When companies expand into Europe, many start in the UK or Ireland, and as they gain experience they move into big GDP countries like France and Germany that are more challenging in terms of language, localization, etc. While this approach is understandable, there are many important markets that are left until later or treated as afterthoughts. When taken together, the Nordics plus Benelux make 16% of Europe’s GDP - which is larger than France, and larger than the UK in terms of contribution. At the same time, most of these nations are extremely English-savvy, and require less localization than Germany or France. That doesn’t mean you can take a generic approach, there is a learning curve and some important differences to be aware of, and in this episode I’m really excited to have Paulo Rodriguez as my guest to talk through his experience taking Software into Benelux and the Nordics. Paulo has done this at 3 very well known companies, starting at Google, then Dropbox, and now for Vanta. Please enjoy and share!

Links:

www.portofentrypartners.com

Paulo's LinkedIn

Here's what we cover:

If you asked 100 companies to rank the most challenging countries to enter, Japan would rank at or near the top on most every list. Not only does Japan have very high bar and specific set of localization requirements, nearly every aspect of doing business is different than in the US and most western markets. That said, Japan is the 3rd largest economy in the world, so it cannot be ignored by any company with global ambitions, and there are many success stories to learn from. In this episode, I’m honored to have Daiki Nakajima as my guest. Daiki is the Director of Business Development at the Japan External Trade organization, shortened to JETRO, whose main objective is to provide support for bilateral investment between the USA and Japan. Daiki oversees all activities of Invest Japan, Japan-US Bilateral Economic Relationships, Startup Initiative, and Global Acceleration Hub at JETRO in New York. When it comes to foreign tech companies entering Japan and vice versa, in the words of a mutual colleague at Hubspot, Daiki “has seen it all” over the past 12 years. Please enjoy and share. Here's what we cover:

China is one of the most complex and challenging markets for foreign tech companies to succeed in. It has so many hurdles to clear, including strict regulations, thorny geo-politics, and significant language and cultural learning barriers. But for those who succeed, the rewards and market potential are massive. With a GDP of over $18 Trillion it’s the second largest economy in the world, and in terms of population and potential end users, it’s the world's largest. One of the first things you have to do extremely well is to find an excellent leader for your team there, and I’m really happy to have Jason Li as my guest for this episode. Jason has been on the early teams at not 1, not 2 but 3 well-known foreign companies including Gartner, LinkedIn, and most recently at Branch where Jason and I got to team up. Jason scaled up our business from zero to becoming the highest performing regions and teams in the company, eventually opening 3 China offices and landing many of the largest logos in China in just 3 short years. He is also a multi-time startup founder and is currently CEO and building a new SaaS startup backed by Branch. Please enjoy and share!

Here are the topics we discuss with timestamps:

4:00 Maturity differences between Chinese and US SaaS companies

6:15 Similarities and Differences between China playbooks at LinkedIn, Gartner, and Branch, Gitlab, Canva and more. Expansion phases, partnerships, and entity structures

11:30 For companies that do not have experience in China - what you need to know about the tech ecosystem, user preferences, competitive dynamics

16:00 How to test and validate product market fit in China before making a bigger investment

18:30 ICP Licensing and the requirements for operating a business over the internet in China

21:00 The state of B2B SaaS in China - domestic supply and demand for cloud vs. on-prem services, willingness to build vs. buy, and the opportunity for foreign SaaS companies to sell to Chinese businesses.

26:00 What works when selling SaaS to Chinese companies. Jason's framework for value selling.

29:00 The importance of relationships and guanxi when selling, customer expectations, proof of concept and ROI, and cultural difference when selling in China versus elsewhere.

34:00 Tactics for building brand awareness in China

36:00 How to build a world class team in China - where to find candidates, local job boards, the role of headhunters, and how to classify and filter applicants to build your early team.

42:00 Beyond selling directly to customers - the role of agencies, partnerships, and government when entering China.

46:30 Preventable mistakes - hard lessons to learn from companies that have failed in China. Product Market Fit vs Solution Market Fit. Local vs remote decision making, respecting local business practices and norms.

50:00 Best practices and recommendations based on Jason's experience leading the China initiative multiple times

55:00 Post pandemic re-opening - perspective on timing and market readiness for foreign companies entering China as early 2023

This episode is focused specifically on best practices when entering France, and I’m really happy to have Natascha Chamuleau as my guest. Natascha is currently the Chief Advertising Officer of WeTransfer, a position she has held since July 2020, having joined as Vice President of Sales in 2017. Before WeTransfer, Natascha spent three years at Facebook as Head of Sales and Client Solutions for Benelux and Central Europe. Prior to this, she worked in a variety of leadership roles including eBay Classified and Marktplaats, ranging from Sales to Growth and Product Innovation.

Natascha and I were introduced when I began asking around about companies that had done a world class job of entering the French market, which as many know is one of the most challenging in Europe and in the world for foreign companies in terms of localization, building the right strategy, and winning the hearts and minds of customers and partners in the country.

We’re here today to dive into WeTransfer’s story and the approach that they followed to thrive as a foreign company in the French Market.

Links:

Port of Entry Partners - www.portofentrypartners.com Helping companies thrive and scale in international markets

WeTransfer

Natascha’s LinkedIn profile

Topics Discussed:

3:00 - Natascha’s background and early influences that led to an international career

8:15 - How France is different from other markets in Europe - things to know before you start

11:15 - How to build relationships in France - what to do, and what NOT to do

13:00 - The Eiffel Tower strategy - landing a well known local client to start the snowball rolling

16:00 - Navigating B2B relationships - corporate hierarchies and the importance of roles and rank in France

18:00 - Striking the right chord with French end users with B2C businesses and the importance of trust

20:30 - The importance of language, cultural nuances and a funny example of getting the French wording WRONG.

