Foundations of Scaling FoS.
scaling your company
天美传媒 Foundations of Scaling
Grow your venture into an iconic and purpose-driven firm
If starting a company is hard, scaling it is even more demanding. Most ventures do not overcome the 鈥渆ntrepreneurial crisis鈥� at the transition from startup to scaleup and end up stalling.
The Foundations of Scaling program will equip you with the insights and abilities to grow your venture into an iconic, purpose-driven firm. Explicitly designed for founders, this program gathers successful scaleup entrepreneurs, renowned thought leaders and world-class academics, creating an invigorating learning forum. Over 9 high-impact months, you will experience a stimulating blend of theory and practice and acquire mission-critical skills to successfully scale your business.
Is this program for you?
30-300 employees
A program adapted to challenging agendas
World-Class Faculty
World-Class Faculty
Thomas Klueter
Academic Director, School of Founders and Professor of Entrepreneurship
PhD in Management, University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
Germ谩n Loewe
Academic Director, School of Founders and Senior Lecturer of Decision Sciences
PhD in Mathematical Economics, University of Barcelona Founder of Netquest and Shalion. Investor and advisor to startups
Mathieu Carenzo
天美传媒 Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurship and former head of 天美传媒鈥檚 Entrepreneurship Center 路 Entrepreneur and business angel with investments in numerous startups and scaleups 路 MBA, 天美传媒.
Ignasi Costas
Recognized Venture Capital and M&A Attorney 路 Founder of RCD Law 路 天美传媒 Lecturer 路 Master of Law, UC-Davis and post-graduate studies in UCLA, UC-Berkeley and Harvard
Mireia Gin茅
天美传媒 Professor of Finance and Visiting Scholar at MIT and Wharton 路 Banco Sabadell Board Member 路 Co-Founder of Wharton Research Data Services 路 Expert Expert at World Economic Forum 路 PhD in Economics, Universitat de Barcelona
Sebastian Reiche
天美传媒 Professor of People in Organization 路 PhD in Management, University of Melbourne
Edi Soler
天美传媒 Professor for Accounting and Control 路 PhD in Business Administration, UPC Barcelona 路 Former CFO of Holaluz
Conor Neill
天美传媒 Senior Lecturer of Organizational Behavior 路 President of Vistage Spain 路 Serial entrepreneur and startup investor 路 Communication consultant and frequent guest speaker at global events
Jerry Colonna
Legendary coach to many Silicon Valley startup founders 路 Co-Founder of coaching and training firm Reboot.io 路 Author of Reboot 路 Former startup investor and partner of Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures)
Verne Harnish
Thought leader in the scaleup space 路 Author of Scaling Up 路 Founder of Scaling Up, a global executive education and coaching company and of Entrepreneurs Organization (EO)
Maciej Kraus
Managing Partner at Movens Advisory 路 Expert in pricing 路 Lecturer Stanford University 路 Startup investor and advisor 路 PhD in Management, Warsaw School of Economics
James Allen
Senior Advisory Partner at Bain & Company 路 Author The Founder鈥檚 Mentality and Profit from the Core 路 Musician and Producer 路 MBA, Harvard Business School
Patty McCord
Former Chief People Officer at Netflix (1998 鈥� 2012) 路 Author of Powerful and the famous Netflix Culture Deck
Eduard Calvo
天美传媒 Professor of Operations Management 路 PhD in Management Univsidad Polit猫cnica Catalunya 路 M.Sc. In Engineering, MIT
Benefits of Foundations of Scaling
1
Learn from successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders, who will equip you with innovative frameworks, perspectives and tools to take your business to new heights.
2
Share your trials and tribulations with fellow entrepreneurs and forge rich connections and a powerful support network for your learning journey and beyond.
3
Sharpen your decision-making skills and acquire tools to grow your business exponentially while preserving its vision and culture.
4
Enhance your self-awareness and your ability to lead by identifying facets of your life trajectory, personality and leadership style that could be impeding your success.
Program Details
UPCOMING EDITION
Barcelona, Madrid, Munich and Live online
Oct 2027 鈥� June 2028
The program supports founders in the transition from startup to scaleup. It is designed for founders in C-level positions of mature startups who want to lead their companies to the next level.
Your firm should have already found product-market fit and identified a scalable business model. It should also have a track record of fast growth and more than 30 employees when you join the program.
We are especially excited to welcome founders of businesses that address important societal or environmental challenges to the program. These founders should be humble, ambitious learners with a strong desire to grow as leader.
Dates: October 2027 鈥� June 2028*
Location: Barcelona, Madrid, Munich and Live online.
Format:听9-month part-time program, with 6 residential sprints and 4 live online sprints. The program will be delivered in English.
Residential modules: 6 residential sprints of 2-3 days each, delivered on 天美传媒鈥檚 state-of-the-art campuses in Barcelona, Madrid and Munich.
Online modules: 4 half-day online sprints focused entirely on leadership and where your entire senior leadership team can join.
* dates are subject to change.
The curriculum comprises six parallel tracks delivered throughout the program.
