Having spent 9 years living and working in New Zealand we work with a lot of Kiwi clients who are looking to bring their innovation to the US or who are looking to innovate specifically for this market. The US market brings boundless opportunities for international businesses but at the same time presents big risks. Learning from those who have already ventured into the market and have created success is a great way for businesses to fine tune their go-to-market plans. Take a look at these tips on How to Find Success in the US from Kea who interviewed five Kiwi business owners in the US, including myself.
In addition, we have spoken to Campbell Brown, the Co-founder and CEO of PredictHQ, a start up which say they are “Leading businesses across food retail, transport and travel use PredictHQ’s demand intelligence to understand the impact of events for more accurate and profitable forecasting, so they can plan with confidence.” Launched in 2015, Campbell saw the best way to scale their business and get close to his customers was to set up an office in the US. Campbell set off to the USA with his young family in 2017 which includes his wife Emma, who also happens to be…me! Today he shares what he has learnt over the last four and a half years and what he wishes someone would have told him before he left.
How is PredictHQ going and how have you and the team fared in the last 18 months?
Since arriving in the US we have gone from 8 people to now 85. All our R&D remains in NZ with our GTM (Go-to-Market) function situated in the US and now UK where we opened our first office there last month. The last 18 months have been challenging not just from a business sense but also making sure everyone in our team are constantly supported during such high stress times. The good news is that we have continued to grow despite these challenges and just before the pandemic we had raised a US$22M round which enabled us to really accelerate our roadmap through the pandemic. This saw innovation explode and really squeezed 3 years of work into about 12 months such as our world first product – Live TV Events, which customers like Dominos use to better predict demand driven via the broadcasting of sporting events, right down to store level.
Why did you decide to extend PredictHQ out of New Zealand and into the US market at such an early stage of your business?
Rob Kern (my Co-Founder) and I knew that this was a once in a life time opportunity. So whilst it was difficult for the family and I to give up our much loved NZ lifestyle, we have always been pretty adventurous and I personally never want to hit 60 and ask myself “what if?”. Compounding this personal drive is the more obvious reason – the US offers exponential opportunity no matter what industry you are in both in sales opportunities, capital to help you scale and the readily available talent who have seen true scale. This scale is hard to imagine for NZ businesses (I was one of them) who think in millions vs billions in the US. The mindset here has re-shaped a lot of my perspectives.
From your experience, what are the key considerations for New Zealand businesses looking to expand into the US market?
As mentioned above, the US market entry gives you access to a scalable market, US capital and a depth of talent not available in NZ. It also gives you a better stepping off point into EU. So when considering tackling the US market think about:
- Does your buying persona translate into the US market or do you already have some customers here? From day one, we never considered selling to NZ businesses or even delaying growth by going to Australia. We went all in on US and EU from day one which shaped our business, expectations and pricing for the better.
- Are you resilient? I don’t mean that in a facetious way, all I’m saying is that the first 6 to 12 months are going to be really tough and you will need support. You are going to question the decision, but ultimately if you believe in your product and capabilities then pushing forward where many might give up, is how you build success.
- If you are not in the US, do you have a trusted partner there who can be the person on the ground? This was me for our business but that might not suit everyones capabilities, but making sure you have a physical presence in the US is mission critical. Absolutely, things have changed in the last 18 months and not everything has to be done in person, but if you are going to close deals and form partnerships then you are going to need to do this face to face… if not your competitors already are.
What did you do to prepare for your US entry and what would you advise others to do before they take that step?
Have people on the ground who know the market and can help you get started straight away, it’s actually why we took seed capital from Rampersand and Tidal Ventures not only because they had help AU/NZ startups do it before but they also had a network we could tap into immediately. Building a network is crucial in your early days as the US market is VERY different and it also helps you better plan for what you might not see coming.
What do you wish you would have known now that you didn’t know before you set up in the US that could help other businesses?
I actually wrote this after being in the US for 6 months and it’s still relevant today: Top 10 Tips I Wish I knew Before Moving to the U.S. Prepare as much as you can but get very comfortable with the fact that it’s a risk and many people may say you are crazy, that’s fine. One of my favorite quotes I saw the other day from Nat Friedman (CEO of GitHub) was: “Pessimists sound smart. Optimists make money.” Nothing EVER comes easy, so buckle up, listen more than you talk and be really, really good at pattern recognition in the advice you get – meaning (and I understand the irony here) you will get an abundance of advice, so take the advice you consistently here and adapt it to your situation and jettison everything else.
Also:
- Make sure your product fits the market and if not adapt quickly
- Have a strong Vision (ultimate goal) | Mission (for the year) | Focus (for the quarter)
- Failing is going to happen, but it’s how you understand why you failed and how you put that into making things smarter/faster/better that is the key
- Team – ultimately, it’s the people and the culture they operate within which will take your business to the next level not the market so aligning with the right people to help you grow is the best thing you can do. Having people in market is essential – you become a product of your environment and trying to manage a business overseas at any stages is impossible. You need people on the ground that you can trust.
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