ScaleUp Radio with John Readman: Focus, Data and Building a Business That Can Scale

Show notes

In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, host Kevin Brent is joined by John Readman, founder of ASK BOSCO and Modo25, to explore what it really takes to turn a big idea into a focused, scalable business.

John's journey offers a particularly useful lesson for founders: sometimes scaling isn't about doing more. It's about narrowing your focus.

ASK BOSCO was created to tackle a problem familiar to many e-commerce businesses. Marketing teams can see return on ad spend, finance teams can see profitability, and platforms such as Google, Meta and TikTok all report their own versions of performance. But those numbers don't necessarily add up to a clear answer to the question that really matters:

Where should we spend our next pound to generate the most profit?

ASK BOSCO brings those disparate sources together, de-duplicates the data and helps businesses connect marketing activity with commercial performance.

But the technology is only part of John's ScaleUp story.

One of the standout moments in our conversation is John's account of being told that ASK BOSCO's original strategy was simply too broad. Rather than defending the original plan, the team listened, narrowed its focus and rebuilt the proposition around the Shopify ecosystem.

That decision created a much clearer route to market and helped underpin a £4.1 million investment from Gresham House Ventures.

The standout message

Focus can be a growth strategy.

The temptation when building an ambitious business is to serve more markets, add more features and pursue more opportunities. John's experience suggests the opposite can sometimes create far greater value: choose the market where you can win, remove friction and execute relentlessly.

We also explore the people and culture behind the businesses.

John talks about creating a high-performance environment based on trust, transparency and accountability. That includes a four-day working week on full-time pay, measuring people on outputs rather than hours, monthly visibility of KPIs and even creating a deliberate "not-to-do" list.

There's an interesting influence from military discipline too: punctuality, clear processes, teamwork and people knowing what's expected of them.

In this episode, we discuss:

Why marketing ROAS and actual business profitability can tell very different stories
How ASK BOSCO creates a clearer view of marketing performance
Why linking product profitability to individual campaigns matters
The decision to pivot from a broad analytics proposition to a Shopify-first strategy
Why external advice can be invaluable when it challenges your assumptions
Raising £4.1 million in venture capital and what investors bring beyond money
Building a scalable SaaS model through the Shopify ecosystem
Why human onboarding and support can be a competitive advantage in an increasingly AI-driven market
Using a four-day week to focus on outputs rather than inputs
Creating a "not-to-do" list to protect strategic focus
Using a small number of annual "Big Rocks" to create alignment
How transparency, discipline and trust shape company culture
John's longer-term ambition for ASK BOSCO

The one key thing...

Scaling often means having the confidence to choose less.

ASK BOSCO became more investable and potentially more scalable when the team stopped trying to solve the problem for everybody and committed to a clearly defined ecosystem.

For founders facing dozens of apparently good opportunities, John's story is a reminder that the question isn't simply "What could we do?"

It's "What should we deliberately choose not to do so we can execute the things that matter?"

From more, to less, to done

Most founders I speak to feel busy but frustrated. Plenty is happening, but they're not moving forward at the rate they want to.

Often that's because success creates more options, pulling founders and their teams in different directions.

More than 500 interviews on ScaleUp Radio have reinforced something important: the founders who scale choose less, and deliver all of it.

That's what the G90 Summit is for.

It's a structured half-day where we cut through everything competing for your attention, agree the three to five things that must happen in the next 90 days, and build the rhythm to make sure they do.

From the frustration and chaos of more, through the discipline of less, to the rhythm of done.

Quarterly. Virtual. £97 a seat.

Smart90.co.uk/summit

Listen to the full episode to hear John's ScaleUp journey and the lessons he's learned from building, focusing, funding and leading growing businesses.

Intro Script

Hi there and welcome back to another edition of ScaleUp Radio, the podcast brought to you by Smart90, inspired by the Entrepreneurial ScaleUp System and designed to make navigating our ScaleUp journeys that little bit easier by learning from others' experiences. I’m Kevin Brent and in today's episode I’m joined by John Readman, founder of ASK BOSCO and Modo25.

