The B2B Growth Blueprint

How Can Founder-Led Companies Break Through Growth Plateaus with Alexis Sikorsky

Alexis Sikorsky · January 27, 2026

Entrepreneur · Author · Executive Coach · Leadership · Financein

Interview with Alexis Sikorsky

How Can Founder-Led Companies Break Through Growth Plateaus with Alexis Sikorsky

Podcast: The B2B Growth Blueprint

January 27, 2026 · 39 min

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How Can Founder-Led Companies Break Through Growth Plateaus with Alexis Sikorsky

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The B2B Growth Blueprint

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Key topicsThe real test of a scale-ready business is whether the founder can disappearA lot of founders say they have a strong team until they imagine leaving for ten days with no phone, no laptop and no internet. That simple test exposes whether the company has real systems or is still running on memory, loyalty and constant founder intervention. Alexis uses this pressure point to show why informal ways of working are normal in the early years, but dangerous once a founder-led business is trying to move through the £5M–£20M stage. Listeners will hear how to spot the gaps in process, decision-making and accountability before those gaps become the reason growth stalls. The best private equity exits are engineered long before a buyer appears Founders often wait until they are ready to sell before asking whether the business is actually sellable, which usually means the weakest parts of the company are exposed when leverage matters most. Alexis learned this firsthand while building and selling New Access through a staged nine-figure private equity exit, where boardroom reality looked very different from the simple exit advice founders often hear online. Through his Cashing Out work and APeX methodology, he shows founders how to Assess the business, Plan the value-improvement work, Execute the operational fixes and prepare for eXit before a buyer is in the room. For £5M–£20M founders, this conversation turns exit planning from a distant ambition into a practical operating discipline. Why £10M companies need C-suite thinking before they can afford C-suite hiresFounders around the £5M–£20M mark often reach a point where the business needs senior finance, operations and commercial discipline, but cannot yet justify a full-time C-suite team. The default is usually to keep too many decisions with the founder, which adds pressure, slows execution and leaves the business exposed when growth becomes more complex. Through Knightscale Partners, Alexis brings experienced senior operators into founder-led companies for focused three-to-six-month interventions, helping them fix gaps, build systems and develop the right internal capability. For founders stuck between hustle and professional management, this conversation shows how to add C-suite thinking before making expensive senior hires. View all topics →

About Alexis Sikorsky

#1 International Bestselling Author and Special Advisor to Founders of £5M–£20M Businesses, Founder Bottleneck and Private Equity Exit Strategist

$100M+ Private equity exit500+ Employees scaled at New Access#1 International bestselling author£5M–£20M Founder businesses advised by revenue

Alexis Sikorsky is a #1 international bestselling author and Special Advisor to founders of privately held £5M–£20M businesses. Through Knightscale Partners, he helps founder-led companies break through the Five Million Plateau, remove founder dependency, build the senior operating layer they are missing, and prepare for scale, recapitalisation or private equity exit.

He moved into this work after founding, scaling and selling New Access, a Switzerland-based private banking software company, through a staged nine-figure private equity exit. That experience showed him the gap between generic online advice and what actually happens in boardrooms when founders are preparing for liquidity, negotiating with investors, or realising the business cannot keep scaling while every major decision still runs through them.

Today, Alexis works with founders at the point where the habits that built the company start to limit the company. A founder can be the biggest asset in the early years, but around the £5M–£20M stage, they can become the bottleneck if the business still relies on their memory, energy, relationships and constant intervention. At Knightscale Partners, Alexis works alongside co-founder Topher Morrison and a roster of experienced senior operators to give founder-led businesses access to the C-suite thinking they need before they are ready to hire a full-time executive team.

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About this episode

Ever feel like your business hit a ceiling—and no matter how hard you grind, it won't budge? In this episode,Alexis Sikorskybreaks down the real reasons founder-led companies stall around the $5M–$10M mark. He shares how he scaled New Access, survived the 2008 crash, and eventually reached a $100M+ exit. You'll hear why "more ideas" isn't the problem—lack of clarity is. And you'll leave with a simple way to assess what to fix first, so growth becomes engineered instead of chaotic.

Quotes:

Don't confuse what's urgent with what's important.

If it's more than that, then you don't have a company, you have a job.

You never lie a dollar about the past, because they will find it.

You have no idea what people will tell you if you buy them a beer.

The sum total of my mistakes cost me 5 years and 50 million.

Takeaways:

The $5M–$10M plateau usually hits when founder fatigue, too much "in the business" work, and missing leadership all collide.

Breaking through starts with assessment—knowing your numbers, your gaps, and your true opportunities.

Upgrading from doers to C-level leaders isn't about talent alone—it's matching the right role to the right level of expertise.

Private equity isn't "dumb money"—they often know exactly what value they can unlock those founders can't see yet.

Strategy beats shiny objects: the question isn't which 3 of 10 ideas to do, it's what problem you're solving first.

Conclusion:

If you've been grinding for years and the next level still feels out of reach, this episode is your wake-up call. Alexis shows that plateaus aren't a mystery—they're predictable, and that's good news. When you know your numbers, upgrade leadership, and stop treating strategy like a luxury, momentum returns fast. Instead of chasing ten "smart" moves, you focus on the one core constraint holding the business back. That's how you stop running like a headless chicken—and start building a company that can scale and exit on your terms.

Links Mentioned:

Website: https://www.asikorsky.com/

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/alexis-sikorsky-consulting

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexissikorsky/

Guest: Alexis Sikorsky