There is a moment in every entrepreneur’s journey that receives far less attention than it deserves. It is not the day they launch their business. Nor is it the moment they secure their first customer or celebrate their first breakthrough. It is the moment they realise that if their business is going to grow, they must grow with it.
After years of supporting entrepreneurs, one reality has become increasingly difficult for me to ignore. We spend a great deal of time on how to help people start businesses, but far less time on what growth asks of the people behind those businesses.
Growth marks the beginning of a new chapter, one in which the challenges don’t disappear; but rather evolve. And so must the entrepreneur.
The biggest shift is often not in the business itself, but in the person leading it.
One pattern emerges repeatedly across growth-stage businesses. The qualities that help someone start a business are not always the qualities that enable them to scale it.
In the early days, entrepreneurs are rewarded for being resourceful, adaptable and willing to do whatever it takes to keep the business alive. They wear every hat, solve every problem and make every decision. Their determination becomes their greatest strength, which eventually becomes their greatest limitation. The founder who built a business by doing everything themselves eventually becomes the bottleneck. The entrepreneur who relied on instinct must learn to trust systems, processes and data. The business that succeeded by saying yes to every opportunity must develop the confidence to say no. For these entrepreneurs, learning to let go is perhaps the hardest lesson.
The entrepreneurial growth journey is a highly personal one, one that requires them to stop being the person who does everything and become the person who enables others to succeed. It asks them to trust, to delegate and to lead in ways they never needed before.
The journey calls on them to challenge long-held habits, rethink their role and become comfortable with uncertainty all over again. The entrepreneur who starts the business is rarely the same entrepreneur who successfully scales it.
This personal transition is rarely discussed, yet it is one of the defining moments in an entrepreneurial journey. It is also where many promising businesses either accelerate or stall. South Africa has no shortage of entrepreneurial ambition. What we need are more businesses that can grow sustainably, create jobs and contribute to the economy, and that means supporting entrepreneurs beyond the start-up phase.
Growth-stage businesses need more than just access to markets and capital; they need support that reflects the realities of expansion. Equally, entrepreneurs need support to develop the leadership, strategic thinking and organisational capabilities that growth demands.
Businesses supported through the SAB Foundation’s Social Innovation Fund highlight what is possible when entrepreneurs receive the right support beyond the start-up phase. Businesses in the acceleration fund, which is open to all previous winners of the Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards, have collectively generated more than R43-million in commercial revenue during 2025, while creating jobs and expanding their social and environmental impact.
These businesses refined their models, strengthened their operations, entered new markets and built new capabilities. They became different businesses. Their founders grew alongside their businesses. Perhaps that is the growth conversation we need more often. Not simply how to help more people start businesses, but how to help entrepreneurs become the leaders their growing businesses need them to be.
• Mthintso is Executive Director of the SAB Foundation
