#394 – Jon Jorgensen on how Access Group went from £50M to £9.2B valuation

About this episode

Jon Jorgensen discusses how Access Group achieved significant growth by focusing on building a 'Forever Business'.

A story about what happens when you build a Forever Business—instead of chasing the next exit. This episode is for sales-led SaaS founders who feel the business is getting slower the bigger it gets—and starting to accept that as normal. Most software companies slow down as they scale. Access got faster. Jon Jorgensen, Co-CEO of The Access Group, joined as a telesales trainee straight from school. In 2011, the company was doing £24 million. Fifteen years later, it's a £1.2 billion business with 160,000 customers. His belief: if you build what he calls a "Forever Business," growth compounds instead of stalling—even after six private equity transactions. And this inspired me to invite Jon to my podcast. We explore why companies that never stop learning outgrow everyone else. Jon shares lessons about what shifted when Access moved from profit-driven to value-creation thinking, why he pushed equity to over 50% of employees, and what a "Forever Business" actually demands. You'll discover how a company survives six private equity transactions and 9,000 employees—without becoming the corporate machine everyone expects. We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable…

People in this episode

Host: Ton Dobbe

Guest: Jon Jorgensen

Topics covered

• business growth
• SaaS
• leadership
• value creation
• curiosity
• momentum

Keywords

• Access Group
• Forever Business
• private equity
• sales-led SaaS
• curiosity
• momentum
• business valuation
• leadership

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Access Group, Access Group

Places: UK

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