invited to apply, 74 applications were received.

Eligibility and Criteria
‍Essential Criteria:
- Techscaler membership
- Being a founder / co-founder
- No permanent team or office currently in USA
- Availability for pre-departure workshop
- Availability for all trip dates
- Being a SaaS business
- Product in market and generative revenue over £1,000 a month Individual was not a participant in previous Silicon Valley Cohorts

Assessment and Review 
- Applicants who match all essential criteria were reviewed by the CodeBase team and representatives from Scottish Enterprise. They were assessed based on a combination of their application answers and wider information held by Techscaler in their curation/mentorship notes.
- As with previous cohorts of TSV, affirmative action was taken to ensure cohort diversity of gender and region, with a small number of founders selected who did not meet all the essential criteria. This included assessing applications of:
Women that have SaaS business AND revenue generating BUT under £1k a month revenue
Women that have SaaS business BUT are not revenue generating (might be the case for some m edtech/deeptech/AI businesses that are earlierstage and have a longer R&D journey)
Members highlighted by Heads of Regional Engagement as particularly relevant
- The shortlist was shared with Scottish Enterprise & Scottish Development International before final confirmation of the cohort.

Attending Businesses

- LingoTeach (Future Perfect Languages Ltd)
- Pure Purpose Ltd
- ThermaFY Eco Solutions Ltd
- Fyne Labs (Apptrix Ltd)
- WITR Networks Ltd
- MarktoMarket Valuations Ltd
- LumiAIres Ltd
- Tethered App Ltd
- ePass Ltd
- Dance-Sing Ltd
- Practest Ltd
- Energy Mutual Ltd
- NeuroCreate Ltd

In numbers:
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- Participants attending: 13
- CodeBase colleagues attending: 3
- NPS 77 - based on 13 participants completing a survey within 1 week post-trip
- Average costs per flight: £898.33
- Average cost per hotel room per night: £179.37

Testimonials
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Feedback survey completed by 13 participants within 1 week-post trip, with 11 providing testimonials. Further details on specific feedback will be included here in due course. 

‍“The Techscaler Silicon Valley programme gave us unparalleled access to the world’s leading tech ecosystem, in a flexible format to suit your business needs. The network effect, approach to fundraising and insights into scaling were game-changers. I’d highly recommend it to any Scotland-based founder ready to think bigger.” - James Buchan, ePass

“I would highly recommend the Silicon Valley Techscaler programme to any tech founder. The ability to cost effectively base ourselves in the epicentre of tech business for 3 weeks, meet other tech founders, funders and potential customers was hugely valuable.” - Graeme Kerr, Tethered

“If you can’t build a business in San Francisco, you might want to rethink what you’re doing”. To support this quote, the attitude towards good ideas, good business and good teams is unparalleled - everything is a “yes” until it’s a “no”, rather than the other way round like the UK. Also, everyone is willing to reach into their own networks to help you out - without hesitation. " Craig Somerville, WITR

“If you get the opportunity to take part, go for it!  It will introduce you to a fast paced, risk taking, can do attitude, which will have a positive impact on everything you do going forward.  There are events to attend every day, with the chance to meet other founders, VC's and suppliers.  By the time you get back you will have a new network of supporters in the other cohort members.  A true team building experience.” - Alison Lang, Pure Purpose

“An incredible opportunity to connect with founders and investors with the tireless support of Techscaler.  Could not recommend it enough to other founders.” - Doug Lawson, Mark to Market

