Our Story
We got tired of seeing
good founders stall.
Blackline Academy exists because the UK's business support landscape is generous with information and short on implementation. We built the kind of programme we wished had existed when we were starting, scaling, and exiting our own businesses.
WhoWeAre.
Built by founders, for founders.
Tomas Phillips Co-Founder
With over fifteen years working directly with founders, Tom has supported thousands of businesses from early-stage ideas through to fully operational, staffed companies. He focuses on untangling complexity, identifying what actually drives revenue, and where founders are avoiding the decisions that matter.
Key Experience:
- ● Building and scaling multiple founder-led businesses
- ● Supporting transitions from solo operator to team-led companies
- ● Restructuring offers and pricing to significantly improve margin
- ● Strategic growth strategies that move businesses beyond stagnation
"Most founders don’t need more information. They need better judgement."
LinkedIn →Alexis Charkiw Co-Founder
Alexis is a qualified accountant with over twenty years of experience supporting founders who are exceptional at what they do - but lack clear visibility over their numbers. She ensures that founders not only understand their numbers, but can actually use them to drive decision-making.
Key Experience:
- ● Financial systems for real-time visibility and confidence
- ● Identifying profit leaks and restructuring for sustainability
- ● Advising through scaling challenges and cash flow pressure
- ● Moving businesses from financial uncertainty to full control
"Financial confusion isn’t because numbers are difficult. It’s because no one has explained them properly."
LinkedIn →
Between us, the team has 40+ years of operating experience across startup, scale, accountancy, corporate banking, and business exit.
We've been the founder reading their own bank statement at midnight. We've been the MD hiring their first senior team. That experience sits at the centre of every programme we run.
Our Philosophy
Implementationoverinformation.
Most UK business support is built around content: workshops, courses, modules, toolkits. Content is useful. It's also cheap, widely available, and rarely the reason a founder is stuck.
What founders actually need is narrower and harder:
A clear next step, chosen out of the ten competing ones.
A framework that gives the week a shape.
Someone in the room who's done it, and who'll tell the truth.
Accountability - not as a stick, but as a structure.
Human-First, On Purpose
AIwhereitscalestheclient.Humanswhereitscalesthejudgement.
The industry is quietly outsourcing its core work to AI: mentor-bots, auto-generated feedback, self-serve accelerators that are really content libraries with a login.
We've taken a more specific position.
Inside our S.O.A.R. programme, we teach AI and automation: how to integrate it into operations, marketing, and workflow. We think it's one of the most important capabilities a modern business can build.
"But we don't use AI to replace the mentor. The conversations that change a business, those stay human. On purpose."
What Sits Alongside the Academy
Aworkingbusiness,notjustatrainingbrand.
Alongside Blackline Academy, we run **Square Three Sixty**, a business growth agency that works directly with established businesses on scale, investment readiness, and exit preparation.
Every mentor in the Academy is actively operating at the edge of the market , not reciting content from three years ago.
The frameworks we teach are the ones we use. B.R.E.A.K. and S.O.A.R. have been stress-tested in live work, not conference rooms.
How We Work
Fourcommitmentstoeveryclient.
Clarity, fast.
First session, first hour: a defined problem and a chosen priority. Always.
Work between the work.
Every programme is built around structured implementation between sessions.
Build the capability.
We don't create dependency. We build frameworks into how you operate.
Measure what matters.
Revenue, margin, pipeline, operational maturity , we track what changes.