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danceSing is redefining wellbeing for older adults through evidence-based music and movement programmes, blending artistry and tech to transform health outcomes. At its heart is founder and Director, Natalie Garry, whose career began on the stage with English National Ballet before evolving into a mission to enrich lives.
Since its founding, danceSing has expanded into the UK care sector, delivering digital wellness resources that reduce loneliness, improve mental health, and support care staff wellbeing. Their programmes are backed by university-led research showing measurable improvements in depression, anxiety, and physical resilience.
In 2023, Natalie joined the Techscaler International Programme, delivered by CodeBase, travelling to Silicon Valley with a cohort of fellow founders. The experience proved to be a turning point, unlocking a new growth vision and market expansion plan. Since then, the team has grown, the mission has sharpened, and danceSing has kept building momentum in the US, most recently with a three-week stretch in New York with Techscaler in June 2026.
This is a case study about a founder who turned personal passion into an evidence-backed wellbeing solution and how the right ecosystem support can accelerate global ambitions.
Natalie’s journey began in the world of professional ballet, where discipline, performance, and connection to audiences shaped her outlook. Following injury and career shifts, she discovered the power of combining movement, music, and community to improve wellbeing at any age.
Launching danceSing as in-person classes blending low-impact fitness and inclusive singing, she quickly saw its potential to scale. The pandemic forced a rapid pivot to digital delivery — and a surprising global audience of 4,000 joined during lockdown.
By the second year, danceSing had found its niche in the care sector, adapting programmes for older adults and staff while partnering with leading universities to prove their measurable health benefits.
Before Techscaler, danceSing had impact and evidence but faced questions about scale. A major Scottish Government contract had concluded, leaving a gap in both revenue certainty and growth direction.
Natalie knew the service was life-changing for residents and staff, but how to secure sustainable expansion, investment, and market reach was unclear. The US care market was attractive but untested.
Techscaler entered at exactly the right moment, offering timely, targeted support and a launchpad to reimagine what success could look like.
The Silicon Valley trip came at a decisive moment. Encouraged by CodeBase mentors, Natalie applied just before the deadline, unsure if it was the right timing. Three weeks later, she was immersed in a global tech environment that challenged assumptions, tested danceSing's proposition in a new market, and delivered its first American client before the trip had even ended.
That same instinct pulled her back to the US in 2026, when she returned with another Techscaler cohort for three weeks in New York. The city set a completely different pace to Silicon Valley. Where the Valley had pushed her to think years ahead, chasing scale and the sharpest tech, New York wanted proof of what danceSing could already do, and was ready to move on it straight away. Travelling as a Scottish cohort mattered here too, opening doors that might otherwise have stayed shut, and a panel appearance at a health and wellness event during New York Tech Week led to a run of fresh introductions in the days after.
The trip also exposed how different American business culture can be from the UK's. Natalie leaned on her Techscaler mentors to adjust her pacing and tone partway through, toning down the instinct to undersell herself, and noticed how much more seriously conversations were taken once she had.
Through Techscaler, Natalie accessed structured learning, flexible workspaces, and introductions to a powerful network, including GlobalScot connections that led directly to contracts. The programme’s design allowed founders to pursue their own market strategies while tapping into shared expertise.
For danceSing, that meant combining formal events with targeted outreach, leveraging research evidence to secure credibility with US operators. The result was five initial contracts, with several poised for significant expansion.
Across the Silicon Valley and New York trips, the underlying strategy has stayed consistent: keep UK partnerships strong while building out a dedicated US growth plan alongside them. What's changed is the scale of what's on the table. Conversations that started as early pilots are now edging toward multi-facility and network-wide agreements, a sign of a market that's matured rather than one still being tested.
It also reinforced Natalie's belief in "tech-powered, human-led" delivery, keeping human connection at the core while scaling impact globally.
Post-Techscaler, danceSing has shifted from exploring the US market to actively embedding within it. Early clients are expanding their engagement, a stateside sales director is in the works, and marketing partnerships are building brand presence. The confidence, contacts, and clarity gained have set the company on a two-year US growth trajectory while reinforcing its UK foundations.
Armed with validated market fit and a growing client base, danceSing is expanding capacity while preserving the quality and intimacy that define its programmes. Measurable health outcomes, including reduced depression, loneliness, and falls, remain central to its value proposition. In the US, pilot sites are converting to multi-facility contracts, while UK partners continue to renew and expand. The company’s research collaborations are extending into new areas like frailty monitoring, with global relevance.
That trajectory has picked up pace since the New York trip. Several senior living groups are now in the final stages of discussions about rolling danceSing out across their whole networks, and conversations with other major US organisations have moved further and faster than Natalie expected going in. The direction of travel is clear: danceSing is being taken seriously at a scale it hadn't reached before.
For Natalie, Techscaler was a reset button for focus and ambition. The experience provided space to think strategically, resources to act decisively, and a network that's kept paying off long after the first trip.
Her advice to founders chasing international growth is grounded in what she's learned firsthand. Get compliance right early, since every US state plays by different rules, and lean on a cohort like Techscaler's to help navigate it. Expect to put boots on the ground too, since American partners want to meet you in person before they'll take you seriously. And treat being from Scotland as an asset: it opens doors, and travelling as a cohort opens them faster still.
What's stayed with her most, a year on from two very different American cities, is how little the core problem changes from market to market. Ageing is the same challenge everywhere, and a product that solves it travels well, wherever that turns out to be.
danceSing's story shows what happens when evidence-based innovation meets the right ecosystem and why global markets are within reach for mission-driven startups from Scotland.
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