There's a great lesson in John's story about the power of focus. ASK BOSCO started with a huge ambition, but it was narrowing the proposition to Shopify that helped unlock a scalable route to market and £4.1 million of investment.

We also talk about linking marketing spend to actual profit, four-day working weeks, human support in an AI world, and why every growing business might need a "not-to-do" list.

Before we get into it, most founders I speak to feel busy but frustrated. Plenty happening, but frustrated that they are not moving forward at the rate they want to. Success creates more options, pulling them and their teams in different directions.

Here's what more than 500 interviews on this show have taught me: the founders who scale choose less, and deliver all of it.

That's what the G90 Summit is for. A structured half-day where we cut through everything competing for your attention, agree the three to five things that must happen in the next 90 days, and build the rhythm to make sure they do.

From the frustration and chaos of more, through the discipline of less, to the rhythm of done. Quarterly, virtual, £97 a seat. Smart90.co.uk/summit.

Make sure you don’t miss any future episodes by subscribing to ScaleUp Radio wherever you like to listen to your podcasts - and why not give us a follow. You can also nominate a guest for ScaleUp Radio if you know someone with an interesting ScaleUp story – you can find how in the shownotes.

For now, continue listening for the full discussion with John.

Main Episode Post – LinkedIn + Instagram

Could doing less actually help your business scale faster?

That's one of the big lessons from my latest ScaleUp Radio conversation with John Readman, founder of ASK BOSCO and Modo25.

ASK BOSCO tackles a problem many e-commerce businesses will recognise: Google, Meta and other platforms give you plenty of marketing data, but can you confidently connect what you're spending to the profit you're actually making?

John's ScaleUp journey goes much further than the technology.

A few things stood out for me:

🎯 Strategy: ASK BOSCO started broad. Advice that the strategy was simply "too big" prompted a Shopify-first pivot, creating a much clearer and more scalable route to market.

💷 Profit: The important question isn't just your return on ad spend. It's where your next pound should go to generate maximum profit.

👥 Leadership: John has built around trust and outputs, including a four-day working week on full-time pay.

🛑 Focus: The team created a "not-to-do" list. Sometimes Business Strategy is as much about consciously deciding what you won't pursue as choosing what you will.

That feels particularly relevant to 90-Day Planning.

Success creates options. Options create distraction. And distraction creates drift.

John's story is a useful example of what can happen when you choose less and execute it properly.

🎧 Listen to the full episode of ScaleUp Radio: [EPISODE LINK]

#ScaleUpRadio #Smart90 #StopTheDrift #G90Summit #BusinessStrategy #LeadershipDevelopment #90DayPlanning #Ecommerce

BizSmart Comment

A great ScaleUp Radio conversation about the value of focus, particularly when growth creates more opportunities than a business can sensibly pursue. Well worth a listen for SME leaders navigating their next stage of growth.

Smart90 Comment

The "not-to-do" list really stands out here. Strong 90-day planning isn't about squeezing more into the quarter. It's about agreeing what matters most, then creating the rhythm to get it done. A valuable ScaleUp Radio episode.

ScaleUp Radio LinkedIn Business Page Post

New on ScaleUp Radio: John Readman, founder of ASK BOSCO and Modo25.

This episode explores the Shopify-first pivot behind ASK BOSCO, raising £4.1 million in investment, connecting marketing spend with actual profitability, and building a high-performance culture around trust and a four-day working week.

John also discusses strategic focus, the company's "not-to-do" list and the role of human support as AI becomes increasingly widespread.

Listen to the full episode and explore the ScaleUp Radio archive: [ARCHIVE LINK]

ScaleUp Radio John Readman - August 20

VIEW RECORDING - 60 mins (No highlights)

Meeting Purpose

Interview John Readman on scaling ASK BOSCO and Modo25.

Key Takeaways

Topics

The Problem: Marketing Data Silos

The Solution: ASK BOSCO

The Pivot: From Generalist to Shopify-First

The Funding & Vision