Episode 98
Scale Smart, Not Fast (ft. Heehaw)
Most founder stories start with someone launching a company. Toby Trueman’s starts with him joining one, as a junior editor in 2009, then working his way up until he bought in and took over. Today he is Managing Director of Heehaw, an award-winning Edinburgh studio known for blending live action, animation, and motion design. Fittingly, the name is old Scots dialect for nothing, because filmmakers, as Toby puts it, make something from nothing.
This is one of the most honest scaling stories the show has had. Toby walks Dario and Kyrill through growing Heehaw to 47 people on the back of a COVID-era surge in United Nations work, the financial blind spots that nearly sank the company when that work vanished, and how he rebuilt it smaller, sharper, and far more disciplined. It is a masterclass in why you scale smart, not fast.
Key Takeaways
- Build financial foundations early. KPIs, forecasting, and real cash-flow management are what keep growth from quietly turning into a crisis you cannot see coming.
- Know your payroll-to-turnover ratio. If you do not know the point where staffing outpaces revenue, you cannot grow with any real security.
- Hire a finance manager sooner than you think. Around the 800k to 1M turnover mark, Toby says a dedicated finance hire, even part-time, should be your next one.
- Avoid premature full-time hiring. When a boom hits, lean on freelancers and short-term contracts rather than locking in permanent headcount a downturn cannot support.
- Specialize to stand out. Heehaw’s hybrid live action and animation is its USP. The worst thing you can do, Toby says, is blend in.
- Diversify to survive. Overnight, they turned into an animation studio during lockdown. Multiple service lines are what carry you when one dries up.
- Work on the business, not just in it. A senior team running operations freed Toby to focus on strategy, business development, and new markets.
- Let your team shape the work. Heehaw’s creative direction grew out of the strengths and passions of its in-house artists, not a top-down plan.
- Scale smart, not fast. After being burned by overexpansion, Toby now pursues measured, deliberate growth backed by financial discipline.
Timestamps
From Junior Editor to Managing Director
Heehaw is 25 years old, and for its first stretch it was a digital agency doing branding, print, and websites, with video as a small side. Toby joined the post department in 2009, moved quickly into producing and directing, and by 2014 was head of production. When the wider business struggled and the original directors called it quits, Toby bought in with the last remaining director, kept the name, and relaunched in 2015 as a video-only studio with just five people.
It is a genuinely rare path: not founding a company, but inheriting and reinventing one. That reinvention, rebuilding from five and eventually growing the team again, is the backbone of a real video business built to last.
The COVID Boom and the 47-Person Mistake
For years, the World Health Organization was Heehaw’s biggest client, and when COVID hit, a flood of UN communications work came spilling in. The team expanded fast to cope, peaking around 47 people in 2021. It felt like taking off. In hindsight, Toby says, they were making big mistakes and could not see them: no proper financial forecasting, no real KPIs, no financial management under a business doing millions in turnover with 40-plus staff.
Then the bubble burst. WHO and other UN agencies ran out of money, and a run of crises, the war in Ukraine, the energy and cost-of-living shocks, the writers’ and actors’ strikes, hit all at once. Redundancies followed. Toby’s takeaway is blunt and worth sitting with, and it is the same reason so many creative businesses stumble at scale.
“We were filmmakers, and not perhaps the best at running a business.”
Toby Trueman, HeehawBuild the Financial Foundations First
Toby’s advice for anyone growing is unambiguous: get your financial reporting rock solid before you scale. Not just cash flow, but forecasting and KPIs, and specifically knowing your payroll costs relative to turnover, the ratio that tells you when growth becomes dangerous. His concrete rule of thumb: around 800k to 1M in turnover, your next hire should be a finance manager, even a part-time one.
The hiring lesson pairs with it. When work surges, resist locking in full-time staff; build a freelance pool and use short-term contracts until a trend proves durable. And as you grow, shift from generalists to specialists, and put a senior team over operations so you can work on the business rather than in it. Getting the numbers right is also what lets you price with confidence, the same discipline behind understanding what a video costs and setting sustainable day rates.
