Creative Enterprise Fast Forward Mentors

Meet the Mentors: Martin Backlund

Ivana Karabova — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 17:02:50 GMT

As part of Fast Forward 2026, participants will gain access to a team of experienced mentors, each bringing a distinct area of expertise to help founders navigate growth with confidence. From leadership and recruitment to brand, innovation, governance and investment, our mentors provide tailored support designed around the challenges and opportunities facing ambitious screen businesses today.

This week, we're introducing Martin Backlund, Fast Forward mentor for Content, Distribution Strategies and Investment.

About Martin

Martin Backlund spent 13 years at Amazon, most recently as Managing Director of Prime Video Nordics, where he built the local business across content, pricing, marketing and partnerships. Prior to this, he led content licensing for Prime Video UK, negotiating licensing deals and developing data-driven content strategies. Alongside his work as an angel investor and with a growth-credit fund, Martin helps founders strengthen their strategy, build sustainable growth plans and prepare for the next stage of their business journey.

Martin's mentoring focuses on product-market fit, commercial strategy, customer insight and helping founders build businesses that can adapt and grow as market demands evolve.

Why is mentoring particularly valuable during a period of business growth?

Periods of growth tend to be very busy and full of change. A mentor helps founders step back and prioritise, gives them some reassurance they are focusing on the right things, and helps surface the blind spots that are easy to miss when you are in the thick of it.

It can also be especially valuable to have a mentor act as a sounding board for founders as they come up against new questions or problems, which often surface during periods of rapid growth and change.

Which aspects of our cohort's growth journey do you feel you add the most value to?

Honing in on product-market fit, developing the product in response to customer behaviour, and shaping the overall strategy and business plan as the business grows and those needs shift.

What do you hope businesses take away from working with you?

I would want them to take away a tangible, actionable plan, a bit of reassurance, and ideally a sharper awareness of their own strengths and expertise and how to leverage them.

I can also help businesses identify and measure the right metrics so that they stay on track and continue to meet customer needs. In my experience, it is more important to have good instrumentation to help you see what's happening in your business, so that you can course-correct quickly and accurately, than to strive for the perfect plan at the outset.

Ready to Fast Forward Your Growth?

Fast Forward is Creative Enterprise's six-month growth programme for ambitious screen businesses looking to strengthen their commercial foundations, unlock new opportunities and build long-term resilience. Through tailored mentoring, expert-led workshops and peer learning, participants gain the tools, insight and confidence needed to scale sustainably.

Applications for Fast Forward 2026 are now open.

Find out more and apply: https://creativeenterprise.wearecreative.uk/fast-forward

Meet the Mentors: Cecilia Thirlway

Ivana Karabova — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 16:58:55 GMT

This week, we're introducing Cecilia Thirlway, Fast Forward mentor for Communications and Brand.

About Cecilia

Cecilia Thirlway is a communications professional with more than 30 years' experience working with organisations of all sizes, with a particular focus on the creative industries and emerging technologies. She lectures at the University of Bristol's Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and is a Fellow of the RSA.

Cecilia helps founders develop clear, compelling communications that articulate their business's unique value, engage key stakeholders and support long-term growth.

Why is mentoring particularly valuable during a period of business growth?

Growing a business depends on everyone pulling in the same direction to achieve the same goal, but often it means that you're too busy to stop and discuss what those goals are, or whether everyone understands them in the same way.

Mentoring creates space for founders and leadership teams to achieve clarity of direction and think about some of the bigger questions that need answering in order to all be on the same page about what happens next.

Which aspects of our cohort's growth journey do you feel you add the most value to?

As a communications professional with over 25 years' experience, my particular strength is in helping founders distil, and then express, their business's unique value, objectives and strategic plans in a way that reaches and inspires all their stakeholders, from customers and employees to partners and investors.

What do you enjoy most about mentoring and supporting businesses on this programme?

It's the big and the small moments, the "a-ha" moments in conversation where we unlock a new way of thinking or perspective on the business, but also being a tiny part of a business's journey from one phase of growth to another.

I learn as much from each cohort as they do from me.

What do you hope businesses take away from working with you?

A renewed sense of clarity about what their business does, who it's for and, just as importantly, who it's not for, as well as a clear understanding of what their next steps are going to be.

Ready to Fast Forward Your Growth?

Applications for Fast Forward 2026 are now open.

