In this exclusive ScaleUp Club session, Kevin Brent sits down with Dr Mark Kotter, the visionary neurosurgeon and founder of Bit Bio, a revolutionary deep tech company transforming how we produce human cells at scale.

Bit Bio has raised over £250 million, and what started as academic frustration with the limits of regenerative medicine has become a game-changing platform for industrial-scale cell production. But it hasn't been an easy ride.

From a near-collapse caused by co-founder misalignment to pioneering an intensive, values-driven hiring process, Mark shares a raw and honest look at what it takes to scale a company at the edge of biotech innovation.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Explicit Alignment Is Crucial: Co-founder misalignment nearly destroyed the company. Mark remortgaged his house to buy them out — and rebuilt with clear purpose and cultural values at the core.
• Fundraising Is a Full-Time Role: To scale such a novel tech, Mark handed off the science to a CSO and focused entirely on securing capital — over £250M to date.
• Hire People Smarter Than You: By sourcing key hires from VC due diligence teams and investing in deep expertise, Bit Bio gained the credibility and capability needed to scale.
• De-Risk Through Automation: Building biology, manufacturing, and QC processes from scratch is risky — automation and miniaturisation helped deliver £250M/year capacity from just 300m².

💡 The One Key Thing:

If your team's alignment isn't crystal clear — it's a ticking time bomb.

Quick heads-up — we're looking for a handful of founders to test our new AI-powered Smart90 Lite app. It's built to help you stay accountable and actually deliver on your goals — in just a few minutes a day. It's free while we're in testing, and your feedback will directly shape the final version. You can get access by emailing [email protected].

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

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Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!

Drawing on BizSmart's own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brent explores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.

More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/

Mark can be found here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-kotter/

https://www.bit.bio/