SECTORS
Our Experience
Find out more about our focused sector experience.
Our Experience
Fintech, Payments & Insurtech
Fintech, payments and insurtech businesses operate in complex, regulated and highly competitive markets. Growth depends on clear positioning, trusted relationships, and disciplined go-to-market execution across product, sales and marketing.
John brings deep sector experience from senior sales, marketing and product roles at organisations including NCR. He later served as Chief Marketing Officer at Broker Insights, a high-growth insurtech business, where he shaped positioning, strengthened market credibility with commercial insurance brokers and insurers, and led go-to-market execution during a key scaling phase.
This sector focus is reinforced by John’s work with the Fintech & Payments Advisory Network (TFPA), a collective of experienced industry operators that supports fintech and payments businesses as they grow. As an associate, he works alongside other senior practitioners to support leadership teams with commercial clarity and revenue acceleration.
Robertson Collaborate supports fintech leaders with practical go-to-market planning, alignment across sales, marketing and product, and the application of AI to improve efficiency and decision-making as scale increases.
Our Experience
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
Robertson Collaborate is closely connected to Scotland’s entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem, working alongside organisations that support founders, scale-ups and emerging technology businesses.
Ecosystem organisations often need experienced operators who can work directly with founders and teams on positioning, route-to-market strategy and commercial decision-making. Having worked at high-growth technology businesses, John brings direct experience of what founders face as they move from early traction to sustainable scale, enabling him to support ecosystem programmes and cohorts with grounded, commercially focused input.
John has worked with Entrepreneurial Scotland and with leading university-based innovation and commercialisation teams, including the University of Edinburgh’s Bayes Centre, Heriot-Watt University, and The Data Lab. This work has focused on strengthening go-to-market capability, commercial clarity and growth readiness within founder-led businesses.
He has also worked with Chroma Ventures, the investment arm of 4J Studios, and its portfolio companies. These engagements reflect experience supporting investor-backed businesses as they navigate commercial scale.
Alongside client work, John and Catherine have also made a small number of early-stage investments through the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), including businesses at early stage, Series A, and one successful exit, which has added a useful investor’s perspective to our work with founders.
Catherine supported Business Gateway clients across Tayside and Fife for over a decade, advising more than 200 early-stage and growth businesses on marketing foundations and commercial development.
Together, this involvement provides a practical understanding of how founders, investors, universities and public sector bodies interact within Scotland’s growth landscape, particularly as businesses build go-to-market capability and prepare for scale.
Our Experience
Life Sciences & Healthcare
Life sciences and healthcare organisations operate in highly regulated, evidence-driven environments where commercial decisions must be carefully aligned with clinical practice, procurement structures, and international market realities. Success depends not only on strong technology or science, but on a clear go-to-market strategy and disciplined execution.
John currently supports EKORA, a clinician-founded digital platform for cardiac patient management, as International Partner Development lead. His work focuses on building partner-led routes to market, supporting international expansion, and aligning product, commercial strategy and operational capability to enable scale across new healthcare systems.
Catherine supported CXR Biosciences during the period leading up to its successful exit to contract research and manufacturing organisation Concept Life Sciences. Her role contributed to strengthening marketing foundations and commercial positioning within a specialist, science-led business.
Together, this experience reflects a practical understanding of how innovation, regulation and commercial growth intersect in life sciences and healthcare.
Our Experience
Legaltech & Professional Services
Legal and professional service organisations are operating in a more competitive and technology-driven environment than ever before. For legaltech founders, success depends not only on product innovation but on clear positioning, strong go-to-market strategy, and disciplined commercial execution. Established firms face a parallel challenge: embedding technology and adopting a more structured approach to sales, marketing, and growth.
John has worked with the legal services firm Thorntons across multiple areas of the business during a period in which the firm tripled its turnover, expanded its geographic footprint, and significantly increased headcount. More recently, he has advised an early-stage legaltech venture on market segmentation and sizing to support its go-to-market strategy and commercial focus.
Catherine previously served as in-house Marketing Director at a professional services firm and has supported regulated financial services businesses, including a senior partner practice within the FTSE 100 St. James’s Place Wealth Management. Together, this experience brings a practical understanding of regulation, reputation, and commercial growth within professional services environments.
