Natalie was approached in late 2019 to become the Business Mentor for the Coventry & Warwickshire cohort of the Creative Scale Up Programme, a £1.3 million 2-year programme funded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Aimed to help creative businesses in the West Midlands with targeted business support across a wide variety of areas, Natalie is working with her cohort businesses to help them grow, invest and build their teams’ skills by connecting them to a series of workshops, seminars and peer to peer mentoring sessions.
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM COHORT MEMBERS:
“Natalie has been my primary port of call on the WMCA Scale-Up programme. As leader of the first cohort, she has been everything from a font of wisdom to a sympathetic ear, and she’s known that all such things are equally helpful when changing and growing a business. She’s made herself available, been open-minded, thoughtful, encouraging and helpful, and I’ve appreciated every exchange. I can say with conviction that without her I wouldn’t have made it this far. She has my eternal gratitude, and I can’t recommend her strongly enough.”
Luke Richards, CEO, Black Cat Entertainment
“Natalie was an amazing mentor during my time on the WMCA Scale Up Programme. She really helped us to reflect on our business challenges and facilitated some great discussions within the cohort. Natalie was always incredibly supportive throughout and most of all made the cohort sessions great fun. Our group really bonded and that is down to the great leadership and mentorship we received during the programme!”
Helen Routledge, CEO, Totem Learning
“I met Natalie while attending the Creative Scale-Up Programmer organised by the Combined Authority. I was in the Coventry cohort and she was our mentor. I found working with her throughout the programme very enjoyable. She is knowledgeable, approachable and found her really helpful. We had great conversations about running teams, managing and planning work and finding our corporate voices. I also had a coaching session with her about a product we are working on and her insights provided value for us to see a path for turning the idea into a product. I am looking forward to working with her in the future.”
Csaba Berenyi, Managing Director, Sponge Hammer