Find out more and apply: https://creativeenterprise.wearecreative.uk/fast-forward

Meet the Mentors: Aimee Bateman

Ivana Karabova — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 16:08:41 GMT

This week, we're introducing Aimee Bateman, Fast Forward mentor for People, Values and Recruitment.

About Aimee

Aimee Bateman is an award-winning founder, executive coach and former CEO of the venture-backed EdTech company Careercake. After building the business from her kitchen table into a global company, Aimee successfully exited the business in 2022. Alongside her experience securing both angel and venture capital investment, she now helps founders develop the confidence, clarity and leadership skills needed to grow successful businesses.

Aimee's mentoring focuses on the personal and leadership development that underpins sustainable business growth, helping founders align their values, overcome limiting beliefs and build businesses that reflect their ambitions.

Why is mentoring particularly valuable during a period of business growth?

Building a business can be very noisy at times. And most of that noise is happening inside your own head.

The right mentor can help you find clarity in that noise and remind you that you do not have to figure it all out alone.

Which aspects of our cohort's growth journey do you feel you add the most value to?

My expertise is in the inner work that makes outer success possible. Getting clear on values, spotting blind spots and identifying limiting beliefs.

I also bring my own journey as a founder. I built a business from my kitchen into a global company, sold it, then had to rebuild my own identity from scratch. I know what that growth actually feels like from the inside out. Not just the strategy, but the person going through it too.

What do you enjoy most about mentoring and supporting businesses on this programme?

Watching a founder finally see their own value. It gets me every time.

There is nothing more exciting than watching someone step into who they really are and finally back themselves.

What do you hope businesses take away from working with you?

I just want them to walk away knowing exactly who they are and where they are headed.

Real confidence, not the "fake it till you make it" kind. And a strategy that fits them and the life they want to build.

Ready to Fast Forward Your Growth?

Applications for Fast Forward 2026 are now open.

Find out more and apply: https://creativeenterprise.wearecreative.uk/fast-forward

Meet the Mentors: Travis Baxter

Ivana Karabova — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 16:03:58 GMT

This week, we're introducing Travis Baxter, Fast Forward mentor for Revenue Growth and Governance.

About Travis

Travis Baxter is a highly experienced media executive who has led and chaired businesses across Europe, including start-ups and exits worth up to £500 million. Beginning his career as a BBC broadcaster before moving into corporate management and private equity, Travis now advises emerging media and technology businesses alongside a portfolio of board and leadership roles.

Travis brings a wealth of experience in governance, commercial growth, leadership and strategic development, helping founders navigate change and build businesses that are positioned for sustainable success.

Why is mentoring particularly valuable during a period of business growth?

All business is about change, but for smaller businesses this change is both more transformational and more disruptive, often requiring skills not naturally found within the business itself. Mentoring provides a helpful hand on the tiller to help guide that change and bring new resources and perspectives to bear.

Which aspects of our cohort's growth journey do you feel you add the most value to?

It's the light bulb moments, when complex and confusing issues for a business become clear and the way ahead becomes an opportunity to be enjoyed rather than one to fear.

What do you enjoy most about mentoring and supporting businesses on this programme?

Watching them flourish, both from a strategic standpoint where they have been able to improve performance through operational and strategic change, and where appropriate, through fundraising success that brings additional resources to accelerate business growth.

What do you hope businesses take away from working with you?

Confidence, focus and direction.

Ready to Fast Forward Your Growth?

Applications for Fast Forward 2026 are now open.

Find out more and apply: https://creativeenterprise.wearecreative.uk/fast-forward

Meet the Mentors: Tim McSweeney

Ivana Karabova — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 15:58:13 GMT

This week, we're introducing Tim McSweeney, Fast Forward mentor for Innovation and Process.

About Tim

Tim McSweeney is a strategic advisor who bridges the gap between technology, business and creativity. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience in equity investment and venture strategy, he helps entrepreneurs, industry leaders and investors identify emerging opportunities and translate innovation into tangible business outcomes.

Tim's mentoring focuses on helping founders develop commercial acumen, navigate complexity and build the structures needed to support sustainable growth.

Why is mentoring particularly valuable during a period of business growth?

Founders don't get taught how to build a business. Most of us just fall into it, pulled along by an idea and building everything around it as we go. Every business shares some common elements, such as customers, offerings and branding, but there's no single manual you can follow step by step.