"One of the first real challenges for an early-stage founder is finding the right market. Everyone tells you to look for the burning need, but few will tell you that those needs aren’t evenly distributed across the world. For LumiAIres, building photonic silicon chips for sustainable AI, Silicon Valley is that place. What’s hard to explain in Europe, people there just get it.The validation, awareness, and connections we gained through the programme have been game-changing. I’d say this to any founder: product–market fit is about people, timing, and culture. Find the environment where your idea clicks, then build the bridge back to scale and make an international impact." - Giulia Marcucci, LumiAIres
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“The Techscaler Silicon Valley programme was genuinely transformative for us. We arrived with no US clients we now have contracts signed, a clear strategy to scale in the US, and an invaluable network of connections. The energy of being in Silicon Valley, learning from both peers and mentors, and seeing first-hand how business is done at pace was inspiring. I would absolutely recommend this to other Scotland-based founders it gives you both the focus and the tools to think bigger and move faster." - Natalie Garry, DanceSing
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"Spending 3 weeks in perhaps the most inspiring tech ecosystem in the world alongside some of Scotland's most innovative and ambitious founders was an incredible experience. It's given me a new perspective on where we can take our business and the confidence to succeed.In addition to the tremendous buzz you get from being around so many start-ups and technical people, it's also a great opportunity to see the level of talent that we have in this country and learn from others in a similar position. Quite simply, if you have a technology company in Scotland, you should apply!" - Sam Gray, Energy Mutual

“I definitely recommend this programme!” - LingoTeach
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“The Techscaler Silicon Valley programme is an opportunity of a lifetime - if you're thinking about it, stop and just get the application in! I got to broaden my horizons, dream bigger, and get a taste of the Californian lifestyle, which has made me want to setup a US entity as well.” - Shama Rahman, NeuroCreate

“I would highly recommend going to Silicon Valley to anyone who is considering entering the US market. The trip is transformational and pushes you to look beyond your own backyard giving a much more global perspective.” - Sacha Wright, Practest

Lessons Learned‍

Increased pre-trip prep unlocks impact: pre-trip workshops and meetups built a solid foundation for the cohort, but the ecosystem is still vast and complex to navigate. In future, trips can take this a step further, engaging more previous participants and ecosystem insiders to share best practice on getting the most out of events and opportunities.

Prioritise showcase events: an end-of-programme showcase cemented learnings and connections from throughout the programmes and gave the opportunity to showcase Scottish talent. Prioritising organisation of this event as early as possible would allow participants to engage industry contacts early, boosting and diversifying the audience in a competitive events landscape.

Mentors deepen meaning: 1:1 mentor sessions, and group Q&As with industry insiders enhance the trip, allowing participants to soundboard and apply learnings on the fly. Introducing more of this support will ensure all participants get flexible access to mentoring while in Silicon Valley. 

Understanding fundraising routes: having a clear fundraising roadmap maximises time, ensures best connections, and gives focus in a vast landscape. Stress-testing these roadmaps with experts who understand the US investor landscape prior to departure will enhance impact. 

Quality over quantity counts in events: curated, smaller interactions offer more value, with 1:1 mentoring sessions, Q&As with Tom Charman and DC Calahane, and informal dinners and meetups cited as where “real learning and connections happened”. Ensuring these are a key part of structured content is vital.  

Silicon Valley Autumn ‘24

24 August 2024 - 14 September 2024
San Francisco and San Mateo
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Objectives of the mission
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In this second iteration of our Silicon Valley programme, we developed the itinerary to include attendance at the prestigious SasStr conference.

Agenda

25 August - 10 September: Cohort in San Francisco
Participants get first-hand experience living and working in San Francisco, a renowned ecosystem for tech startups. With pop-up office space, staff support and access to a host of events and opportunities to connect with local investors, incubators, partners, and founders, participants immerse in the local ecosystem - with a self-driven focus on what suits their business needs best. 

10 - 14 September: Cohort in San Mateo 
The cohort moved to the San Mateo region, in close proximity to SaaStr Conference and fringe events, continuing to immerse in Silicon Valley and further build connections and networks.

10 - 12 September: SaaStr Conference (San Mateo) 
SaaStr is the world’s #1 SaaS Gathering. Across 3 days, the conference features talks, workshops, networking - with the ambition of helping founders scale faster. Attendance allowed participants to pick up on sector trends, learn from other founders, and connect with investors.  

