US Expansion Partners

Your TAM already answered whether the US matters. It cannot tell you when to move. Go too early and you burn capital on a market that is not pulling yet. Wait too long and a better-funded competitor claims the ground while you are still debating. In his new post, our founder David Rose breaks down the six demand signals that tell you when the US is actually ready for you to show up in force: – US paying customers, and how they found you – US revenue, tracked as its own line – Percentage of total revenue coming from the US – Velocity: is US revenue outpacing your home market? – Inbound direct leads from US buyers you did not chase – Inbound partner leads from the US ecosystem None is decisive on its own. Together, on a rising trend, they are the market pulling you in. Full breakdown in the comments. Which of the six is loudest for you right now?

The hardest part of US expansion isn't the market. It's the people you hire before you understand the culture. That's the thread running through our latest Scaling Stateside episode with Stephan Dietrich, who took Neolane from Paris to a $600M Adobe exit. He's blunt about what actually decides a US entry: 1. The market is a given. The US is more than half of global software spending. 2. The risk is talent. And as a foreign founder, you land with no network to verify who's real. 3. The edge is deliberate. Pick your city for talent, sit next to your competitor, hire for knowledge transfer, and verify through the back door, not the front. This is exactly the work we do with founders at USXP, so this one is close to home. Full episode is live: https://lnkd.in/ekPcUrh6 If you're planning a US entry, what's the decision keeping you up at night? #USExpansion #GoToMarket #Founders #SaaS #USXP

We've watched founders spend two quarters researching whether to enter the US. We've almost never seen that research change the answer. Stephan Dietrich (Neolane, now Adobe) put it sharply on the podcast. For enterprise software, there's no long market study to do, because there's only one number: "50% of the enterprise software sold in the world is bought in the US." US multinationals buy at home and roll out globally. They adopt earlier. They spend more willingly. In his words, the US is roughly 10x bigger than any single European country you'd chase. The market isn't the risk. Here's what actually is: your first hires, when you have no local network to verify them. Your credibility, when nobody in the market has heard of you. Your pricing and pitch, built for buyers who behave differently than American ones. Those are the things that decide whether a US entry works. None of them show up in a market study. If you're still analyzing the "whether," you're spending runway on the easy question. Full episode with Stephan coming soon. Getting the hard part right is what we do with founders at USXP. What's the longest you've seen a team debate a decision the data already made? #USExpansion #GoToMarket #Founders #SaaS #Strategy #USXP

Your country has a brand, and in the US it is either selling for you or against you. Stephan Dietrich (Neolane, now Adobe) put it perfectly. Selling French software in America is like selling Portuguese wine in Burgundy. France gets instant trust for food, fashion and fragrance. Software isn't on that list, so you carry an invisible tax into every deal. We see this with European founders constantly. The product is world class. The perception starts behind. And it shows up everywhere: – buyers hesitate on a vendor they can't place. – great candidates hesitate to bet their careers on an unknown foreign name. – investors ask why you aren't already here. The answer is not to hide where you're from. It's to engineer around the gap: localize the company so it reads as a US business, not a foreign import. Anchor credibility fast: US logos, US references, US presence. Put a trusted local face on the go-to-market from day one. Country perception is a cost you can plan for. Most founders discover it too late. The full episode with Stephan is coming soon. Closing this gap is exactly what we do with founders at US Expansion Partners. Expanding into the US? How much does your country's brand help or hurt you? #USExpansion #GoToMarket #Founders #SaaS #Branding #USXP

A clever interview question won't save your first US sales hire. A network will. Stephan Dietrich has a sharp filter for spotting reps who inflate their track record: make them name the buyer, pull that person up on LinkedIn, and offer to call. It works. But notice what it quietly depends on. It only works if you actually know "Rick". That's the part European founders underestimate. The interview tactic sits on top of something much harder to build: Backdoor references. People who managed the candidate, not the three names they hand you. Someone in your network who worked next to them and has no reason to protect them. Enough local presence that "I'll make a call" isn't a bluff. In your home market you have decades of these relationships. You land in the US with none of them, and your hiring judgment is only as strong as the network behind it. That's why talent is the first thing we help founders get right. Not the job spec. The ground game underneath it. The full episode with Stephan is coming soon. This is exactly the work we do with founders at US Expansion Partners. Building your first US team? Where do you feel the network gap most? #USExpansion #Hiring #Sales #Founders #GoToMarket #USXP

Talent is the hardest part of US expansion. Not the market. Not the product. We say it to every founder we work with and Stephan Dietrich (Neolane → Adobe) lived it. He landed in the US as the underdog, with a budget that couldn't compete with the incumbents. Here's the playbook he ran instead: 1. Location as leverage: he picked Boston, not the Valley, for one reason: the deepest talent pool in the country (Harvard, MIT, Cornell). 2. Proximity as strategy: he set up two miles from the US market leader. 3. Mercenaries with an expiration date: he hired their best people, knowing they wouldn't stay forever. 4. Build the bench: he had those hires train the young talent who would carry the company long-term. "Outsmart, don't outspend." This is exactly the kind of deliberate, on-the-ground thinking that separates founders who scale in the US from those who stall. The full episode with Stephan is coming soon, but this is the work we help founders get right from day one at US Expansion Partners. Expanding to the US? Tell us where you'd plant your first office. 👇 #USExpansion #Founders #GoToMarket #Hiring #SaaS #USXP

Most European founders delay US market entry by 12–18 months waiting to set up a legal entity. That delay is a mistake, and it's costing you the most valuable thing you can get early: real signal on US product-market fit. You can start selling into the US today. From your existing UK or EU entity. No US subsidiary, no US bank account, no US payroll. What you do need: → A beachhead region (start with the Northeast corridor – NY/Boston) → Your messaging localized for a US buyer → Sales hours that overlap with US business hours → The founder on the calls – not a hired SDR US buyers care about competitive advantage, not where you're incorporated. Many will sign with a foreign entity if the product is right. The legal structure comes later. It's a scaling decision, not a starting decision. David Rose breaks down exactly how to approach this 👇 https://lnkd.in/g82Dz56F

We’re just a few days away, and there are only a few founder seats left. This Thursday in London, we’re hosting a practical Scaling Stateside workshop for UK & EU founders who are thinking seriously about US expansion. Not a generic “the US is a big market” conversation. You’ll leave with a clearer view of: – whether your business is actually ready for the US – where your GTM motion may need to change – what operational gaps to fix before expanding – how to think about fundraising readiness – what questions to pressure-test before spending real money in-market We’ll also have live Founder & VC Q&A, so founders can bring their real questions into the room. Thursday, 18 June 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM Wilson Sonsini, London Last few founder seats remaining. Don’t leave it too late register via the Scaling Stateside event page or DM us to reserve a spot. Register here: https://luma.com/wq48q7i8

Is your business actually ready for US expansion? To build a generational market leader, you have to win in the US. But succeeding across the Atlantic requires more than a great product – it demands preparation and a tested go-to-market strategy. Join US Expansion Partners Co-Founder & CEO David Rose, alongside Matt Oxley, Daniel Glazer, and Warren Lee, for an intensive US Readiness Assessment Workshop. We will help you understand exactly how to prepare and how to win in the US market. 🗓 Date: June 18, 2026 📍 Location: Wilson Sonsini, London 🎯 Target: 20 spots for European founders 👉 Secure your spot here: https://luma.com/wq48q7i8 #USExpansion #EuropeanFounders #ScalingStateside

The US sales cycle doesn't work the way UK founders expect. First meeting: enthusiasm, energy, "let's move forward." Then silence for months. It's not ghosting. It's just how the market works. But if you're forecasting pipeline the way you would in the UK – you'll get it wrong every time. Georgina Nelson scaled TruRating across three continents and learned this firsthand. The UK tears your idea apart on day one. The US tells you it's incredible – then takes its time. Both close in roughly the same timeframe. The difference is knowing not to mistake early enthusiasm for momentum. Full episode on The Founder's Playbook via Scaling Stateside 🎙