Tech startup focused business school launches in the UK

Workspace provider Central Working has today launched The Central Working Academy, a business school designed specifically with tech startups in mind, offering guidance around scaling strategies and other factors such as talent acquisition and seeking investment.

The programme, headed up by former Twilio managing director James Parton, will be based at Cambridge Science Park and run on behalf of Trinity College Cambridge as a pilot for a potential nationwide rollout of the initiative.

The programme's pilot will provide senior teams behind established, high growth startups with data-driven, long term scaling strategies - a resource normally only available to the largest mature businesses.

The programme is being launched in partnership with Cartezia, specialists in growth and will take each startup on a case-by-case basis and analyse them and diagnose each company's current maturity, assessing factors such as current tech development, access to funding and customer profiling.

From there, businesses will be given data-driven and personalised guidance on the best way for that specific business to grow over a subsequent 12 month period.

The program itself lasts for six weeks during which time students will be matched with mentors and coaches who, over the course of several intensive sessions, will provide a 12-month roadmap and access to a collaboration platform that will be available to them for 12 months following the course's cessation.

"The Central Working Academy heralds the next generation of intervention support, providing a programme rooted in research and experience and powered by an advanced data-driven online platform," said James Parton, managing director of Central Working's Bradford Centre. "Central Working has always provided a nurturing environment for business growth and this is the next iteration of our offer, guiding management teams towards the specific actions they need to take to scale at a rapid rate."

"The Academy integrates a data-driven platform, experienced coaches and mentors, and structured access to scale-up eco-systems," said Uday Phadke, chief executive of Cartezia. "The effectiveness of the Scale-up Academy depends on working with a strategic partner who can provide the right environment and access to the local ecosystem including potential partners, suppliers and investors, and Cartezia is delighted to work with Central Working to achieve this."

The programme is now open to the leadership teams of any growth company and the deadline for applications is 15th February.