John
Robertson

ABOUT JOHN

John is a senior growth operator who works with growing technology and data-led businesses to establish momentum early and accelerate growth as they scale.

Through Robertson Collaborate, he provides senior, hands-on support across go-to-market, positioning, and commercial decision-making, working closely with founders and leadership teams to bring clarity, focus, and traction across sales, marketing, and product.

Working with a small number of clients at any one time, John is typically engaged either at an early stage to establish strong foundations or when businesses are moving beyond initial traction into a more complex phase of growth. This might involve clarifying positioning, shaping route-to-market strategy, supporting international expansion, or building more repeatable go-to-market capability.

John’s work often starts with a Go-to-Market Clarity & Action Plan, assessing what is working across sales, marketing and product, then agreeing a focused action plan for improvement. He also supports clients through Commercial Growth Sprints, practical, time-bound projects focused on specific growth priorities. Engagements typically range from short, focused pieces of work to more embedded, fractional roles, depending on the business’s needs at that stage.

Clients often describe John as a trusted partner, someone who can challenge thinking, bring structure to ambiguity, and help teams move forward with confidence. He uses proven frameworks as accelerants to good decision-making, not as answers in themselves, and always in support of judgement rather than as a replacement for it. Where relevant, John supports clients in harnessing artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on useful application rather than experimentation for its own sake.

Alongside client work, John has also made a small number of early-stage investments through the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) with one successful exit. This has added an investor’s perspective to his work.

He has worked across B2B and B2C markets and has held senior in-house roles, including Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), supporting businesses through periods of growth, transition, and international expansion. John most often works with growing businesses in fintech, payments, insurtech, life sciences and healthtech, and legaltech – sectors where regulation, complexity, and go-to-market execution intersect.

John currently supports EKORA, a clinician-founded healthtech business, as International Partner Development lead, helping to build partner-led routes to market and support international expansion.

He is also an associate member of The Fintech & Payments Advisory Network (TFPA), supporting fintech and payments businesses as they scale. TFPA brings together experienced industry operators who provide practical, hands-on support to leadership teams.

John has previously worked with and advised a range of growth businesses and organisations, including Chroma Ventures, TVSquared (acquired by Innovid), Broker Insights and Thorntons Solicitors. Earlier in his career, he held senior roles at Brightsolid and NCR, supporting innovation and commercialisation initiatives across the public and private sectors.

Outside of work, John enjoys sport, particularly golf in St Andrews and cycling. He would like to ski more and is a proud patron of V&A Dundee.