Chris Burke spent 25 years building businesses in London, starting with a father who ran pubs, a frozen fish business and a bookmaking book, all in cash, and who pushed Chris to start his own thing rather than take a job. That instinct led to Brickendon, a consultancy that served banks like JP Morgan, Citi and UBS on programs that could not fail, and later to HybridHero, a workplace management system now live in 40 countries and 15 languages.
In this episode of The Scalability Code with host Matt Haney, Chris makes a blunt case. There is no bad business and no bad market. What breaks is the systems, the processes and the way people are arranged as the company grows. The founder who gets you to 10 million in turnover is usually the same person blocking the path to 50, and you cannot see it from the weeds.
Chris walks through where he was that bottleneck, the hires that saved him and the one that taught him about ethics, and the simple metric he still uses to know whether a business is quietly shrinking.
Who is Chris Burke?
Chris Burke is a founder who spent 25 years building businesses in London. He built Brickendon, a consultancy serving major banks, and later HybridHero, a workplace management system used by clients including Dyson, BMW and Pepsi across 40 countries.
What is the main idea in this episode of The Scalability Code?
That there is no bad business or bad market. Companies stall because their systems, processes and people structure fail to keep pace with growth, and the founder is often the hidden bottleneck.
Where did Chris say he was the bottleneck?
He took control of areas he was not good at, especially marketing and social media, while also building the product and serving clients. Trying to do everything held the business up.
What does Chris mean by maintainable revenue?
It is whether you are generating more revenue this month than is dropping off. If not, the business is shrinking, and without watching the number you often notice too late to fix it.
What was the best piece of advice Chris shared?
It came from his London commercial lawyer of nearly 20 years. Before you commit to a position, always ask how you would argue the same case from the other side.