Helping scaleups access the right talent, expertise, and skills to grow.

Recently recognised by the ScaleUp Institute as one of its Ones to Watch, Digital Boost is helping founders and teams upskill for scale. Owned by Founders4Schools (F4S), it is the UK’s largest free mentoring and skills platform supporting small and scaleup businesses to strengthen the leadership, digital and operational capabilities needed for growth. Through a network of more than ,000 volunteer experts and a community of 30,000 businesses, the platform provides free, flexible access to one-to-one mentoring, peer learning and masterclasses designed to address barriers around talent, skills and leadership. Its mission is to harness technology and community to make personalised business support scalable and inclusive, removing financial and geographic barriers so every founder can access the expertise required to reach their full potential.

Digital Boost offers founders and their teams access to experienced mentors providing guidance in areas such as strategy, marketing, digital transformation and talent management. Mentoring requests are typically fulfilled within 72 hours, and quality is monitored in real time. Alongside mentoring, the platform delivers a comprehensive programme of virtual masterclasses and peer learning sessions, with nearly 500 events and 36,000 participants since 2023. Structured initiatives such as BEGIN (for aspiring female founders, delivered with Buy Women Built and NatWest Group), Jumpstart (digital marketing with BT) and AI Essentials (supported by Google.org) enable founders to develop practical, immediately applicable skills to accelerate business growth.

The programme serves small and scaling businesses across all sectors of the UK economy, with an inclusive user base that is 64% female, 46% from ethnic minority backgrounds, and 74% based outside London. It works closely with partners such as Buy Women Built and NatWest Accelerator, while its “white label” functionality allows local councils and Growth Hubs to deliver tailored versions of the platform for regional business communities. Corporate partners including BT, EY, Mastercard, Visa, and Bloomberg ensure the platform remains free and sustainable.

Since its inception, Digital Boost has delivered over 180,000 hours of live support and created more than 28,000 mentoring connections, engaging 2,000+ founders in peer learning programmes. Independent evaluation by Sixty Decibels shows that 81% of participants increased their confidence, 80% gained new skills, 74% improved their digital capability, and 67% reported higher productivity. Its personalised, data-driven approach ensures founders receive targeted support that strengthens leadership capacity, workforce skills and growth readiness. The platform maintains an exceptional Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 74.

The ScaleUp Institute will continue to monitor the programme’s development and its contribution to improving access to talent and skills, watching closely to see how its evolution delivers practical results for founders and leaders across the UK’s scaling business community.

Digital Boost website