CodeBase

“One of the biggest benefits of CodeBase support was helping us think about SPATTRO more rigorously as a business, rather than simply an innovative healthcare platform.”

After 30 years in surgery, Dr Hisham Shalaby set out to transform how specialist consultations work. While he understood the clinical problem inside out, turning a big healthcare vision into a focused, scalable tech startup required a completely different toolkit.

Through Techscaler, delivered by CodeBase, Dr. Hisham received the commercial mentorship and informed challenge needed to test assumptions, sharpen SPATTRO's market positioning and turn a broad healthcare vision into a repeatable sales strategy.

We’re proud to have supported their journey and can’t wait to see where they go next!

Olga Maksimova went looking for a founder community on her very first day in Edinburgh.

That search led the Lappa founder to Techscaler, and from there to San Francisco and Singapore. Along the way, she picked up lessons any founder eyeing new markets can put to work:

➡️ Meet customers in person before spending anything on promotion

➡️ In APAC, small businesses expect local support before they'll treat you as a partner

➡️ Travelling with a cohort reveals mistakes you can't see in your own business

Today Lappa serves more than 3,000 clients across 48 countries. Read Olga's full story: https://thisiscodebase.com/case-study/ready-when-the-market-was

Today we had the pleasure of hosting an executive delegation from Beijing Electronics Holding Co., Ltd. (BEHC), for a strategic knowledge exchange at CodeBase. BEHC is a global leader in semiconductors, display technology, and industrial tech.

The session focused on contrasting innovation models: exploring how BEHC’s top-down, corporate-driven industrial model can connect with CodeBase's bottom-up, community-led ecosystem.

We were lucky enough to be joined by some incredible businesses supported by CodeBase who presented their ventures to the delegation:

- Dr Shivoh Chirayil Nandakumar, Founder & CEO at RideScan
- Martin MacDonald, Co-founder & COO at weeteq
- Grant Gwyther, Commercial & Partnerships Lead at Touchlab

As we continue to discover synergies between Scotland's startup agility and BEHC’s global industrial scale, we’re excited to explore how community-led networks can drive corporate innovation.

A huge thank you to the BEHC delegation for visiting us during their time in Edinburgh!

Vulnerable adults can deteriorate silently for weeks between care appointments and often no one notices until it's too late.

MovementGuard is Dr. Nazia Gillani’s solution to that problem, an analytics platform that tracks any changes in routine and recovery without the need for cameras or wearables.

With expert mentorship from CodeBase to refine her pricing and customer messaging, alongside pilot funding from Venture Builder Incubator, Dr. Nazia successfully moved MovementGuard from a research concept to real world testing.

Having recently been awarded a Bronze award from Intel in a global design contest, MovementGuard is now looking to convert the success of their pilot into a paid beta platform.

Stay tuned to see where they go next 👀

Lexidesk.ai founder Ivan Tryskyba chose where to grow by following the demand that reached the company first, and that demand came from US law firms.

To meet those customers in person, Lexidesk joined Techscaler's June 2026 New York cohort, with CRO Nikita Bezotosnyi on the ground and Ivan planning alongside him from Scotland.

With support from the Techscaler and CodeBase team, the trip moved a pilot forward and produced more than 20 valuable connections, alongside multiple follow-ups lined up.

Key lessons from Ivan for founders expanding beyond their home market:
➡️ Test different markets before pivoting, since one product can suit some markets far better than others.
➡️ Treat every demo call as though it cost £1,000, and analyse it before the next one.
➡️ Meet customers in person where you can, because helping existing customers succeed leads to referrals, which convert best.

Read the full Lexidesk case study: https://thisiscodebase.com/case-study/following-the-pull

What does an untapped market look like before anyone else believes in it?

For Marc Williamson, it looked like his own back catalogue. After 20 years building and selling games studios, he went looking for titles he had made and found they were no longer available to play. Umbra Dynamics grew from that discovery, and from a conviction that the audiences for those games never went away.

The fit is showing. Collector's editions of well-known titles have brought fans out to thank the team, and publishers are taking an interest in what the studio does next.

Strategic lessons from Marc's journey:

➡️ Validate demand where the audience already gathers. Marc tracks retro communities, and they have overturned his assumptions about fan favourites more than once.
➡️ Keep learning, however experienced you are. Having run and sold businesses, he still arrived at Techscaler, delivered by CodeBase, with a student's mindset.
➡️ Put funding into what builds the product. Around 90% of his Scottish Edge award is going on people.

Gamescom 2026 showed how fast sentiment can turn. A year earlier, publishers were holding back, and this August they told Marc they had space on their slates. He reads it as an industry that cut back too far and is ready to grow again. His way of making the most of a week like that is to fill the calendar with up to 40 meetings, because a conversation that looks minor can open the biggest door.

Swipe through for the story, and find the full case study here:

When Andy Hodges built ThinkShare eight years ago, his aim was to design solutions for businesses as they evolve for the future. What began as solo contract work for clients like Zero Waste Scotland has since become a full consultancy, specialising in digital workspace solutions like intranets and AI agents.

CodeBase gave ThinkShare a base to grow out of Stirling and Techscaler's programmes, including what's now Catalyst, helped Andy find product market fit and discover productised B2B growth models that helped him transition his business.

With that groundwork in place, ThinkShare is now planning to expand internationally and develop further AI services that can support Scottish businesses.

We’re excited to see where they go next!

Before Sip Seekers, Victoria Miller spent 14 years working in the drinks industry. It was booking her own distillery trip, tabs open, comparing sites, that convinced her tourists were giving up before they'd even booked.

Sip Seekers is her answer: a discovery and booking platform bringing together 60+ Scottish distillery tours, tastings and AI-powered trip planning in one place.

Through CodeBase, Victoria accessed expert mentoring and an MVP grant that took Sip Seekers from pilot to a working product, alongside Techscaler's Catalyst programme, which gave her the confidence to lead a tech business as a non-technical founder.

With the platform live and traction building, Sip Seekers is now looking to expand internationally.

We can't wait to see where they go next!