Invitation, Application and Eligibility Process

Invitation Process
- New and existing Techscaler members that were at a suitability stage for ‘First Steps’ (early stage) or ‘Next Steps’ (growth stage) education programmes were invited by email to apply. This was done based on information held in our CRM on company stage. We also shared the opportunity with partners to promote to their networks. Due to election time limitations, there was no social media campaign run, no live webpage on the Techscaler website, and no press release.
- 578 Techscaler members were invited; 69 applied

Eligibility and Criteria
‍Essential Criteria:
- Techscaler membership
- Being a founder / co-founder
- Software as a Service business
- Have a product in market generating revenue over £1,000 a month
- Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of no more than half a million pounds (GBP) a year
- No team or office currently in USA
- Availability for pre-departure workshop on August 14th
- Availability for full duration of the trip
- Did not participate in the Silicon Valley pilot programme

Assessment and Review
- The application panel consisted of CodeBase team members, who reviewed all applications that met essential requirements, and all applications that missed only 1 essential criteria.
- Once the initial sift was complete, in order to ensure a suitable gender and geographical spread of participants, applications that met less of the essential criteria were also reviewed and a small number of participants from this pool were selected for the final cohort.

Attending Businesses

- Neve Learning Ltd
- LiberEat Ltd
- Bypass (ionEV Ltd)
- Nirst Ltd
- Viamki (Bustinza Ltd)
- Podplistic Ltd / Songplistic Ltd
- Niovant Ltd
- Rethink Carbon Ltd
- Coursensu Ltd
- Tax Torch Ltd*
- RAVEN (Corvus Dynamic Ltd)
- The Nursery Story Ltd
- Use Neuron Ltd


In numbers:
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- Participants attending: 13
- CodeBase colleagues attending: 6
- NPS 90 - based on 10 participants completing a survey 6-months post-trip
- Average costs per flight: £1014.97
- Average cost per hotel room per night: £211.03

Testimonials
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Feedback survey completed by 10 participants during a 6-month post-trip review, with 6 providing testimonials. Further details on specific feedback will be included here in due course.
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‍“San Francisco is the home of founder energy, it's ready when you are set to grow into the US and beyond. Time it right and enjoy the catapult.” Matt Jenner, Coursensu

"From spending solid time with fellow ambitious founders, to having my mind blown on how big the opportunities are for technology was incredible. I had a full mindset shift on the trip from expanding my thinking about market sizes, learning more about alternative options for funding and also learning the American way of doing things. Whether it's speed networking, making and sharing connections or the sheer size of every industry. Since the trip, I have quit my original start up, launched a new business and began building a new product that has a global market. I can't express in words how much this trip changed my trajectory. From local ambition to global ambition in 3 weeks. Incredible." Nicole Christie, Alvah/Tax Torch Ltd.

"The mindset shift you experience in Silicon Valley is without comparison. The optimism, ambition and focus is something to behold.  Everyone should go, feel the place, breath the air, start conversations and let your excitement grow as possibilities and ideas pop into your brain like dominoes toppling - one idea triggers the next in a chain of unstoppable motion.” Mark Caulfield, Rethink Carbon Limited

“The experience was absolutely life and business changing. [...] We learnt a lot about the investment landscape and what is needed if we want to raise, have changed how we work internally, started pivoting our product and offerings delivered talks on AI to local businesses, and shifted (+ increased) our ambitions; as well as understanding and recognising how to better accommodate undiagnosed neurodivergence.”  - Sam Forsberg,  Corvus Dynamic

“100% Recommend going for the trip. There is such a value speaking with like minded individuals, being immersed in the environment and draw inspiration for your own business. It is completely business altering trip.” Inese Pritchard, Nirst Ltd.

“The program was hugely beneficial for us and directly led to us raising investment from the US, as well as being an invaluable learning experience.” Barry Leaper, Libereat

Lessons Learned‍

Clearer recruitment processes improve access and diversity: the structured application form and aligned criteria (SaaS focus, product in market, ARR limits) produced a high-quality, balanced cohort with good gender and geographic representation. 

‍Peer support is as valuable as ecosystem exposure: founders consistently highlighted that being “on our own together” gave them courage, accountability, and solidarity when navigating the Valley’s intensity.

‍Direct founder-to-founder exchanges work best: unstructured demos, informal dinners, and group chats often created more learning and connections than formal sessions, helping founders sharpen pitches and rethink strategy.

‍Targeted ecosystem access adds credibility: highlights like Finbarr Taylor’s fireside chat and Mixpanel event provided authentic exposure to Valley growth practices and opened doors for ongoing collaboration.

‍Conferences add impact: having a shared common space builds a great foundation for participants, but more time post-conference to build on connections and explore learnings would be beneficial.

Silicon Valley Winter ‘24
Pilot Programme

5 February - 29 February 2024
San Francisco
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Objectives of the mission

This was a pilot programme to test our thesis: that semi-structured extended time in market is most beneficial for tech founders. In this pilot programme, we focused on providing popup office space and staff support for founders; who were free to create their own agenda from personal networks and local ecosystem events. We provided accommodation and flights to remove barriers to participation, and founders were able to attend for between one - four weeks depending on the needs of their business.

‍Agenda

5 - 29 February 2024: Cohort in San Francisco
- Coworking at Mindspace San Francisco
- On the doorstep of local ecosystem events and meetups

Invitation, Application and Eligibility Process
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Invitation Process:
- As a pilot programme, this was delivered on an invite-only basis to enable an agile test and learn approach. 
- An outreach list of suitable participants was created, led by CodeBase, based on the high level criteria below, ensuring regional spread across Scotland and gender diversity.
- 1-1 contact was made with identified candidates to discuss the opportunity. 
- Not all initial invitees accepted; additional spaces were filled via further network outreach, following the same process as above.

Eligibility and Criteria
‍- Techscaler membership
- High level criteria agreed internally, with a focus on participants with a suitable mindset and business credibility, and availability to participate in the planned timeframe.

Assessment and Review
Assessment was undertaken prior to invitation based on the high level criteria noted above; with an outreach list created by the CodeBase team. Those who responded positively to the invitation were accepted onto the programme.

Attending Businesses
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- Portday (previously known as Playmaker Software Ltd)
- Unbaggaged Ltd
- Krucial (r3 Iot Ltd)
- National Support Network  CIC / Reeka
- Present Pal (Estendio Ltd)
- Notation Software Ltd
- Tavora Ltd (Prev. YourSpin Ltd)
- Valla LtdInfix Support Ltd
- Lovat Compliance Ltd
- Seeker.Jobs Ltd (previously known as RefermyJobs)- Seeker.Jobs Ltd
- eCERTO Ltd

In numbers:
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- Participants attending: 12
- CodeBase colleagues attending: 2 
- Average costs per flight : £923.84
- Average cost per hotel room per night:  $196.35 USD

Testimonials
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‍“It was great to meet with potential investors to gauge interest, and better understand what they would be looking for and any potential blockers for investment so I could feed back to the team and enable us to get ready for later rounds of investment.” - Linda Grant, Valla

“I've always wanted to go Global with Seeker but being typically British I somewhat bottled that up as A. I didn't know how to and B. I was being modest.

When I spoke with founders in the Bay Area I realised I was actually in a far stronger position than them and the only thing missing was investment. Majority of them raised $200-$300k just by having a good idea - investors saw the potential in them and the startup so invested. Founders use that money for a salary and to build the MVP. Once built then they would raise their $1M seed round to ONBOARD their first customers. This completely blew my mind and made me see the startup journey as it is.

Equally US founders found it incredible that I had bootstrapped to MVP, tested, reiterated and at that time was starting to onboard customers. Their actual words was "you're building a startup with both arms tied behind your back". More UK founders need to know this.  - Richie Wan, Seeker

Lessons Learned‍

‍Cohort effect is powerful: founders benefited from travelling together, holding each other accountable, and building peer networks in a loosely-structured environment; the “Scotland rolls deep” effect created momentum and visibility.

‍Local engagement matters: founders actively contributed to the San Francisco ecosystem by giving talks and networking - building credibility and connections beyond only meetings.
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Programme design needs balance: four weeks was intense, with signs of burnout; future trips should consider optimal length, pacing, and some structured content, alongside founder-led activity.

Selection focus is key: a curated cohort spanning stages enhanced participant experience; future trips require refined application processes with criteria that ensures diversity, ensuring openness but maximising impact.

‍Marketing and storytelling are under-leveraged: capturing founder voices (talking heads, podcasts, written stories) would help share the Silicon Valley mindset with the wider community, and strengthen recognition of the programme’s value.