Hey friends,
Last month, a founder told me he wanted to launch in the UK.
In Italy, he has revenue of 1/2 million in ARR, and since growth has levelled off, he is now looking at other countries.
A few London customers reached out to him recently.
He did few demos and got all excited.
He now wants to build an outbound motion and hire one person for the UK market.
I asked him how much of Italy he’d really covered, and why he wanted to start a new GTM now.
He didn’t, in fact, have an answer.
Here is what the majority of expansions really do look like.
When things stall at home, a new country feels like a fresh start.
But if your approach isn’t working at home, it won’t suddenly work better somewhere you don’t know.
Americans say you should have 10 million ARR before you add a second way to reach the market.
I say 5 to 7 million.
If you’re below that, stick to one motion, one market, one team.
You’re still figuring out what works.
A new country means twice as much to learn, half as much focus.
The risk of defocusing yourself and the team is too high.
And the upside is too little.
You know it.
You know how people buy, how they negotiate, who picks up the phone in August and who doesn’t.
That knowledge took you years to build.
Abroad, you’re starting from zero. Actually you are starting already penalised.
There are only two good reasons to expand:
The latter is very common - indeed, for founders who are selling to a close niche. You may not have many people you can reach out to.
In that case, expanding might be a good idea.
Anything else is just running from your problems.
But if you do need to expand, at least go where the country feels like yours.
Most people get this wrong.
They open Germany, then Italy, then the UK.
Three markets, three completely different ways of buying.
Instead, look for similarity:
I’ve seen clients try to go from Italy to the UK. The UK is nothing like Italy. I lived there, so I know.
Different language, different pace, different way of thinking.
And the moment a British buyer hears an Italian accent, they know you are not a UK company.
You’re already facing friction before you even get to your product.
Now try selling from Italy to Spain.
You speak Spanish with an Italian accent, and nobody cares.
Barcelona and Madrid are plenty of Italian startups building from there.
Southern Europe just feels familiar.
There’s one exception.
If requests come in from another country on their own, take them.
Inbound from abroad is easier.
Handle them and enjoy closing deals in other countries.
But inbound as a motion is different.
People come to you; they researched your brand; they kind of know you.
That’s why it is easy.
But opening a new country in outbound, when you’re still figuring things out at home, just sounds like you’re trying to escape your current problems.
So my 2 cents are always the same: figure it out at home, build a solid 5/7M repeatable business, then start expanding abroad.
Thanks for reading this far. See you all next week!
