Growth That Doesn't Cut Corners As businesses grow, balancing speed with quality can be tricky. Discover how one company's focus on agility, data, and customer collaboration fuels expansion without compromise.

In a competitive tech landscape, scaling quickly without compromising quality is no easy feat. Justin Day, Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Cloud Gateway, a London based based technology company that provides cloud networking solutions, shares with Entrepreneur UK readers how agile strategies, customer-centricity, and a focus on continuous improvement have helped the company expand sustainably while keeping customer satisfaction at the forefront.

What strategies helped you scale efficiently without compromising quality?
Scaling successfully isn't about sticking to a rigid plan, it's about staying agile, using data smartly, and keeping the customer at the heart of everything. We've built a culture that embraces continuous improvement, where we test, learn, adapt, and refine at every stage. A big part of this has been investing in data-driven decision-making. Over the past year, we've sharpened how we measure and analyse performance across Sales, Marketing, and Service Operations. By refining our CRM tooling, we've improved forecasting accuracy, while better insights into service ticket volumes have helped us make technical upgrades to our customer portal. These ongoing optimisations mean we can maintain high service standards, even as we grow.

Just as importantly, we've deepened our commitment to customer excellence, one of our core values, by launching a Customer Advisory Board. This allows us to collaborate directly with our customers on our product roadmap, to ensure every enhancement adds real value. In fact, most of our current roadmap has been shaped by customer feedback. This ongoing dialogue helps us stay focused on delivering better outcomes as we scale. On top of that, our recent £1.5 million investment gives us the power to scale even further, making sure we stay ahead of market demands without ever compromising on quality.

How did you build and maintain a strong company culture during rapid growth?
Culture is everything. It's what keeps us grounded as we grow. From day one, we've built a culture based on integrity, transparency, and a shared drive to succeed. As we've scaled from just four customers to over 200, holding onto these values has been key, it's what's helped us create an environment where people feel empowered to innovate and push boundaries.

The introduction of company-wide behavioural analysis to improve how we communicate and collaborate strengthened this. By understanding how different team members process information, we've been able to foster a more connected and effective work environment. We also encourage a mindset where challenges, even failures, are seen as opportunities to refine and improve. That's been crucial in making sure we don't lose the entrepreneurial spirit that got us here in the first place.

What were the biggest operational challenges you faced while scaling?
Growth naturally brings complexity, and one of the biggest challenges has been making sure our systems and processes scale smoothly without adding unnecessary friction. As we've expanded, we realised we needed better data visibility across teams. By improving our internal reporting, we've sharpened forecasting, refined our sales pipeline, and made our service operations more efficient.

Leadership transitions have also been a key part of our growth journey. With Dan Kline stepping in as CEO and me shifting into the Chief Product Officer role, we've ensured the right focus is in place for the right person, balancing commercial expansion with continuous product innovation. It's all about making sure we keep evolving in the right way.

How did you prioritise customer acquisition and retention as you expanded?
Our approach has always been focused on solving real pain points. By taking the time to truly understand our clients, whether in policing, central government, or the private sector, we make sure our solutions tackle their biggest challenges head on. That's been key to not just winning new contracts but building lasting relationships.

Great service is just as important as great technology. As we've grown, we've made sure our support evolves with us. One of the most impactful changes has been empowering our first-line support teams with enhanced tools and knowledge, which has boosted first-contact ticket resolution by 17%. This focus on continuous improvement not only builds trust but also reinforces why customers choose to stay with us – reflected in our latest NPS of 75.

What advice would you give a startup looking to scale in a competitive market?
Competing in a fast-moving market means being willing to challenge the status-quo. When we started Cloud Gateway in 2017, we saw that traditional networking just wasn't keeping up with the rise of cloud computing. Customers were stuck in rigid, expensive contracts that didn't fit the way modern businesses operate. Instead of accepting that as the industry standard, we took a different approach and built a fully software-based model that broke away from outdated thinking.

Flexibility has been at the heart of our growth. The networking industry moves fast, when we launched SD-WAN was the dominant trend and terms like Networking-as-a-Service barely existed. In just a few years the market has evolved dramatically, and we've evolved with it. For startups, this mindset is essential. The key to scaling successfully isn't just about reacting to change, it's building for adaptability from day one, so when the market shifts, you're ready to move with it, not get left behind. Have a clear vision of the outcome you want to achieve but don't tie yourself to a single method of getting there. Trends will change, technology will evolve, and customers' needs will shift. If you stay flexible in your approach, you'll be able to adapt and scale without losing sight of your mission.

How have UK trade policies influenced your international expansion and scaling efforts?
So far, UK trade policies haven't had a direct impact on our growth, but we know they're on our customers' minds. The back-and-forth on tariffs is creating uncertainty and businesses are naturally worried about the risks and disruption this could bring. We're helping our customers stay ahead of these challenges by making sure their network infrastructure is secure and resilient. While our focus remains on scaling in the UK, we're keeping a close eye on how trade policies evolve and will adapt to support our customers as needed.