UrbanChain boss Somayeh Taheri offered up candid advice to Northern founders about the harsh truths of building a tech company at Prolific North’s GRAFT tech event, warning that “no one is coming to rescue you” and that “resilience” is key to surviving and succeeding as a founder.
Speaking during a keynote fireside chat at Bruntwood SciTech’s Sister building in Manchester on 11 March, honesty and transparency was top of the agenda as the CEO and co-founder also reflected on the realities behind scaling a fast-growing cleantech business in the North.
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From starting out with just three people in 2017 to now employing more than 80 people and recently landing a £300m contract, Taheri explained how UrbanChain has “disrupted” the energy market by “foundationally changing regulation” and creating a solution designed to respond to that shift.
Through its data-driven platform, UrbanChain aims to make energy greener and more affordable through a peer-to-peer energy exchange system that connects renewable generators directly with consumers.
“We started from nothing,” she told Alexandra Balazs, managing director of Prolific North, during the fireside chat.
“Energy is not a luxury – it’s a necessity and it must be treated as that. So that became a mission for us. We knew simply acting inside the market wasn’t going to solve the problem. We had to disrupt the structure of it.
“Now we have attracted top talent ourselves because our mission is so important.”
Defying the odds
UrbanChain might now be described as a ‘soonicorn’, a company with high growth potential and a valuation between $100m and $1bn on the path to achieving tech unicorn status, but Taheri said the journey to reach that point has been far from quick.
A “key” part of the company’s progress so far, particularly in a highly regulated sector like energy, has been working closely with regulators and government.
“Make the regulator your friend,” she advised. “Work with them. We started showing our solution, started building trust and delivered on those promises.”
Asked how UrbanChain has managed to defy the odds in the world of deeptech, where only around 1% of businesses ultimately succeed, she pointed out that the company was founded in 2017 but only commercialised its platform in 2022.
“There is lots of pressure on you as a founder. You don’t pay yourself for five long years, you get to the last bit of money in your account, then suddenly an R&D grant comes in and you are saved for another month.
“It can be difficult but you always have to have a vision.”
Despite those challenges, she said a strong belief in the mission has kept the company moving forward, and she also shared that advice with other founders in the room.
“If you think about your future self and look back, you ask: ‘Will I be happy with the decisions I made?’ That’s how you decide whether to continue or stop.”
‘There is no magic plan’ and becoming a “strategic” leader
Taheri also pushed back against the idea that the North suffers from an “ambition gap”, arguing instead that the real issue is a lack of honest conversations about the realities of building companies.
“It’s not that there is no ambition. There is no magic plan. Nobody is coming to rescue you,” she said.
“There are ambitious companies but there are no honest conversations about the journey. All of us have difficult journeys as founders and it’s important to talk with honesty and transparency.”
Instead, “resilience” and persistence are the traits that separate the small number of companies that truly succeed.
“You try again and again. It’s the method that is missing. The ambition is there. We should be honest about the pains, and we endure those pains because we are changing the world for the better. That’s the whole point of it,” she added.
As UrbanChain scaled, Taheri said one of the toughest leadership lessons was learning to step back from day-to-day responsibilities. In the early days, she was writing code herself, but scaling the company meant transitioning from being an “operator” to a leader.
“It wasn’t about letting go of the work, it was about whether the next person would deliver what I expect. But you have to let it go and put the right controls in place.”
Her advice to founders was to learn how to move from being “doers” to becoming “strategic leaders” who can put the right systems in place and empower their teams.
“For people who are disrupting any sector like UrbanChain, you cannot just say: ‘This is the vision’ and expect things to change. You have to show people how it works.”
Why Manchester matters and choosing the ‘right’ investors
Quizzed on why she chose Manchester to build the business, particularly when deeptech is often associated with the so-called ‘Golden Triangle’ of Oxford, Cambridge and London, Taheri acknowledged that much of the decision-making still sits in the capital, with industry events to regulators primarily based there.
But she praised Manchester’s tech ecosystem for the “support”, talent and mindset it offers founders.
“People here are different, and there are lots of talents. By talents, I don’t just mean skills, it’s the attitude, the energy and the drive to achieve something.”
UrbanChain has built a “diverse team” drawn from a wide range of backgrounds, something Taheri said has been crucial to its success.
“The inclusive environment allows different mindsets to come together,” she explained.
While Manchester offers strong support at the early stages for founders, she suggested the region still needs to strengthen support for businesses as they scale into those later stages.
As for founders preparing to get investment ready, she urged them to focus less on headline valuations and more on the terms of the deal.
“Define what you want from that investment. It’s like shopping, do you need that investment? If you do, what do you need it for? There is no right or wrong answer.
“You need to understand your end game, then understand what you want from that investment.”
And understanding investors’ motivations is equally “very important” as is paying attention to deal structures.
“The terms of your investment are more important. You can lose everything if the terms are not correct,” she explained.
She also highlighted how choosing the right investor can ultimately change the power dynamic in a funding relationship.
“When you change the language from chasing the highest valuation to choosing the right terms, you change the table from the investor telling you what to do, to you telling the investor what you want,” she said.
“That’s the key, otherwise it can become a horrible journey.”
And if you’re interested in tech, Prolific North has recently launched a dedicated weekly tech newsletter, GRAFT, which you can sign up for here. All image credits to: Carl Sukonik.