Success is never a solo act. A founder can hold the vision alone, but they can't make it commercially real alone. This is a gap where most ventures actually stall, and it only widens as you grow. Every problem solved tends to spawn two more. That's exactly the moment structured support matters most, not least.

Which aspects of our cohort's growth journey do you feel you add the most value to?

I try to give founders scaffolding for their own decisions, not a model that replaces their judgement. The business responsibility still has to be theirs.

A big part of that is helping them see the boundaries of a problem, not just chase a solution to it. Every business has problems. That never stops. Half the battle is knowing which one actually matters right now, where it starts and where it ends. Get that right and the right solution tends to follow.

What do you enjoy most about mentoring and supporting businesses on this programme?

Honestly, it's the relationships, not the transactions. I've been lucky to have brilliant mentors of my own and there's something rewarding about paying that forward.

I also love working alongside creative, driven people building something new. There's real admiration in watching someone bring an idea to life and getting to help. And as the old joke goes, "I'd run a great company if it weren't for my staff and my customers" which is really just to say, the people are the whole point.

What do you hope businesses take away from working with you?

A business only grows as far as its founder does. That's the honest truth of it.

My work was never to hand someone a better document. It's to help them build real commercial acumen, communicate why what they are doing matters and put a commercial structure in place that lets them keep growing without carrying it all alone. That's what I hope stays with them long after we've stopped working together.

Ready to Fast Forward Your Growth?

Applications for Fast Forward 2026 are now open.

Find out more and apply: https://creativeenterprise.wearecreative.uk/fast-forward

Meet the Mentors: Sandra Tusin

Ivana Karabova — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 15:47:36 GMT

This week, we're introducing Sandra Tusin, Fast Forward mentor for Financial Planning and Investment.

About Sandra

Sandra Tusin is an investor, entrepreneur and former investment banker specialising in AI, Web3 and blockchain. Recognised as one of The Telegraph's Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs to Watch, she has worked with leading venture capital firms, founded her own investment accelerator company and is a qualified accountant. Sandra also specialises in AI ethics at the University of Cambridge and mentors founders scaling innovative technology ventures.

Sandra's mentoring focuses on helping founders develop commercially viable business models, strengthen their financial strategy and build the confidence needed to make informed decisions and pursue sustainable growth.

Why is mentoring particularly valuable during a period of business growth?

The early stages of building a business are full of opportunities, but that can also make them overwhelming. Founders are often faced with countless decisions before their strategy, product and business model have fully solidified. Mentoring helps bring clarity by developing a strategic plan, identifying priorities and focusing on what will create the greatest impact.

It's also important to recognise when something isn't working. The best founders test ideas quickly, learn from them and pivot when needed, rather than spending too much time pursuing the wrong direction. Having an experienced mentor provides an objective, outside perspective that can be difficult to achieve when you're immersed in the day-to-day running of the business.

Which aspects of our cohort's growth journey do you feel you add the most value to?

I add the most value in helping founders develop a commercially viable business model and financial strategy. With a background as a former investment banker, Chartered Accountant (ACA), venture capital professional and entrepreneur, I understand both what it takes to build a business and what investors look for when assessing one.

I enjoy working with founders to simplify complex ideas, develop robust financial models, refine their business plans and build compelling investment propositions that support long-term, sustainable growth.

What do you enjoy most about mentoring and supporting businesses on this programme?

What I enjoy most is the opportunity to work with founders from a wide range of industries and backgrounds. Every business brings a different challenge, and it's exciting to learn about new ideas while helping entrepreneurs turn their vision into a clear strategy.

I find it incredibly rewarding to see founders grow in confidence and begin to see new opportunities for their business.

What do you hope businesses take away from working with you?

I hope founders leave feeling more confident, more focused and less overwhelmed. Building a business can feel daunting, but breaking ambitious goals down into manageable, step-by-step actions makes progress much more achievable.

I also hope they leave with greater confidence in the financial side of their business. Finance doesn't need to be intimidating. Once founders understand the numbers that really matter, they are better equipped to make informed decisions, communicate with investors and build a business that is both ambitious and financially sustainable.

Ready to Fast Forward Your Growth?

Applications for Fast Forward 2026 are now open.

Find out more and apply: https://creativeenterprise.wearecreative.uk/fast-forward