The USP: Hybrid Live Action and Animation
What sets Heehaw apart is range. With in-house motion design and animation teams alongside live action, they specialize in hybrid productions and multi-asset delivery: not one film, but a suite of films, photography, and campaign assets delivered as a whole. That blend lets them lean into playful brands like Red Bull and Lee Kum Kee rather than competing as a generic production house.
It is a deliberate bet on differentiation, and it maps neatly onto how a studio can combine animation with the full range of corporate video to own a distinct lane. Toby’s warning is the whole point of the strategy.
“The worst thing you can do is blend in.”
Toby Trueman, HeehawDiversify to Survive
Heehaw’s resilience comes from having more than one thing to sell. When the pandemic grounded live action, they turned themselves into an animation studio almost overnight, pulling production off the website and leaning entirely on animation until shoots could resume. That single service line kept them alive.
Now their growth rests on three pillars: multi-asset delivery packages, experiential and digital-out-of-home work (think giant non-standard screens in theme parks), and VFX, a space Toby sees opening up as big post houses close and a rise of the boutique begins. Staying adaptable like this is a recurring survival theme, from diversifying your income to adapting through hard times.
Sales, Pricing, and Competing on Value
Like most studios, Heehaw is still project-based with no retainers, and Toby admits he can rarely see more than two months ahead. To keep the pipeline moving, they pair digital marketing with a lead-generation partner who works as a part-time member of the team, targeting playful brands that fit their style, the last ten percent that inbound alone never reaches.
The economics have shifted, too. As inflation squeezed NGO budgets, the bottom end of Heehaw’s work vanished, since a studio cannot match a freelancer’s overheads on price. So they compete on value instead: scale, consistency, and the reliability of a team that keeps a project moving even if someone falls sick. They target a gross margin around 20 to 25 percent, flexing it by project type, and stay disciplined about which work is worth taking. It is the art of generating the right leads, breaking into new markets like the US, and knowing your worth. If you want that thinking applied to your next project, that is what Lapse Productions does, and a free competitive quote is a click away.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Toby Trueman?
Toby Trueman is the Managing Director of Heehaw, an award-winning Edinburgh-based video production studio. He joined in 2009 as a junior editor and worked his way up to buying into and eventually leading the company.
What happened when Heehaw scaled to 47 people?
A surge of World Health Organization and UN work during COVID drove rapid hiring, but without KPIs, forecasting, or financial infrastructure. When that funding dried up, the company had to shrink significantly and nearly did not survive.
What is Heehaw's USP?
Hybrid productions that merge live action with in-house animation and motion design, delivered as multi-asset packages. It lets Heehaw serve playful brands and stand out from generalist studios rather than competing purely on price.
What does 'scale smart, not fast' mean?
Growing deliberately, backed by strong financial reporting, rather than mass-hiring during a boom. After being burned by overexpansion, Toby favors measured, sustainable growth over chasing every spike in demand.
How does Heehaw find new clients?
Through digital marketing on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Google Ads, plus a dedicated lead-generation partner who works as a part-time member of the team and targets playful brands that fit Heehaw’s style.
The Hosts
Dario Nouri and Kyrill Lazarov are the co-founders of Lapse Productions, a Toronto video production company, and the hosts of Creatives Grab Coffee, a weekly show about the business of video production.
About
Creatives Grab Coffee is a podcast about the business behind video production: sales, strategy, pricing, team building, and everything that happens off camera. New episodes every week on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Lapse Productions is a Toronto-based video production company serving tech, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing clients with corporate, promotional, testimonial, event, and training video, plus animation. New to hiring a studio? Start with how to choose a video production company.
Heehaw is an award-winning, Edinburgh-based video production studio founded in 2000, specializing in hybrid live action, animation, motion design, and VFX. Led by Managing Director {GUEST}, its clients include the BBC, Red Bull, and the United Nations. Learn more at heehaw.co.uk.
