Our methodology starts with a simple observation: the companies that scale fastest do not necessarily have the best idea, the most advanced technology, the strongest management team or the most capital. They scale because they are organised around problems that matter in the industrial value chains — to nations, industries, capital and research.
Why should a system developer of value chains or major industrial customer choose you as a long-term strategic partner — and what makes that choice difficult to reverse?
We identify where strategic need meets technological opportunity, then mobilise the structures, partnerships, competence, capital and market access required to turn that opportunity into scalable commercial value.
Every innovation system is built on one of two underlying logics. Norway's system — like most of the West's — is supply-driven. The countries that scale industrial technology fastest, from Israel to Sweden to China, are demand-driven.
The Norwegian innovation eco-system is well-funded and well-intentioned, but too often organised around helping entrepreneurs and companies develop ideas in the hope of eventually finding a paying customer. Scaling requires a different logic: start with a problem that already matters to industry, capital and society, and mobilise entrepreneurs, technology, research and resources around solving it. That is the gap Scaling Lab exists to close.
A decade of fieldwork across four economies that sit at very different points on the supply/demand axis.
Deep capital markets, a strong university system and a culture of risk drive a highly effective supply-driven model for digital, scalable technology — with one striking exception: US defence innovation, which is almost entirely demand-driven.
National and provincial plans define which value chains to build. State enterprises, infrastructure spending and selective market-opening mobilise entrepreneurs and capital around those chains — with competition intensifying only once a chain matures.
The Yozma programme replaced idea-support with problem-support: the state co-invests in venture funds without taking a return, giving investors double the upside and half the downside — while industry and defence define the problems worth solving.
Long-term, competent industrial owners — the Wallenberg sphere among them — work in close, trust-based coordination with the state on major technology programmes, from automation to defence.
A technology company does not scale simply by selling more technology. It scales when it has a clear answer to three questions: What business are we really? Where should we play in the value chain — strategic position and role? How do we create and realise equity value, and when? We call this the "equity story" — the strategic blueprint connecting value creation, strategic position and role in the industrial complex, capital, growth and exit. It is the starting point for every Scaling Lab engagement.
We map the industrial system to find where the real margin — and the real power — actually sits. Then we determine where the company can build the strongest position to capture value, defend its advantage over time and scale.
What business are we really? And how do we build it accordingly? The value configuration a company chooses shapes how it develops — and the valuation it can command.
We identify the strategic position the company should take within the industrial system, and the role it should play to become an indispensable part of it. This means understanding where the company creates unique value, who needs that value, what role it should own, and how it can build a position that is both scalable and defensible.
Build the company into a scaled industrial business? Create strategic value for an industry player? Build an investable platform for financial investors? Scale toward public-market value creation? How should the company be built, and toward what outcome — drawing on frameworks such as the 24 steps of disciplined entrepreneurship. Bottom-up analysis then tests, challenges and validates the assumptions behind the equity story: the technology, economics, market, value chain, competitive position and scaling requirements. Only when the underlying case stands up to scrutiny do we take the equity story to investors, industrial partners and the market.
We identify and engage the system partners the company needs to execute its strategy, and help position the company to become a long-term strategic partner to system developers, industrial players and major customers. We prepare the company for the industrial dialogue — sharpening the proposition, defining the negotiation position, and preparing management for presentations, discussions and negotiations with potential partners and customers. We also support the transaction and contracting process, from initial LOIs and MoUs through SPAs, SHAs, strategic partnerships and other transaction structures — ensuring that commercial, strategic and equity interests remain aligned.
Drawn from our white paper on Norwegian industrial policy — the same principles we apply inside every portfolio company.
Shift the centre of gravity from funding ideas to solving defined, strategic problems.
Choose a small number of sectors where a global top-3 position is realistic, and align research, education and capital behind them.
The state's role is to share risk with private capital — not to pick winners or make commercial decisions itself.
Big companies should act as anchors for external innovation — formulating needs, not just optimising existing operations.
Fewer, larger programmes with a clear line from research through piloting to scale — not dozens of fragmented schemes.
A small, technocratic, non-politicised function to set direction and coordinate mission-oriented programmes over time.
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