TAKING THE PLUNGE:
I left a great job at a technology company in the summer of 2015 to start my own company. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, and I did it to solve what has been a major pain for me at several companies where I’ve worked. The problem I’m tackling is the reality that expanding into international markets is hard, not knowing what’s important to know, not knowing who to work with, not understanding the culture and regulatory environment is way too complicated. It’s time-consuming, complex, high risk, and there is really no clear ‘path’ or step-by-step support system available to accelerate the process.
‘Over 75% of companies who are going abroad
today don’t have the means to outsource
the entire process to consultants’
None of the companies I worked at had the budget to hire ‘experts’ for every aspect and I’ve since learned that over 75% of companies who are going abroad today don’t have the means to outsource the entire process to consultants but would like to get help as needed. These companies are doing the best they can with minimal resources and are most likely assigning pieces of global expansion to anyone in-house who can spare some extra time or is willing to add it to their already full plate.
In previous jobs, often my teams were tasked with figuring out how to export, the triggers for taxation, regulatory issues, cultural considerations, localization, licensing, tariffs, HR, visas etc., and that process required spending hundreds of hours per country researching online, speaking with government agencies, looking for anecdotal guidance from other companies that had already gone through the process and could give us advice on how they approached it, looking for experts we could trust, and simple trial and error. A couple of times our teams ultimately decided not to pursue international markets because we just didn’t have the time or internal support needed to work on an international strategy. And that in spite of the fact that we received 10x-15x the international inquiries for the product versus what we were getting at home.
THE JOURNEY:
Prior to leaving my job, I interviewed 20+ people at companies who are already doing business in different countries or are considering expanding globally, just to make sure that the idea I had was viable. I also wanted to identify what aspects of this fairly broad topic to focus on for Phase 1. After doing research and confirming that there is currently no good or affordable process for global expansion for most companies, I selected a number of areas related to going international that are difficult, scary, and time-consuming for companies, but if solved could immediately save time, money, and reduce uncertainty. We’ve mostly focused Globig around gaining the knowledge to develop an effective strategy, go-to-market, regulatory compliance, product localization, human resources and employment law, licensing, and exporting/importing as well as access to vetted experts in each local area that could provide advice and consulting. After careful consideration, we decided that beyond offering general information in the areas of taxes, business entity creation, and financing, those aspects of a business are best handled by a company’s legal, accounting, and banking teams. If companies don’t have an international lawyer, accountant, or banker, Globig will recommend qualified vetted experts to hire.
‘I also consider Globig a marathon, not a sprint.
I want to work on making this company something
amazing for many years to come and
not to burn out or lose myself in it.’
I get asked a lot if I’m stressed out, since many entrepreneurs and startup founders exude and even thrive on tension, anxiety, and intense stress. I have moments of fear, doubt, and anxiety. For the most part though, I’m moderately calm, focused, enthusiastic, and confident. Globig feels right to me, even though it’s a 16-hour per day job every day. Although I’m still on the early side of startup life, it’s the most fun I’ve ever had working, is challenging in every possible way, and crazy exciting. I also consider Globig a marathon, not a sprint. I want to work on making this company something amazing for many years to come and not to burn out or lose myself in it.
I have a few strategies that seem to help for keeping myself mentally and physically strong and focused. Nothing groundbreaking here but perhaps helpful for other founders.
Exercise: After my daily 6 AM standup call with our software development team, my husband and I take our dog for a walk or run. The routine is key and it would be easy to get sucked into work.
Focused work sprints: I try to work in 25-30 minute sprints without distraction and try to get 6-8 of those sprints into each day. Emails, phone calls, meetings, and other random busy work doesn’t count towards each sprint. Calculating and focusing on these sprints is very productive.
Productive breaks: The remotely distributed Globig team also takes breaks via a Slack hack we learned from Brian Shin the cofounder at Polymail where every couple of hours during the day we are prompted to ‘group’ exercise via our internal Slack messaging tool. It’s really fun and our team loves it. Meditating and allowing some time to dream, strategize, problem solve, and just find balance is a goal that I’m still working on, it’s on the list of things to do better.
Months 0-1: Research, Company Creation, Strategy
In the beginning…
Months 0-1 were all about figuring out what type of company Globig should become, and setting the strategy for building the product. What exactly is it? Who’s building it? How does it work at launch and beyond? What do we automate and what can be manual in the beginning?
I had to decide if Globig was to become a self-funded lifestyle company or a fast growth global powerhouse that can help companies from every country export to anywhere. Both options have their pros and cons, but I ultimately decided to go with the big vision. I truly believe we can change and improve how companies everywhere expand into all new markets and that will probably require growth funding in the near future.
