Episode 183

full
Published on:

25th Sep 2026

She Used Her Life Savings to Go to San Francisco and Figure It Out — Now She Runs Accelerator Programs for Founders Across Scotland: Alison Gray of Skillfluence

In this episode of Scale HER Up, I'm joined by Alison Gray — founder of Skillfluence, a company that helps entrepreneurs, business leaders, and academic researchers get their ideas out into the world and make a difference with them.

Alison started Skillfluence after a project she led at work was so successful it got absorbed into a large organisation. She found herself getting worse at her job, not better. She took a sabbatical to San Francisco with her partner — six months, life savings, studied at Berkeley and Stanford, went to Toastmasters — and came back knowing she had to build something.

She left her job on a Friday and started at Entrepreneurial Spark on the Monday.

Skillfluence now has 12 core team members, 30-plus associates, a portfolio of mentors and speakers, and programmes running across the UK and further afield. Right now, there's a cohort of 30 female business leaders in the Highlands and Islands with a WhatsApp group that's, as Alison puts it, absolutely buzzing.

We cover:

  • What Skillfluence does — for founders, entrepreneurs, and researchers trying to commercialise cutting-edge work
  • The sabbatical that changed everything: six months in San Francisco, Berkeley, Stanford, and Toastmasters
  • Building a team: why she started with associates, and what the first real hire taught her about what a business needs
  • Recruitment: a process Alison has designed specifically to reveal who someone actually is before offering them the job (the surprise training delivery task at in-person interviews is particularly good)
  • AI: where it helps, where it takes away, and why some things genuinely need to be your own words
  • COVID: all the programmes fell off a cliff, and how being one month ahead of their clients felt like flying by the seat of their pants — but made all the difference
  • The challenge of productizing something that's deeply tailored
  • "It's not the knowledge that's the challenge. It's actually doing something."
  • Why continuous improvement is more useful than regret

Quote of the episode: "It's not actually the knowledge and knowing how to do something that's the challenge for people. It's actually doing something." — Alison Gray

Playlist song: Titanium — David Guetta ft. Sia

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About the Podcast

Scale Her Up: Female business stories and expert tips for business growth and success
The Female Entrepreneur Show. Sharing business expertise, start-up experiences and business growth strategies to overcome challenges
If you are a female business owner, self-employed freelancer, or girl boss who wants to build a successful business i.e. work less hours, make more money, and get better results from your staff, then this is the podcast for you. Hosted by Dr Brenda Hector MBA from ActionCOACH UK, this podcast provides relatable and accessible business advice and inspiration from successful businesswomen who have been there and done it before you.

This podcast is where you can
• hear female business stories
• share business success
• learn how to overcome business challenges
• get advice for businesswomen aspiring to success
• find out what needs to change
• discover how we can bring about that business revolution

Only 1 in 3 UK entrepreneurs are female.
UK men are 5 times more likely than women to build a business of over £1million turnover

If UK women matched UK men in starting and scaling businesses, it would add £250 billion to the UK economy (Alison Rose, The Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship 2018)

As a woman in business, a business coach, and a business growth expert, Brenda’s mission is to help business owners grow their companies, achieve their goals and live the lifestyle of their dreams. She's the help you need to grow your business.
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Brenda Hector

I’m Brenda Hector — entrepreneur, business coach, podcast host and writer — and I help ambitious female business owners turn hard work into real results: higher profits, better team performance, and more time back.
If your business relies too heavily on you, growth feels messy, or you’re “successful on paper” but exhausted in real life, you’re not alone — and it’s fixable. My work is about building a business that performs consistently, develops leaders, and supports you to step up and step back when you choose.
On Scale Her Up: The Female Entrepreneur Show, I spotlight women who are building brilliant businesses and share tools and insights to accelerate progress and improve gender balance in entrepreneurship.
"Because being in business should give you more life"