Turn high growth into scalable value.

For leaders of B2B information, media and events businesses who are intentional about building a valuable business.

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Scaleup

A business’s true value is determined by the quality of its earnings, the strength of its market position, and the depth of its management – not just its revenue. 

  • We need to grow faster, but we’re so heads down in the business we can’t focus on it
  • Revenue is moving, but it feels like we’re spreading ourselves too thin to make it count
  • Every key decision still runs through me. I can’t get above the day-to-day
  • We’re performing well, but we’re not sure what great looks like. 

Scaleup Advisory identifies where enterprise value is being lost and focuses your next phase on the moves that matter most. 

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What our clients achieve

Faster results, greater certainty – Collingwood removes the guesswork.

 

  • A more predictable and profitable business
  • A defensible market position
  • Motivated teams aligned around a shared value creation goal
  • Increased shareholder value.

 

Our excellent scale-up experience was mirrored… with Collingwood's Corporate Finance team... They helped us… realize an excellent valuation. I couldn't recommend them more highly.

Rich Heidorn Jr., Co-founder, RTO Insider

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Engaging Collingwood brought a step-change to our business. We delivered our target sale-year EBITDA at least a year ahead of plan and achieved an exit multiple that exceeded all prior market expectations.

John Baskott, Co-founder, 1LOD

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Working with them helped us to quickly adapt our product set and reshape our teams. They see every challenge as an opportunity and…became part of my business.

George Rockett, Founder & CEO, Data Centre Dynamics

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Our methodology focuses on five value drivers

Value is driven by your profit and multiple. We ensure you focus on what drives both: quality of earnings, a leading market position, a differentiated value proposition, the strength of management – and fast, predictable revenue growth.
  • High Quality of Earnings (QoE)

    Predictable, resilient earnings are what buyers pay a premium for. We focus on making your revenue more defensible: improving retention, growing average order values, and reducing over-reliance on a small number of customers, products, or channels.  

    Together, we sharpen your commercial model and strengthen client success, so that more of your growth shows up as high-quality, defensible EBITDA that commands a stronger multiple.  

  • Market Leadership & Potential

    We help you move from being one of many to the recognised authority in your niche: sharpening your positioning, identifying the audiences and segments where you can win, and building the thought leadership, data, and IP that create genuine barriers to entry. The result is a business that buyers and investors see as the natural category leader in a market with room to grow.

  • Fast, Predictable Growth

    We turn momentum into growth that buyers can model. Instead of chasing every opportunity, we help you focus on the moves that will shift your revenue mix, improve retention, and grow contribution per head. We build your sales and marketing structure around the right accounts, products, and territories – stress-tested against investor benchmarks – so that growth is deliberate, repeatable, and easy to value.  

  • Professional Governance, People & Process

    As scale increases, ad-hoc decision-making becomes a drag on value – not just at exit, but right now. Better governance means better decisions, faster growth, and a more resilient business. We help you build the reporting, operating rhythms, and board structure that make your business easier to run and more valuable to own. That means reducing founder dependency, clarifying roles and accountabilities, and creating a cadence that supports better decisions – backed by data – that compound over time. The result is a business that is stronger for every stakeholder, and whatever comes next.  

  • Great Products

    Most businesses carry more product complexity than they need, and price it less confidently than they should. We work with you to focus the portfolio on what creates real value, professionalise how you manage and develop products, and tie every launch, enhancement, or retirement directly to revenue and long-term enterprise value. 

Value creation starts now

Many entrepreneurs think about selling their company as a separate activity from running and building their business, and make key strategic decisions too close to a capital event. However, it is the decisions you make 2-3 years prior, on market focus, product investments, business models, and people that have a compounding impact on value.

Why companies choose Collingwood

We are singularly focused on making your business more valuable.
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Proven track record

Collingwood has helped businesses like yours create and realise value across B2B information, media, and events. Our practical, lived experience means we understand the structural differences between business models, markets, and management teams — and adjust accordingly.
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Deep sector experience

Our advisers have worked inside businesses like yours, not just consulted from outside them. That experience is codified into a proprietary methodology focused on the operational decisions that move the needle. Not vanity metrics. Not generic strategy frameworks.
Learn how you can scale
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Investor and buyer trust

We are in constant dialogue with the buyers and investors active in this market. We know how they assess a business, where they reduce their offer, and what it takes to build a story they'll back.
Meet the team

How we work

A proven approach to building enterprise value - faster and with greater certainty.

Benchmark your business

Benchmark

The Value Creation Benchmark is Collingwood's proprietary diagnostic. It tells you where your business stands against the five value drivers that determine what it's worth, where value is being lost, and what to prioritise first - built from decades of experience in B2B information, media, and events.

Always on Value Creation

We work alongside you to develop and execute the value creation plan - not as a hand-off, but as a genuine partnership. Real accountability, consistent challenge, and the momentum to keep priorities on track even as the business around you keeps moving to ensure you consistently make high-value decisions and build the right levels of structure and governance to drive scale.

Maximise value

When the time is right, you want the people selling your business to understand it as well as you do. Because we’ve been part of the journey, we already know what makes it different, where the value lies, and what the right next chapter looks like. That knowledge doesn’t just help buyers and investors understand the business. It helps you get the outcome it deserves.
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Who you’ll work with

We’ve been in your shoes. 

Most advisers bring sector knowledge. Fewer have operated inside businesses like the one you are building. Fewer still can show you exactly how every decision you make today will be valued at exit.  

Collingwood brings all three. Our advisers have built, scaled, and sold B2B information, media, and events businesses, and understand what it takes because they’ve done it – and continue to do so.  