23:00 - Setting yourself up to succeed in France culturally and when communicating. Small changes that make a big difference.

25:30 - Entry pre-reqs, the work you need to do BEFORE you begin hiring, and the challenges for employers in France

30:00 - Spoken and written language - when and where using the French language is essential when doing business in France - in meetings, with clients, events, and in contracts.

38:45 - Where does France rank in terms of priority for companies entering Europe? When should you start working on entering France?

44:00 - Where to find top talent in France, how to write local job descriptions, and how to set employee expectations properly

49:00 - Getting started entering France. Some practical first steps, timing expectations, and the importance of on the ground research.

51:00 - Resources to help you get started in France - WeGrow, The Culture Map

www.portofentrypartners.com

This episode is focused specifically on entering Korea, and I’m honored to have Troy Malone as my guest. Troy has had one of the most exciting international tech careers of anyone I’ve met. He’s been a venture capitalist and a multi-time entrepreneur, and has been helping companies including Evernote, Drata, Weebly, and All Turtles (the startup studio founded by Phil Libin) take some of the most loved tech products into new markets all around the world.

I highly encourage folks to check out Troy's new company called Relevant that helps startups and scaleups build their lead funnel in new markets.

In this interview, Troy shares his experiences building up Evernote and Drata in Korea. Notes below. Please enjoy and share!

Show Notes:

3:45 - Troy's experience Immersing in Korea as a foreigner for 2 years

6:45 - Landing the opportunity to help Phil Libin take Evernote into Asia

9:00 - Things companies needs to know up front about Korea, and the 3 pillars of Evernote's Korean Expansion Strategy

14:00 - How to find local influencers and a solid PR agency

20:10 - Building and cultivating a strong local community in Korea for Evernote

21:20 - Finding resonance within Korea's culture of record keeping

24:15 - Deviating from the usual playbook, and outperforming Google, Facebook and Uber on a small budget

27:45 - The role of partnerships, agencies, and operating alongside Korea's massive chaebols/conglomerate companies (Samsung, Korea Telecom, Hyundai, etc.)

33:22 - B2B vs. B2C entry approaches

38:40 - When to hire, where to find talent, and what to look for when building your team in Korea

41:20 - Managing a team in Korea - cultural differences to be aware of

45:35 - Common mistakes foreign companies make in Korea

Rachel is Head of Internationalisation & Localisation at Canva. Canva is an online design and publishing tool with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere. Since it was founded in 2013, Canva has grown into a unicorn and one of Australia’s most famous tech companies. Rachel has been at Canva for over 4 and a half years, so she’s overseen an incredible period of international growth as Canva now reaches over 60M MAU in 190 countries and over 100 languages. Rachel is a member of the international mastermind network and a Bay Area native that is now living and working in Australia, so we share a lot of common interests and connections, and I’ve been looking forward to having her as a guest for a long time. Here's what we covered:

Robyn Larsen is an International Growth and Marketing UX leader at Shopify. She’s a front-end developer, entrepreneur, and speaker, and advises numerous startups across multiple industries and frequently mentors women in tech and STEM. In addition to the work she does at Shopify, she teaches Zero to Launch workshops for entrepreneurs through Embrk. Shopify powers over 1.7 million businesses in more than 175 countries, and in this interview, I had the chance to ask Robyn all about her learnings after spending the last 4+ years localizing Shopify's experience for markets all across the world. Below are the topics we discuss:

Jeff Paine is a Co-founder and Managing Partner of Golden Gate Ventures, an early stage technology venture capital fund based in Singapore. Golden Gate Ventures currently has over US$175 million under management and has made investments in over 45 companies since 2012 across Southeast Asia.

Jeff also started and manages the Founder Institute incubator in Singapore. Since 2010 the Founder Institute has graduated over 100 companies in Southeast Asia and Japan, and he received the Director Award for “Greatest Ecosystem Impact” Worldwide for his work there. He’s currently an investor and advisor to Redmart, Tradegecko, Coda Payments, and mentor at JFDI Asia, Chinaccelerator and of course at the Founder Institute.

Jeff is a Singapore native, but he spent the first eight years of his career in early stage venture and private equity in the US, and he graduated from USC, so he understands how things work in Silicon Valley and in Southeast Asia, and he's is an ideal person to help folks like me understand how to think about the region when taking technology from here to there. 

Below are the topics we cover during this hour-long conversation:

This episode is a crash course on entering Europe from Robbie O'Connor. Robbie had led the local charge for Google, Dropbox, Asana, and now Notion, and in this interview, he reflects on the best practices he's learned first hand, from setting up the team, segmenting the continent, and localizing the go to market approach. We also discuss how each of these things have evolved, and what's coming next. Below is the full list of topics we cover:

Ron Schneidermann is the CEO of AllTrails, and has been building technology that helps people enjoy the outdoors for over 15 years. He's an accomplished entrepreneur and a hands-on leader who devours data and isn't afraid to veer from the standard startup playbook. Many of the folks listening know AllTrails as the outdoor app that helps you find the perfect activity for your preferences, and once you’re there, you can take advantage all sorts of detailed maps to keep you on the trail, even when you’re out of cell service. AllTrails has been around since 2010, and now hosts over 200,000 trail guides in 190 countries across all 7 continents, and has over 1M premium subscribers worldwide. This isn’t Ron’s first expedition as an outdoor technology leader. He co-founded Liftopia and built and ran the world’s leading ski lift ticket booking tool for 8 years, backed by all-star investors like Marc Benioff, Chris Sacca, and First Round Capital. He also led Growth at Yelp before taking over the reins at AllTrails. In our talk, Ron shares his approach to covering the globe, lessons he's learned the hard way, and the questions he's still chewing on. Here's what we cover: