You built brilliant tech. Growing it still runs through you. I've been there, I fixed it in my own company, and I've helped 60+ tech companies do the same - at home and offshore.
Most founders come to me at one of two points. Start where you are.
We build a sales engine that works whether or not you're in the room.
See how Grow works →We choose the right first market on evidence, then go and win in it together.
See how Go Global works →Most companies do Grow first, because a working home engine makes the offshore move considerably easier. Some skip straight to Go Global. The scorecard will tell you which.
The customers who use it love it. The market clearly wants what you've made. But every push for growth still lands on your desk.
The real problem isn't you. It's that your growth depends entirely on you.
That's the bottleneck. It's stressful, it carries real risk, and it's lonely at the top of it. The good news is it's fixable, and I've sat exactly where you are.
In 2002 I co-founded Emendo, a healthcare analytics company that improved patient flow in hospitals around the world. I trained as an industrial engineer, not a salesperson. But someone had to sell, so it became me, from our very first deal through to multimillion dollar international contracts.
The truth? For a long time I was selling as if my life depended on it, learning entirely by doing. It was stressful and it was lonely. I made just about every mistake going.
Then I worked out a handful of simple fundamentals that changed everything. In late 2012 we sold Emendo to McKesson, then the 14th-largest company on the Fortune 500, delivering around 15x returns to our investors.
I stayed on with the acquirer until 2015. Since then I've helped 60+ tech companies grow sales without burning out the founder.
I chair The Clown Doctors NZ, sit on the board of Pillars, and mentor founders through their own version of the climb. Giving back matters to me.
I keep this simple. Five steps, every time.
We find where your growth actually breaks. Pitch, pipeline, process, people, tools. You walk away with a clear picture, in priority order.
We turn that into a roadmap you can act on. The few things that matter most, in the right sequence.
We construct the sales engine side by side. The pitch, the process, the CRM, the playbook your team can actually follow.
We run it on real deals. I'm in the trenches with you and your team, winning live, not theorising from the sidelines.
Your team takes the wheel. By the time I step out, growth no longer depends on you being in every deal.
Simply put: no mystery, no lock-in. Just a clear path to a sales engine that runs whether or not you're in the room.
Start where you are - you can always move up. And whichever you pick, you never carry the risk.
Growth that keeps moving when you step out of the room.
See how Grow works →Customers in Australia, the US, the UK and Canada - won with you, not planned for you.
See how Go Global works →See every option and what it costs →
Both diagnostics carry seven-day money back. Don't think the plan was worth it? Say so and I'll refund you in full.
Fixed-scope sprints carry the 3x-or-credit guarantee. Subscriptions are cancel-anytime with 30 days money-back.
Grow retainers run on 30 days' notice, either side. Go Global runs a three-month initial term, then 30 days. Not to tie you in, but because a market entry abandoned at week six leaves you worse off than never starting.
I hold a maximum of four embedded clients at a time, across both stages. That isn't a marketing line. Embedded work means being genuinely inside the business, in the pipeline, alongside the team and accountable for the number. Spread that across five and none of them get what they were promised.
Not sure which stage you're in? The scorecard takes about six minutes and will tell you.
Taking great tech beyond New Zealand is its own challenge. New markets, new buyers, new rules, and plenty that doesn't travel from the home market. It's also the work I love most, which is why it has a whole stage of its own, powered by the Global Growth OS.
A selection of the founders and teams I've helped grow.
Founders usually want to know one thing before we talk: have I done the job they need doing? Here is the honest answer, grouped by the kind of work rather than the year.
I take the sales leadership seat for a fixed period and run it day to day.
A product that works, and no repeatable way to sell it yet.
What to charge, how to structure it, and how to move people onto it.
The plumbing underneath the selling. Clean data and a pipeline you can trust.
Getting the company to say the thing that makes a buyer stop.
A product that works at home and an ambition somewhere else.
Sometimes the answer is one person getting better at a job nobody trained them for.
The view from the table, and the papers that get taken seriously at it.
Companies appear under more than one heading where the engagement covered more than one kind of work. Tell me what you are trying to fix and I will tell you straight whether it is something I have done before.
Three stories with named people and real numbers. Read them in full →
AFAM had 20+ years and a strong reputation, but growth was organic and hard to repeat. Working together, they put real structure under their sales: target sectors chosen on data, a repeatable approach, and the confidence to take ground from a larger competitor. They came away able to run that growth engine themselves.
SwalTech, a New Zealand clinical-tech team, had never sold outside the country. With Nick embedded as their first sales resource, and on the plane with them to Australia, they built a commercialisation approach, a CRM and a segmentation strategy, closed their first international sale, and stopped seeing sales as something to fear.
"Nick came directly into the executive team and made connections across the whole business while setting up and leading the commercial function. A pleasure to work with."
"Nick brings a wealth of knowledge and experience across all areas of growing and scaling a tech business, and his practical and empathetic approach makes him amazing to work with."
"He's an amazing sounding board, guiding us through the complexities of sales cycles. And if you ever need pitch coaching, ask Nick. His coaching helped us win multiple awards."
"Before doing the sales programme I was not very confident in selling. Nick has given me more confidence in selling and in my approach to business."
I joined the Marketing 4 Business Podcast to talk through the simple selling fundamentals behind a multimillion dollar exit, including the Clean Sheet Selling approach I still use today.
Let's be honest about the risk. Most tech companies don't make it. Many founders end up putting personal savings, even the family home, on the line to keep going. That's a heavy thing to carry.
You don't have to carry all of that alone.
That's more than a calmer business. It's the freedom to build something that lasts, make the difference you set out to make, and have real choices about your future.
A short, free guide drawn straight from what turned me from a terrified technical founder into someone who closed multimillion dollar deals. Read it in 15 minutes. Use it this week.
A free 30-minute call. We'll work out whether we're a good fit and agree the right next step - the Growth Roadmap for your full costed plan, a sprint, or ongoing work.
Want the full costed plan in your hands? That's the Growth Roadmap - the scored write-up plus a 90-minute planning session.
No pitch. No pressure. Just a clear, useful conversation.
Prefer email? nick@nickburns.nz
Or call +64 21 379 793