Pauline Coulter

Client Director

Area of expertise: B2B events, scaling, new territories, sponsorship sales

Catherine Lewis

Client Director

Area of expertise: B2B growth, digital products, data platforms, conferences, awards

Andy White

Client Director

Area of expertise: B2B event transformation, high-margin growth, trade exhibition launches, geo-cloning, portfolio scaling

Lauren Pulling

Head of Product and Projects

Area of expertise: Product development, content, production, market research

Jenefer Thoroughgood

Chief Customer Officer

Area of expertise: Information, media, and events, customer centric product development, market research, content, sales, marketing

Jordan Sheridan

Advisory Manager

Area of expertise: Market research, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, data analytics, strategy development, business planning, financial instruments

Talia Naidoo

Senior Associate Adviser

Area of expertise: Value creation, M&A, project management, data analysis, financial modelling, strategy development, corporate and project finance

Krishn Mehta

Associate Adviser

Area of expertise: Value creation, M&A, project management, data analysis, financial modelling, strategy development, corporate and project finance

Freddie Peake

Associate Adviser

Area of expertise: Data analysis, value creation, project management, financial modelling, process refinement, strategy development

Anthony Belloir

Strategic Adviser

Area of expertise: Strategic planning, B2B specialty information, B2B memberships

Richard Breeden

Strategic Adviser

Area of expertise: M&A, value creation, and digital transformation

Debra Chipman

Strategic Adviser

Area of expertise: Executive management, B2B events, media brands, strategic growth, business leadership

Jim Conybeare

Senior Adviser

Area of expertise: Governance, financial reporting, controls and corporate best practice, M&A

Victoria Davies

Strategic Adviser

Area of expertise: Strategy, growth, change, M&A

Alison Finnegan

Strategic Adviser

Area of expertise: Strategic and insight

Karen Forster

Senior Adviser

Area of expertise: Marketing strategy and transformation, data strategy, commercial lead generation, attendee growth

Susan Feigenbaum

Strategic Adviser

Area of expertise: B2B events, revenue growth and commercial leadership

Julian Graves

Co-Founder

Area of expertise: Strategy, business planning, business model & product development

Mark Lockie

Strategic Adviser

Area of expertise: Scaling through commercial optimisation, new launches, geo-cloning

Craig Lowe

Strategic Adviser

Area of expertise: Recurring revenue, subscriptions, and memberships, audience development and customer retention, growth strategy and value creation

Michelle McCann

Senior Adviser

Area of expertise: Events, digital media, information/data subscription businesses, marketing

Simon Middelboe

Strategic Adviser

Area of expertise: Sustainable revenue, profit growth, building long-term shareholder value

Rachel Montgomery-Young

Senior Adviser

Area of expertise: Strategy and insight

Garrett Schemmel

Strategic Adviser

Area of expertise: Data and information services, product strategy, subscriptions growth

Lorenza Schiaffino

Senior Adviser

Area of expertise: B2B events, Business model development, revenue growth, customer success

Korry Stagnito

Strategic Adviser

Area of expertise: B2B print and digital publishing, live and virtual events, building online communities, research, content syndication lead generation, custom marketing services

Amanda Wigginton

Senior Adviser

Area of expertise: Media, strategy and insight

John Webb

Strategic Adviser

Area of expertise: B2B media, digital marketing services, commercial transformation, audience growth, data monetisation, revenue model innovation

Jim Riesenbach

Strategic Adviser

Area of expertise: Strategy and value creation for media, marketing, and technology businesses

Questions about the Scaleup journey?

Our FAQs cover the practical questions we hear most from growth-stage information, media, and events leaders, working to maximise the value of their business.
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  • What does a typical scaleup engagement look like in practice?

    A scaleup engagement moves from diagnostic clarity to operational execution. It is designed to increase recurring revenue, improve retention, and institutionalise governance so the business scales beyond the founder. 

    We typically follow a structured cycle: Ideate, Research, Test, Plan, and Apply & Embed — ensuring strategy translates into product decisions, go-to-market execution, and organisational change. 

  • How does a typical scaleup advisory engagement work?

    A Collingwood scaleup engagement is a structured 18-36-month value-creation journey. At the core of an engagement is our Value Creation Benchmark, an in-depth appraisal that uniquely assesses the key value drivers which underpin Enterprise Value (EV). This diagnostic allows us to identify specific challenges and provides immediate clarity on what ‘great’ looks like for their specific niche.

    We then work with the CEO and leaders to create a robust value creation plan and execute an iterative Ideate, Research, Test, Plan, and Apply & Embed cycle to build products and go-to-market strategies that translate directly into higher Quality of Earnings (QoE), stronger retention, and predictable growth. If a sale or capital event is your goal, we will work with you to achieve the optimal outcome, balancing selecting the right buyer, maximising equity value, and optimising the deal structure.

  • What if my goal is to raise capital or sell within 12–36 months?

    If a capital event is on the horizon, the focus shifts to increasing Quality of Earnings, reducing volatility, and strengthening defensibility. Buyers pay premiums for quality, predictable cash flows, and low founder dependency risk. Our extensive experience means we understand what investors want and will set you up to get the most from investments.

    We align value creation initiatives with investor expectations and prepare you for financial, commercial, and operational due diligence.

Collingwood supports ambitious management teams

Collingwood works with ambitious management teams, as well as founders. Building a business that performs better – for shareholders, for the people who run it, and for everyone who works in it – is the work. A capital event, if and when it comes, is the outcome.

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Speak to an adviser who’s been where you are

Talk to a senior adviser with deep experience guiding B2B information, media, and events businesses to scale.

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