Startups are born to fail. Around three quarters of venture capital backed new companies never return cash to investors. Upscale is about the other 25%. `I feel like I woke up one morning to find I have a board, investors and 80 people to manage - and I don't have a clue how to do it.' Asi Sharabi, co-founder, Wonderbly At a time when more people than ever are starting companies in Britain - over 2,000 new businesses are launched every day - Upscale focuses on the moment founders floor the accelerator and their company goes from a bunch of friends in a co-working space to hundreds of employees often scattered around the world. Speaking to some of the UK's leading technology entrepreneurs and investors - including Brent Hoberman (lastminute.com, Founders Factory), Wendy Tan White (BGF, Moonfruit), Neil Rimer (Index Ventures), Suranga Chandratillake (Balderton Capital), Saul Klein (LocalGlobe), and Sarah Wood (Unruly) - who between them have built or backed companies worth billions, journalist James Silver covers the most pressing, practical and often painful issues founders face: from coping with stress to getting shot of a bad hire, to handling a tricky board member and opening a first overseas office. By founders for founders, and those toying with starting a business, Upscale (based on the Tech Nation programme of the same name) avoids the theorizing and platitudes of typical business books, in favour of hard-headed advice from those who've succeeded - and the mistakes to look out for along the way.

Startups are born to fail. Around three quarters of venture capital backed new companies never return cash to investors. Upscale is about the other 25%. `I feel like I woke up one morning to find I have a board, investors and 80 people to manage - and I don't have a clue how to do it.' Asi Sharabi, co-founder, Wonderbly At a time when more people than ever are starting companies in Britain - over 2,000 new businesses are launched every day - Upscale focuses on the moment founders floor the accelerator and their company goes from a bunch of friends in a co-working space to hundreds of employees often scattered around the world. Speaking to some of the UK's leading technology entrepreneurs and investors - including Brent Hoberman (lastminute.com, Founders Factory), Wendy Tan White (BGF, Moonfruit), Neil Rimer (Index Ventures), Suranga Chandratillake (Balderton Capital), Saul Klein (LocalGlobe), and Sarah Wood (Unruly) - who between them have built or backed companies worth billions, journalist James Silver covers the most pressing, practical and often painful issues founders face: from coping with stress to getting shot of a bad hire, to handling a tricky board member and opening a first overseas office. By founders for founders, and those toying with starting a business, Upscale (based on the Tech Nation programme of the same name) avoids the theorizing and platitudes of typical business books, in favour of hard-headed advice from those who've succeeded - and the mistakes to look out for along the way.