When announcing our partnership with STAC back in January, I emphasised how we couldn't wait to understand and support the businesses enrolled on the programme. Nearly six months later, I've had the chance to meet a new cohort of ambitious founders who are doing exactly what I hoped: building serious companies and putting the west of Scotland on the map for technology and innovation.

From the very start I’ve been struck by the quality of people and ambition involved. These are businesses with real commercial potential, managed and mentored by a team at STAC that clearly knows how to bring the best out of early-stage founders. I've been deeply impressed.

What the STAC model does particularly well is accelerate the network effects rather than just the individual business. It brings high-growth companies together with the commercial partners and investors that will achieve real traction for them, often through showcases that put founders directly in front of the people who matter. That mechanism is important. Introductions and warm handshakes can take years to accumulate organically, but STAC compresses that timeline significantly.

Our role at Johnston Carmichael sits within that model. We're supporting founders with R&D tax credit claims, investor tax reliefs such as SEIS/EIS, and employee incentive schemes including Enterprise Management Incentives. Our services might not be at the top of the to-do list for founders, but for early-stage companies with tight runways, getting an R&D claim right or structuring an EMI scheme properly can be the difference between hiring the next critical engineer or not.

The impact of STAC’s programme is visible in the numbers. TileBio, a University of Glasgow (UoG) spinout on the programme, secured a £1.6m seed round earlier this year to scale an AI platform that learns the tissue patterns associated with cancer from millions of unlabelled pathology images. That is the kind of outcome that changes the trajectory of a company and, if it works at scale, the trajectory of cancer diagnosis. Another STAC-supported UoG spinout, Quantcore, raised £2.5m in seed funding to develop the production of quantum hardware in Scotland, facilitating the next generation of technology and helping to build a domestic supply chain that will create high quality jobs.

Then there is LumiAires, which is building purpose-built photonic chips to make AI more energy efficient, tackling both carbon emissions and energy costs. The hardware innovation that LumiAires is pursuing may turn out to be as consequential as the software it aims to support.

Comparable accelerators in London and Canada have produced some of the world's most significant technology businesses. If our founders are to follow in their footsteps, it’s vital to think bigger and be more ambitious. Local VCs have a major role to play in the seed funding stage, but securing serious global investment is key to unlocking wider growth opportunities.

We must also address the sales gap. Business development is part of the STAC programme, recognising that strong sales skills are just as important as great ideas.

Scotland and its world-leading universities are generating incredible innovation and skills. STAC’s job is to turn ideas into businesses that can compete globally, and Johnston Carmichael's job is to make sure they have the appropriate financial and tax structures to drive growth. Bring on the next six months.