Summing it all up We’ve covered quite a bit of ground together since I started this series. Here’s the executive summary: There are simple steps you should take to lay the groundwork for international expansion from the moment you start your company. Before you launch internationally, you should have an explicit, well-articulated strategy. You should assign a qualified executive to…
Visit Site »A startup within a startup Doing a startup is really hard. No one in their right mind would consider doing two startups in parallel, would they? And yet that’s what going international is: a second startup inside your first one. And like any startup, it needs people and money to succeed. Two key questions Once…
Visit Site »The first couple of years of Loudcloud provide a useful illustration of the challenges of rapid international expansion, even in the best-managed companies. The business had taken off like a rocketship from its founding in late 1999—revenue grew from $2M to $55M in a year. While that growth was exciting, it led to a very…
Visit Site »In the first part of this series I discussed the importance of laying the groundwork for a global company up-front. In this part, I’ll talk about developing an explicit strategy to guide your international expansion. What’s your international strategy? International expansion can happen almost by accident—if you’re a consumer Internet company, you get offered a…
Visit Site »In browsing Quora recently, I was struck, but not surprised, by how many people sought advice on how to expand a startup internationally. Not surprised, because for many young companies international expansion ranks with M&A as something that’s easy in concept, but difficult to execute well. (See the many Quora responses, including my own, to Why…
Visit Site »