Just finished reading “Setting Up in the US Playbook” by the team at Frontline Ventures. It is basically a recipe book for getting your US entry planned and executed. The primary assumption here is that there is a clear product/market fit for your venture in the US, and […]
Continue ReadingYou all probably (or should) have already read and implemented the best practices of Predictable Revenue. I ran into this interesting bundle around Aaron’s teachings. It’s the Predictable Revenue Bundle of books and apps for sales teams. The latest I’ve seen in sales tools around my portfolio companies include: […]
Continue ReadingI recently had breakfast with a couple of Europe-based entrepreneurs who were getting ready to establish their company’s first US sales office in Boston. Up until that point, they had managed to bootstrap the business, getting it close to a $3 million run rate with a highly efficient sales model (primarily […]
Continue ReadingA recent email discussion I had with a London based founding CEO who has recently received a round of funding. Thought I’d share it with you… ________________ From: Firas Raouf <firas@nsquaredadvisory.com> To: James Focus, focus, focus… Sigh… Its a recurring theme, and one of the most important priorities […]
Continue ReadingA good read about the pros and cons of a uber-fast growth strategy is an article published by McKinsey & Company here. Go ahead and read the article… I’ll wait… The article lays a compelling argument for early stage technology companies pursuing a high growth strategy. It pretty much […]
Continue ReadingWhen most software startup founders embark on creating a business, they envision leading it to greatness. These founders see CEOs like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg and aspire to be like them. Unfortunately, it very rarely works out that way. Typically, founding CEOs — […]
Continue ReadingWhen Lasse Andresen left his position as Sun Microsystems’ CTO of northern Europe in February of 2010 to found open source identity software company ForgeRock, the native of Norway, did so with an eye toward a big opportunity in the U.S. market. Around that time, enterprise cloud and […]
Continue ReadingWhen I created this blog, my singular goal was to bring fresh insight into the unique challenges (and opportunities) that international software companies face when they begin their migrations to the United States. Recently, I had a conversation with Derek Roos, co-founder and CEO of Mendix, a cloud-based […]
Continue ReadingThe last decade has been very kind to a handful of high profile, very successful international B2B software companies. For instance, Zendesk, an enterprise customer service software company that was founded in a small loft in Copenhagen in 2006, has received more than $80 million in funding since […]
Continue ReadingFive years ago, the vast majority of successful business-to-business (B2B) technology startups came from one of the major hubs in the United States — be it Silicon Valley, Seattle, New York, Boston, or another emerging region of the country like Salt Lake City. Today, a lot has changed. […]
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