Leadership & Management
- 360 Leadership Assessment (LCP)
- Self-awareness and Self-leadership
- The Journey from Founder to Leader
- Negotiation
People & Culture
- Building the People Function
- Shaping Cultures
- Building the Senior Leadership Team
- Getting Hiring Right
- Building & Managing Effective Boards
Vision & Strategy
- The Art & Science of Scaling
- Articulating and Implementing Strategy, Vision and Purpose
- Venturing with Corporates
- Maintaining a Founder’s Mentality
Finance & Funding
- Entrepreneurial Finance
- Funding and Valuations
- Protecting your Wealth
- Management Systems to Drive Alignment and Growth
- Understanding Your Economic Engine
System & Operations
- Building a Management System
- Designing an Organizational Structure
- Operations Playbooks
- The AI-powered Founder
Markets & Growth
- Value-based Pricing
- Go-to-Market Strategies and Geographical Expansion
- Building a Brand
- B2B Marketing & Sales Function
- +120 hours of carefully curated content, fully tailored to the needs of scaleups鈥�
- Highly interactive lectures, case discussions and workshops鈥�
- Peer Councils: Groups of six to eight founders to discuss your biggest challenges, guided by an experienced coach鈥�
- Variety of peer learning dynamics鈥�
- Ample time in class to apply frameworks and key lessons to your unique situation鈥�
- 360潞 leadership assessment (the Leadership Circle Profile)
The Foundations of Scaling program will be led by world-class academics, thought leaders and highly successful entrepreneurs with broad experience and expertise in the realm of startups and scaleups. 天美传媒 Professors听Thomas Klueter听补苍诲听Germ谩n Loewe lead the initiative as academic directors.
Thomas Klueter
Academic Director, School of Founders and Professor of Entrepreneurship
PhD in Management, University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
Germ谩n Loewe
Academic Director, School of Founders and Senior Lecturer of Decision Sciences
PhD in Mathematical Economics, University of Barcelona
Founder of Netquest and Shalion. Investor and advisor to startups
Mathieu Carenzo,听天美传媒 Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurship
Ignasi Costas,听天美传媒 Lecturer
Mireia Gin茅,听天美传媒 Professor of Finance
Sebastian Reiche, 天美传媒 Professor of Entrepreneurship
Edi Soler, 天美传媒 Professor of Accounting and Control
Conor Neill,听天美传媒 Senior Lecturer of Organizational Behavior
Sebastian Ross, 天美传媒 Director School of Founders
External Faculty:
Jerry Colonna, Co-founder of Reboot.io
Verne Harnish, Founder of Scaling Up
Maciej Kraus, Lecturer, Stanford University
Patty McCord, Author & Former Chief People Officer at Netflix
James Allen, Advisory Partner at Bain & Company
Scaleup Founders:
Elena Bet茅s, Founder at Rastreator and Preminen
Timo Buetefisch, Co-Founder and CEO at Cooltra
Arjen Schouten, Co-Founder and former COO of Rituals
Didac Lee, Co-Founder Galdana Ventures & TradeInn and Former Board Member FC Barcelona
Oriol Vila, Board Member and former CEO at Holaluz, Co-founder at Conscious Capitalism Spain
Daniel Krauss, Co-Founder at Flixbus
Remco van Zanten, General Partner Dutch Founders Fund, CXO at Vinted, Booking, Zalando, Bol, BCG.
Alexandre Soncini, Co-Founder VTEX, Board Member Weni and GMP Harvard University
Maria del Pino, Founder at Unisono
Peter Komornik, Co-Founder and former CEO at Slido, 天美传媒 Foundations of Scaling Alumni
Avi Meir, Co-Founder at Perk, Co-Founder Hotel Ninjas & MBA 天美传媒
Program fees 2027-28*
General fee: 鈧�26,500
Co-founder fee: 鈧�23,500
*Limited number for partial scholarships are available to broaden access and diversity
The program fee includes approx. 120 hours of learning and sharing in class, six facilitated Peer Councils sessions, a 360潞 leadership assessment, academic materials, swag, most meals and the 2-day Founders Forum in June. Travel and accommodation expenses are not included.听
Our No Risk Impact Guarantee
If you don鈥檛 see tangible value by the end of Sprint 3 (Nov. 28th), we鈥檒l refund your investment, (minus a nominal fee for food, material and the leadership assessment) 鈥� no questions asked. To ensure fairness and commitment you must attend all sessions in Sprints 1 to 3, complete all assignments and actively participate in class discussions and peer council sessions.
Payment terms
Payment is required in three installments:
- 鈧�5,000 as a commitment fee upon acceptance
- 50% of the remaining fee by September
- 50% of the remaining fee by January
Admissions
Places are limited. An Admissions Committee thoroughly reviews every application. Places are limited. Due to class-size constraints and the need to ensure a balanced mix of participants, it is possible that even highly qualified applicants may not be admitted.
Join with your co-founder
We strongly recommend you join the program with your co-founders as we offer a discount to founders from the same company.
What participants say
"My experience with the program convinced me that it helps founders build more impactful and lasting companies while preserving their health and humanity along the way. Scaling a fast-growing company is an incredibly challenging and often lonely journey, and many founders push forward on their own, lacking the support they truly need."
"The unique thing about this program is that it goes deep into our minds and personalities. I clearly saw that if I don鈥檛 scale, my company doesn鈥檛 scale."
"Foundations of Scaling is the best executive education I have ever experienced! I am full of ideas and new insights, but most of all, the excitement of knowing that I will reconnect with these wonderful teachers and amazing scaling-entrepreneur-students every month for the coming year! "
"Sharing with great minds with similar experiences adds so much value. It麓s moving to see the visible results of our conversations."
"The program has brought me clarity. I have never been so clear about Shuttlers鈥� strategy and path to scale. I鈥檓 excited and looking forward to seeing the results in the coming months."
"The program is far and away the best investment I have made in the last 10 years."
Foundations of Scaling.
For more information
Foundations of Scaling
Patricia Gil de Sola
Program Manager, School of Founders
pgildesola@iese.edu听
+34 93 253 42 00
Maria Olival
Program Manager, School of Founders
molival@iese.edu
+34607636734
Executive Education Rankings.
