What Made.com Can Teach Us About Scaling with the Right People

When we talk about scaling a business, the conversation often centres around funding, tech stacks, and go-to-market strategies. But as Ning Li, founder of Made.com and Typology, once said:

“The biggest wins I had were always attributable to finding the right people.”

For founder-led businesses, especially those entering a high-growth phase, this isn’t just a nice sentiment — it’s a survival strategy.

The Shift from Founder to Scaler

Made.com began as a disruptive force in UK furniture retail. Ning Li’s vision was clear: make high-quality, design-led furniture more accessible by cutting out the middleman. But vision alone doesn’t scale a business, people do.

As the company grew, so did the need for operational expertise, strategic clarity, and senior leadership who could take the founder’s ideas and turn them into repeatable systems. That’s where leadership partnership became critical.

Bringing in Experience Without Losing Identity

In its scale-up phase, Made.com brought in senior leaders like Susanne Given, former COO of John Lewis, to chair the business. It was a deliberate move — not just to grow, but to grow smart.

These leadership figures helped shape the brand’s expansion into new markets and eventually led the business toward IPO. But they didn’t do it by replacing the founder’s voice. They did it by amplifying it, anchoring the company’s growth to its original purpose.

Why Senior Leaders Matter in Founder-Led Businesses

What Made.com shows us is that scaling a founder-led business isn’t about stepping aside — it’s about stepping up with the right support. The founder brings the vision, but senior leaders bring the structure, perspective, and often, the courage to challenge ideas in service of the bigger picture.

This partnership is especially vital in mid-sized businesses — where the leap from start-up to scale-up can be make or break.

From Founder's Fire to Organisational Fuel

In founder-led companies, the culture often mirrors the founder: agile, bold, creative. But that same energy needs to be translated into process if it’s going to last.

By surrounding himself with experienced operators and advisors, Ning Li ensured that Made.com could scale without losing its identity, something many fast-growing brands struggle to do.

Strategic Leaders Are the Missing Link

Whether you’re leading a product, people, or commercial function, your role in a founder-led business is more than just delivery. You are a translator, a stabiliser, and a strategic sounding board.

That’s why events like the Senior Leaders Summit exist — to bring together the people behind the founder, the ones trusted to scale the vision.

Because the truth is: Growth doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens in partnership.