NEW YORK, Feb. 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Napster, an innovation company powering the next generation of embodied and agentic AI, today announced a partnership with Scaling Up, the global authority in executive coaching and leadership development. Scaling Up plans to leverage Napster’s AI platform to train its global network of coaches, equipping them to help organizations understand and harness the advantages of AI in the workplace. By combining Scaling Up’s trusted growth framework with Napster’s cutting-edge AI, the partnership aims to make high-impact executive coaching more accessible to leaders scaling their businesses in the AI era.
The partnership comes at a critical inflection point for business leaders. A recent MIT study found that 95% of AI implementation efforts fail, often because companies attempt to build capabilities from the ground up without the necessary infrastructure or expertise. Napster’s platform serves as a springboard—eliminating the upfront complexity by providing ready-made tools and embodied experts that business leaders can deploy immediately.
“Every CEO knows AI is the mandate, but very few understand how to harness it. That’s exactly where Napster comes in,” said John Acunto, CEO of Napster. “With our agentic AI and Scaling Up’s proven methodology, we’re rewriting the playbook for executive leadership. Imagine learning to scale your business directly from a coach built to understand your unique, specific vision and drive it forward. This is the future of business education and leadership.”
The partnership underscores Scaling Up’s commitment to embracing AI as the future cornerstone of executive coaching and business growth. Determined to find the right collaborator to bring that vision to life, the company turned to Napster.
“AI is the future, and we want every one of our coaches to learn how to harness it,” said Verne Harnish, world renowned executive leadership expert and Founder of Scaling Up. “We were intentional about finding the right partner for this transformation. Napster’s technology allows us to amplify our impact in ways we never could before, bringing our four decades of proven business frameworks to leaders everywhere, available 24/7 through intelligent AI companions who guide them through their toughest challenges in real time.”
For more than 40 years, the Scaling Up Performance Platform has helped companies and leaders around the world grow into industry-dominating businesses. Operating through around 300 partners across six continents, Scaling Up was founded by Verne Harnish, recently honored by CEO Magazine’s as a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also the bestselling author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, Scaling Up, and Start to Scale, and the founder of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), which now counts more than 18,000 members globally.
“This partnership will help us create additive resources that fuel the future of coaching,” said Robert Verdun, CEO of Scaling Up. “Business leaders today face unprecedented complexity: They must grow operations, lead teams, and integrate emerging technologies like AI simultaneously. By partnering with Napster, we’re going all-in on AI and ensuring our coaching methodologies evolve with the moment.”
This collaboration will enable the creation of digital twins of Scaling Up’s expert coaches, amplifying their proven methods and extending their reach to thousands of leaders worldwide, including in different languages. The program will be available to Scaling Up coaches later this year.
“Robert is a longtime investor, and he approached us with this concept because he saw that Napster offered the superior product fit necessary to digitize Scaling Up’s proven methodology,” said Amish Shah, Chief Business, Strategy, and Investment Officer of Napster. “This launch is a catalyst for our expansion into the Education, Learning, and Development verticals, driving significant interest and long-term partnerships from clients across these sectors.”
About Scaling Up Coaches Community
The Scaling Up Coaches Community is a global network of nearly 300 seasoned business coaches united by a shared purpose: empowering scaleups to achieve sustainable, breakthrough growth through the world-renowned Scaling Up Methodology™. Our approach is anchored on the belief that businesses can achieve long-term success by focusing on four critical areas: people, strategy, execution, and cash. With the Scaling Up Performance Platform our Certified Coaches have helped over 102,000 organizations worldwide overcome constraints, unlock potential, and build companies that thrive at scale.
About Napster
Founded on the principle of democratizing access—first to music in 1999, now to creative expertise in 2025—Napster has consistently been at the forefront of transformational technology shifts that expand markets and empower users. The company’s latest platform turns passive consumers into active creators, providing the interface layer between foundation AI models and human creativity. For more information, visit napster.ai.
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