The new chief executive of business support social enterprise Elevator says she wants the organisation to grow its work with Scotland’s big businesses and universities as they support entrepreneurs. Rachel Ross took the top job at the entrepreneurship and business support group earlier this month, succeeding Professor Gary McEwan. Elevator was founded in 2001 to help accelerate small business growth and has supported thousands of startups and SMEs. Its industry partners include Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), Business Gateway and the University of Dundee. Now Ms Ross says there will be a bigger focus on growing the number of private sector organisations, and universities and colleges with which Elevator works. She said: “If you’re an entrepreneur or founder who wants to start or grow a business, and whether you’re in one of the main cities, urban fringes or fragile remote rural communities, we engage and support local entrepreneurs and small businesses on their growth trajectories.” “If we have a USP, it’s our ability to co-design best-of-class programmes with industry partners, working collaboratively with other ecosystem players, and building on our longstanding experience and expertise on the entrepreneurial scene to help Scotland’s regional economies flourish and create transformational impact for business owners.” “What we’ve demonstrated in recent times is an agile and empathetic approach to curating programmes, accelerators, and events with multiple collaborating partners, and it’s this collaborative approach that is producing such strong results and outcomes. While we continue to work alongside organisations like Business Gateway, we see a big shift to how we can work alongside university, college, private sector, and membership organisations to help them deliver entrepreneurial-focused initiatives.” Elevator’s 2024 initiatives included its work with the University of Dundee’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, Scottish Enterprise’s Rural Leadership Programme, and Regional EDGE in Dundee and Angus. It reported revenue of £5,2m in 2024 and employs 37. Ms Ross said: “The UK is already braced for tough economic headwinds and building business resilience while unlocking opportunities will become essential requirements for businesses in 2025. Entrepreneurs are telling us that the economic environment is challenging, whether that’s access to finance, digital and AI skills, product development, or international market strategy and commercialisation - all areas that our team can assist business owners with. “And while we’re industry sector agnostic, we are seeing a lot of activity in clean energy, agriculture innovation, and e-commerce.”