I’m a fan of Lean Startup but have to be honest, it’s easy for me to want to do more. The Minimum Delightful Product- MDP (instead of Minimum Viable Product- MVP) that I mapped out is a vetted global marketplace and expert consulting platform, deep knowledge base for each country, ‘ask an expert’ on-demand Q & A, and a global Slack community.
Months 2-3: UX, Planning, Hiring
‘What we need to learn can and should be done
much more simply and affordably at this stage’
After interviewing several awesome local developers and dev agencies, and receiving cost estimates ranging from $250,000-$350,000 for the MDP, I realized that what we need to learn can and should be done much more simply and affordably at this stage. After speaking with several local startups that have successfully used dedicated overseas developers to launch companies, develop new products, and support their in-house dev teams, I decided to go down that path.
The decision wasn’t easy to make and comes with risk, but given my options, it was the best choice for Globig at this time in our journey. Before interviewing developers overseas, I tapped into several amazing tech and design mentors and hired a skilled UX designer for several months, all to work with me to map out the details for the Globig platform at launch and consider the longer-term vision for developing out the data layer. We also spent time on determining the technology for the vendor and customer profile platform, the automated tools, the open data trade initiatives, and the social and network effects.
Did we make some mistakes? No doubt.
Is the code clean and scalable? That is yet to be determined as we continue to build out Globig for the larger vision.
I hired my first in-house team members in months 2 and 3 – international experts in law, culture, product development, and business to help develop the knowledge base and marketplace sections. The team, which is now up to 5 people (3 full-timers and 2 part-timers), has really come together and I’m excited and grateful for what they each bring to Globig in passion, skills, knowledge, personality, attention to details, and drive.
Months 4-5: Content, UI, Product Dev
Months 4-5 were all about building out the country knowledge bases: Singapore, UK, Germany, and US. China, France and Mexico are next. Globig uses Hubspot for the ‘marketing pages’ such as the home page, blog, resources, jobs, about, and landing pages to provide the flexibility to fully test inbound marketing strategies, SEO, influencer, search marketing, and whatever else to test along the way.
The platform and marketing pages were ready for new members and a handful of friendlies explored the platform. Overall, the early feedback on the content, vendor marketplace and tools was very positive.
Month 6: Testing
The initial thought was that the Knowledge Base would be so amazing that of course we would have no problem getting people to give us their credit card for a short term free trial and then charging a subscription for the ongoing membership but the data is just not proving that assumption correct. Globig has had hundreds of explorers checking out the Globig site and pricing page, of those, 20% even started to fill out the membership form but we lost most of them before completing the membership sign up. At the same time, several excellent companies specializing in global expansion have inquired about how to partner with Globig. So, we just switched the business model a couple of days ago to test free sign ups and paid vendor listings and other marketing opportunities.
Month 7 & Beyond: MergeLane Accelerator, Customer Acquisition
End of 2015 we were accepted to MergeLane,
an accelerator focused on female-led companies.
I’ve been reading about how important it is for companies to spend an equal amount of time on building their product and marketing from the beginning, and while in theory I agree with the strategy, it’s been impossible for me to do. I have to admit, I’ve missed the mark on this and go-to-market efforts have taken a back seat to product development. This wasn’t my plan, but it’s become the reality of having to make daily trade offs in what gets done first. Throughout the development process, I have tried to develop ways to accelerate our learning and go-to-market efforts.
End of 2015, Globig was accepted to MergeLane, an accelerator focused on female-led companies. Week one has been intense, amazing, challenging, and at times mind blowing. The ‘Give First’ approach to life and business is embodied in the generosity and support from TechStars, Foundry Group, Galvanize, Unreasonable Institute, and so many more. It’s another reminder why Boulder, Colorado is one of the best startup communities in the world.
I’ve been asked several times why I would want to be in an accelerator since I have a lot of previous business experience. For me, the opportunity to fill the gaps in my skills and the team’s experience with amazing mentors committed to our success, to establish effective habits from the beginning, and be challenged by and held accountable by people that I care deeply about not disappointing is worth it. I want Globig to be a global business leader that makes a difference in people’s lives. What we’re learning at MergeLane will help us get there much faster.
The next couple of months will be spent working closely with mentors, testing assumptions (even when it’s painful), tweaking our product based on learnings, figuring out what should be automated and what should be eliminated, and of course testing all kinds of customer acquisition strategies.
The real fun is just beginning, bring it on!
WE NEED YOUR HELP
If you’re interested in expanding into international markets, please sign up for Globig, it’s FREE. We welcome your feedback.
Thanks for all of your support.
