Beyond the transaction. Into the growth.
How we got here
Still We Grow started because between us, we'd spent the bulk of our careers in different corners of the same problem.
Businesses with real growth ambition (founders, leadership teams, or investor-backed boards) were getting plenty of advice on the deal. Legal, tax, structural, financial. What they weren't getting was structured help with the work that actually delivers growth: the strategy, the leadership, the commercial discipline, the governance, the operational capability that turns potential into performance.
The deal itself doesn't create growth. The work around it and after it does.
So we built Still We Grow to do that work. We sit alongside the legal, tax and corporate finance advisers our clients already have, and focus on what they don't.
We're based in Manchester and work across the UK with leadership teams and investors navigating the moments where ownership, capital or strategy changes shape: employee ownership transitions, management buy-outs, PE investment and value creation, family business succession. The foundations are the same. The pressures, the timing and the people in the room are different. We tailor accordingly.
How we work
A few things we've come to believe, earned the hard way.
-
Foundations come before ambition
Almost every business we work with has ambition. Far fewer have the strategy, leadership, commercial, operational and governance foundations to deliver on it. Without those, ambition just creates pressure. So we start with the foundations, because we believe in the benefit of efficiently and objectively seeing the full picture before taking meaningful action.
-
Evidence beats opinion
When something is or isn't working in a business, there's usually more than one view on why. That's completely reasonable, but also why we work in an evidence-led fashion. The Growth Foundations Assessment is built on observable practice, not self-reported scores, and the reasoning sits alongside the rating, so progress can actually be tracked and measured against a real baseline.
-
Commercial capability is non-negotiable
We've seen too many businesses where cultural initiatives are doing the work that commercial and financial capability should be doing. Culture matters, and so does engagement. Neither replaces the discipline of understanding the numbers and knowing how the business actually makes money.
-
We're not here to nod along
We'll challenge your thinking and ask the questions other advisers might be too polite to ask. The businesses we work with want to be better, not flattered, and we tend to find that's a relief. People say two things about us, consistently: we're challenging, and we're good company. We'll take that.
Our Mission
Creating sustainable business value through ownership change and beyond.
We exist to help businesses unlock the full value of ownership change and the growth that follows. From succession planning to post-transition performance, and the value creation work in between, we provide the strategy, insight, and ongoing support that turns ambition into measurable outcomes for businesses and the people in them.
Our Vision
The valued growth partner for businesses serious about what comes after ownership change.
We believe ownership change is more than a transaction. It’s a defining moment for a business, its leaders, and the people invested in its future. Our vision is to be the partner of choice for the founders, leadership teams, boards and investors who recognise that the work of growth begins where the deal ends.
Our Values
We work by a clear set of values that guide every client relationship:
Bringing the Energy: creating momentum and optimism in every engagement.
Evidence Informed: grounding decisions in data and lived experience.
Growing Together: partnering deeply with leadership teams and the people behind the business.
Community Driven: building stronger networks across the SME community.
Always Curious: challenging assumptions, asking better questions, finding smarter answers.
What it's like to work with us
Expect real challenge, real progress, and a process you'll actually enjoy.
That line's from our value proposition, and it's true. In practice it means three things.
We listen first
Before we propose anything, we ask. We don't believe in selling solutions before we understand the problem. The first conversation is always about your situation, not our offer.
We'll tell you if the timing's not right
Not everyone we speak to becomes a client. If your situation is better suited to a different kind of adviser, or if the timing's wrong, we'll say so, and point you towards someone who can help.
We do the work, not just the deck
We're not in the business of dropping off a slide pack and disappearing. The assessment leads to a plan, the plan leads to delivery, and delivery gets measured against the baseline we started with.
Meet The People Behind Still We Grow.
Matt Wilden
Managing Director
Matt is an executive leadership and growth advisor with more than a decade of experience supporting boards and leadership teams through scale, complexity and change. Before Still We Grow, he built and led growth and transformation advisory practices across enterprise and SME organisations, working with founders, CEOs and boards across technology, fintech, professional services, manufacturing, retail and a long list of other sectors. He’s advised on M&A readiness, integration and post-deal organisational alignment for investment portfolios with enterprise value over £500m.
Matt is a CMI Level 7 certified leadership coach, an ILM-certified strategy and operational excellence advisor, an accredited GCologist and a Non-Executive Director. He holds NED and Board Advisor positions across scaling SMEs, and has picked up a couple of industry awards along the way for leadership impact and change programme design.
What Matt brings:
- Strategy and transformation design
- Succession planning and evaluation
- Leadership impact development
- Organisational design and development
- Operational excellence
Fran Spence
Commercial and Operations Director
Fran is a Chartered Accountant (FCA, ICAEW), an Independent Chair and Trustee Director across multiple Employee Ownership Trusts, and a co-founder of Still We Grow. She brings board-level expertise across strategy, finance, governance and commercial decision-making, with a sharp eye for accountability and long-term value creation.
Fran qualified at KPMG before moving into commercial finance and senior trading roles at The Very Group and Bensons for Beds, where she had accountability for over £1bn revenue across e-commerce, retail and PE-backed environments. She’s scaled, optimised and prepared businesses for sale, and worked through private equity investment from the inside.
Since 2022 she’s worked independently as a strategic advisor and trustee director, alongside co-founding Still We Grow. She currently chairs the trustee boards of Boardmans Group (EOT) Limited and Standing on Giants EOT Limited. She holds the ICAEW and NEDA Non-Executive Director Certificate, is an Advisor Member of the Employee Ownership Association, and teaches finance to non-finance directors as an associate tutor at Salford Professional Development.
What Fran brings:
- Commercial strategy and value creation
- Finance, risk and governance
- Ownership transitions and trustee leadership
- Growth, scale-up and PE-backed transformation
- Customer, trading and market insight