Plexal’s Growth Partnership service is helping UK leaders rapidly unlock the peak potential of their companies through tailored one-to-one guidance. Our delivery team of Growth Partners achieve this by working shoulder-to-shoulder with ambitious founders nationwide as an extension of their existing staff.
Our Growth Partners are experts in helping ventures grow, refine strategy and access new opportunities. They’re equipped with backgrounds including entrepreneurship, sales and business development through to venture capital and corporate innovation. In practice, they’re uniquely assigned to the startups, SMEs or scaleups that their individual expertise is best suited to ensure absolute alignment to organisational objectives.
And through Growth Partnership, participating companies benefit from our Growth Partners’ access to additional innovation resources generated by the 80 plus members of Plexal’s wider consultancy team.
In recent months, we’ve delivered Growth Clinics in London, Manchester and Cheltenham, which provided leaders an opportunity to sit down and consider what’s next, as we provided fresh perspective with an external point of view towards a clearer direction.
Emma Marshall, Senior Growth Partner, explains: “We’ve seen a common theme through Growth Partnership: founders and CEOs are spinning multiple plates. With so many competing priorities – product development, refining sales processes, building partnerships and planning fundraising there’s rarely time to pause, reflect, strategise and execute. This constant focus on the day-to-day often leads to fragmented strategies that aren’t anchored to the company’s overarching growth objectives.
“We’ve observed that this lack of clarity can stall progress. Leaders struggle to identify the root causes of growth challenges, whether that’s gaps in the sales qualification process, missed opportunities for partnerships or uncertainty around the right timing for investment. When everything feels urgent, it’s hard to focus on what’s truly important.”
With so many working relationships blossoming between our Growth Partners and SMEs alike, we felt now was a good time to spotlight each individual and why they’re excited about delivering our service with forward-thinking leaders.
Lisa Perkins, CPO and Director of Growth Partnership
About me:
I work with companies that require senior-level direction, while supporting the team on the specifics of each engagement. Part of my role is to bring together the right expertise from across Plexal and ensure our Growth Partners are fully equipped to drive meaningful, sustained impact for every business we collaborate with.
As an accomplished FTSE 100 Director, I’ve led visionary, expert teams to deliver significant results in the technology and innovation industry, forging partnerships with multinational tech organisations and the UK Government. This includes the launch of BT Group’s Superfast Broadband and the transformation of BT’s R&I, driving an innovation portfolio ensuring over £500m a year in revenue.
Emma Marshall, Senior Growth Partner
About me:
As a member of Growth Partnership’s leadership team, I act as an embedded growth lead for founders, drawing on experience from delivering national accelerator programmes, leading corporate partnerships with organisations and supporting startups and scaleups across highly regulated and complex markets.
I’ve supported startups and scaleups across fintech, cyber security, digital infrastructure, mobility, critical national infrastructure, retail, heritage and arts sectors. I work directly with leadership teams on the decisions that matter most – shaping growth strategy, securing commercial partnerships, building investor readiness and navigating procurement and regulation.
Mina Begum, Growth Partner
About me:
I understand founders are juggling product, customers, teams, fundraising and day-to-day tasks, which makes it hard to step back and see what’s blocking growth. Often the challenge isn’t a lack of effort or ambition but minimal opportunity for fresh, external perspective that’s still grounded in commercial reality.
As a Growth Partner, I work alongside founders to bring clear, experienced, outside-in thinking to pressure-test your assumptions and ask the uncomfortable questions to help teams focus on the challenges that’ll move the needle. Whether it’s refining pricing, narrowing customer focus, designing a go-to-market approach or preparing for investment, the goal is always practical progress – not theory.
Giulia Sale, Growth Partner
About me:
As a Growth Partner, I’ve seen first-hand how much difference a fractional external expert can make. Founders and leaders often get caught in the loop of firefighting, from operations to team management. Through Growth Partnership, I’ve helped incredible people and businesses step back, refocus and unlock meaningful growth.
We know that the UK is extremely competitive, which is why our support is necessary for the survival of SMEs and scaleups. I’m especially passionate about bringing more mission-led businesses into this journey, so we can improve quality of life across the UK, not just for business owners, but for their end users.
Alex Munday, Growth Partner
About me:
As a Growth Partner at Plexal, I work with early stage and scaling companies to design and execute clear, commercially-grounded growth strategies. I support founders across market positioning, go-to-market design, pricing and investor readiness, helping to translate complex products into compelling, actionable commercial narratives.
My experience spans cyber security, digital health, emerging technologies and agricultural technology with a background in commercial strategy and sales. I previously worked as a founder, having built and launched my own business end-to-end, giving me first-hand insight into the realities of product development, customer acquisition and scaling. I’m particularly focused on helping technically strong teams develop strategies to unlock sustainable growth with clarity, confidence and momentum.
Why you should choose Growth Partnership
Plexal has an extensive background of supporting startups, scaleups and SMEs across government and industry-backed programmes, helping them accomplish their goals. Each day, we leverage that knowledge for Growth Partnership, rolling up our sleeves to remove barriers faced by SME partners to bring their future into focus.
Our Growth Partners have been hand-selected for their knowledge and ability to embed directly within the companies they support. Working closely with founders and teams, they identify the most effective interventions for growth and collaborate as part of the company to deliver against the agreed strategy and create positive outcomes for our businesses.
