Framing Scotland's Entrepreneurial Economy

How can Scotland better support founders at every stage?
Scotland has built a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem, but the next stage of growth needs sharper focus.

In this report, Richard Lennox sets out a practical framework for improving how founder support is commissioned, delivered and evaluated across Scotland. The report argues for a more coherent model: one that aligns capital access, customer and market access, and operator-led support with the real stages of company growth.

Download the report to explore how Scotland can move from fragmented activity to stage-aligned support that helps more companies survive, grow and scale from here.

About the author

Richard Lennox, Interim COO at CodeBase

Richard Lennox has spent more than two decades building successful startups and scaleups in Scotland, including two of Scotland’s most successful technology companies in Skyscanner and Current Health. He has operated at every stage of the journey this paper describes, from the early years of a durable small business at SK Chase to the growth and scale of companies that competed globally.

He joined CodeBase as interim Chief Operating Officer and Director in April 2026, where he leads the organisation, including the delivery of the Techscaler programme on behalf of the Scottish Government. This paper reflects his personal practitioner perspective, informed by that experience and by CodeBase’s decade-long vantage point at the centre of Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

About CodeBase

Experienced Ecosystem Programme Operator

CodeBase has delivered support for Scotland’s technology startups for over a decade. It has operated Techscaler since 2022, along with other scale programmes coveringthe UK, including LawTech UK for the UK Ministry of Justice, and elements of BarclaysEagle Labs. That experience is the source of many of the practitioner observations inthis paper, and it is also the source of the conflict of interest declared at the outset. Both are true simultaneously, and the reader should weigh them accordingly.

CodeBase is evolving. Our operator-led model, the stage-aligned framework, and the integration of capital access into the support architecture are the direction of travel for our business regardless of how the policy conversation develops.

"Founders do not need generic advice, they need people around them who understand their market, their customers, and their technology."

Richard Lennox, Interim COO at CodeBase

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