9amBusiness recently met with Bill Weathersby in London to talk about his latest venture Next Stage Trajectory (NST), ahead of its upcoming official launch. NST was set up by Texas-based Bill and a cohort of investors and business leaders, with the aim of offering ambitious UK companies a new approach to realising their growth ambitions.
Nothing like NST currently exists in the UK and it is set to disrupt how business support is delivered.
Bill is an eight-time Founder, Investor and former Global Executive with over 40 years’ experience in both private equity backed and publicly traded high growth companies. He has successfully led over 6 Founder-led companies to over $20M in Revenue, over $100M of Fundraising and helped generate over $500M of value in M&A.
9amBusiness spoke to him about his career and to learn more about his plans for NST, in the interview below.
Can you tell us more about your early business career?
I was working for a large global accountancy firm when I decided to start my first company, which was called Engine Shield. It was an engine treatment and lubricant for cars, which was designed to improve performance and reduce friction and wear.
This was before the rise of venture capital, so funding worked very differently. You would tell the idea to friends, family and connections and we ended up receiving some backing from a prominent family business in Dallas, Texas.
Did the business become a success?
Yes, revenue was at $1m a month and we were selling in auto-shops and in retail stores. However, the house of cards was set to collapse. I received a call saying that another company had entered the market and were selling it cheaper than we were. This was an issue as it was a well-known automotive brand, that sold lots of other products and had multiple SKUs in retail stores, so Engine Shield started to lose shelf-space.
Very quickly, we ended up with a warehouse full of product that we couldn’t shift. To tackle this, we tried to sell it in Mexico, but it soon became clear that after conversations with the team and investors, the business would be wound up. I was thirty-five at the time and the business was made bankrupt.
Looking back, this must have been a huge lesson for you?
It was very tough, but you can, of course, now appreciate the lessons you learn and how failure will shape you as an entrepreneur. You certainly find out what your wife thinks of you, when something like this happens but I’m pleased to say we stuck together.
I was knocked down for about three weeks and in the USA if you go bankrupt, you won’t have your house taken away but you have your lights turned off. This meant dinner by candlelight was boiled tuna fish and it was dispiriting.
The only option was to go again, which is what I did and subsequently I have launched and been involved with several successful companies – across many different sectors.
It’s important to talk about the difficult times, because that’s where the real lessons are learned.
In your career, you have worked across multiple industries. I’d like to get your opinion on the impact artificial intelligence (AI) is having?
AI is going to be the most disruptive thing we’ve ever seen in business and in our lives. I recently had lunch with the Dean at Texas A&M university about his view is that its impact will be profound many of us aren’t prepared for the world we’re walking into.
If you look at what many leading business people are saying too, you can see that this is an unprecedented shift. Elon Musk recently said that in three to five years, we may have to look at introducing a national income funded by tax revenue from OpenAI, Meta and the rest if we want to react effectively to the impact AI will have on the jobs market.
And right now, how is AI having an impact?
Well, I have written five new software systems in a matter of weeks that can do the job of existing brand names on the market. You are seeing companies spend months implementing new CRM systems, when you can now build advanced software in hours and days using AI.
If you’re a programmer and you can write the code that goes over AI, you have huge value but if you can’t do this then you have less market value.
Using Agentic AI, you can find your ideal customers, then hand it to another bot who will research these companies and find the decision makers and then another bot will morph your sales story into what you’re looking for and then hit them directly. The impact is huge and happening now.
Regarding your point about software companies – AI represents an existential threat to them, then?
Yes, it is but the smart ones are moving into agentic outbound and supporting with sales and marketing. As I said, companies are spending weeks on-boarding a new CRM but I’m meeting people that have re-created, improved, and launched their own and better version in a week.
What is your advice to young people now or those looking to change careers?
If it were me, I would learn how to write those agents and if you create a good one you can then sell it. There is also a gap opening for companies that support businesses with AI implementation, as we move away from the theory stage.
The pace of play is so fast, that many people aren’t sure what to do though because people are writing agents and within two weeks, it is just a feature within OpenClaw for example. With the AI businesses we’re working with, I’m telling them the runway to exit is twelve months and not forty-eight months.
I’d like to now talk about Next Stage Trajectory (NST) and your plans in the UK?
NST agrees a growth and exit plan which could be to go from £1m revenue to £40m over a certain period, typically 48 months. The NST team then provide support with raising funding, international expansion and support with overcoming pain-points as they scale.
What NST is offering is completely different to the current funding and accelerator models in the UK and sits between traditional debt and equity approaches and is different to membership organisations and accelerators.
This is a process that doesn’t exist now. A seminar lasts a day. A coach will see you once a month and you’ll leave an accelerator after a typical 12-week programme. We meet with you every two weeks and keep you on track and we all work towards the exit plan. The team behind NST includes many successful entrepreneurs and professionals.
And it’s currently active in the UK?
Twenty-six businesses – including some UK based – have already joined NST and the total combined revenue from the companies already stands at $103m.
We’re currently focusing on supporting businesses in the fintech, climate tech and artificial intelligence sectors but is also open to impressive companies in other verticals.
Why now and why the UK?
The USA and UK are closely linked, probably more than other economies and countries and I find that you are behind by about four months, but it tends to be neck and neck. There is also the link between the two countries around the flow of capital and mergers and acquisitions.
Plus, I have worked in the UK at previous points in my career and admire the entrepreneurial spirit here.
Can you share more about the funding you can provide through NST?
Alongside the support we will give with international expansion, helping to scale and our customer portals we also felt it was important to have a fund where we can deploy capital.
What you tend to find is that scaling companies who are getting traction often need funding between 200k GBP and 600k GBP, but this is no-man’s land as it is too small for a VC or family office and too expensive for an individual, typically.
So, we can provide funding that suits the lifecycle of a modern business. We receive 10 per cent of the exit value of a business, so our work is rewarded at the end of the process, and we don’t take equity or classify the lending as debt.
What advice would you give to entrepreneurs looking to join NST?
There are two groups, we tend to work well with. The first is an entrepreneur who may have been running the business for four or five years but just isn’t getting the traction they need. We can open doors to new markets, networks and help them access capital.
The second is younger entrepreneurs who are working non-stop but realise they can’t raise money, sell, code and do everything in the business. We provide a team for them and help to raise funding too.
My advice is to not become defensive when we ask you tough questions. Within minutes I can usually tell if an entrepreneur isn’t a good fit and it usually comes down to being open and humble and accepting you need help. If you want the money but not the help, then NST isn’t for you as we’re a process that will get you to where you want to be but we’re not a PE house or bank.
To conclude, do you have any general advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Something will always go wrong. What I mean by this is for example take a software or tech business. Versions one or two will have issues, even if it is built by a genius so it’s important to be in touch with the customer every few days and to build a meaningful relationship with them. Because when something does go wrong, you can work though it much more easily.
It’s simple advice but you must talk to people and take responsibility. You must show up and own any issues.