Deck of the workshop and Product market fit method.
🇺🇸 Expanding to U.S. to like is like launching a second startup
You will need to:
✏️ Your expansion checklist
Follow these simple steps to get started on your journey.
1️⃣ SET UP YOUR U.S. EXPANSION & MARKET RESEARCH TEAM
Even if we're convinced that a successful U.S. expansion requires that one of the founding team should go to the U.S. themselves, it doesn’t mean you have to do it alone.
Who should be in your US expansion & research team (apart from you)?
Depending on U.S. market potential for your company, you can either work with:
- Freelancers (that's what Implicity, an XAnge portfolio company, did. Read more here.)
- Hire someone who is well suited to becoming the U.S. Head of Sales or Head of Operations (that’s what Assoconnect, an XAnge portfolio company, did. See their job description here.)
- Choose a member of your current team (that's what BackMarket did.)
In all cases, whomever you recruit should help get what you don’t already have internally : U.S. market experience, culture, sales habits, and of course, English language skills.
There are 2 possibilities:
- A European native who has lived in U.S. for several years
- A U.S. native who has already lived for several years in a European country culturally close to your own.
Additionally, hiring someone to help you in the US expansion research will also be beneficial:
- Build your US executive team and make sure you get along with them
- Make it spend time with the french team (current HQ) to get company culture
2️⃣ DEFINE U.S. EXPANSION & RESEARCH TEAM KEY METRICS
Your goal is to be able to make an objective decision at the end of your research process. Expect to spend about 3-months on this.
To be able to take this decision, you need good answers to each of these:
- Value chain comparison
- Customer research
- Competitor research & positioning
- Product localization
- Ideal local office location
- Regulatory requirements (legal, financial, HR, IP, subsidiaries, etc.)
- Your pre- and post-launch timetable
- Year one budget and staffing plan
3️⃣SPEAK TO POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS
🗓️ When? As soon as possible
Whether or not you already have customers in the U.S., you need to speak to real potential customers to better identify their needs.
Just talking to existing customers or inbound leads from U.S. is not enough. Include current U.S. customers (if you have some), active prospects, and U.S. native business professionals you don't already know.
For that you can:
- Set up a demand generation section for US to generate leads
- If it's relevant for your business model, you can also test U.S. traction by listing your product on platforms such as :
- Participate to trade fairs relevant to your sector like CES Las Vegas...
- Proactively reach out to your potential customers via LinkedIn
4️⃣ EVALUATE MARKET INTEREST
🗓️ When? After completing step 1
"You need to be conscious that we don’t know how to ‘go-to-market’ as well as the Americans: a Frenchman will build a solution hoping that his customers understand it, where an American will build a product around a customer’s need. This is one of those cultural obstacles.” Emmanuel Schalit, CEO and Founder @ Dashlane
To be efficient, you need to be objective about your prospective customer interviews. We really recommend you to read this article by Rahul Vohra, the founder and CEO of Superhuman.
How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market FitUseful resources
Define your go-to-market strategy - SaaS Lander (in French)
