Built to scale: Steve Rowbotham on entrepreneurship, AI, and growth pressure
Season 1, Episode 2
Steve Rowbotham, founder and CEO of Navigator, brings a founder’s perspective to the UK growth story, shaped by his own journey from elite sport into entrepreneurship.
He talks about performance culture, ambition, and the mindset required to build a business in a fast-moving market. His view of the UK is positive: there is real entrepreneurial energy here, alongside a strong sense of community among founders and operators.
But the conversation also surfaces some of the tensions founders face in practice. Steve discusses the difficulty of raising capital at certain stages, the challenge of fitting into rigid investment ‘boxes’, intense competition for talent, and the need to stay agile as AI develops. He also touches on the role of privacy and regulation, arguing that businesses which build with future requirements in mind are better placed to create lasting value.