international, launch, globalWe are creating our business plan and we have not yet decided if we should go international immediately or after some months of our launch date.
Choosing some countries first to test our product, see what’s missing, see if people accept it, get some feedback seems a better idea, however I would like to hear more opinions.
Our product is SaaS-type product.
When should startups go global?
The question of going global is a question that needs more information to answer correctly. There are a number of things that you should think about before thinking about “going global”…
The thing you want to do when launching a startup is learn, everything you do should be done with a specific test in mind. But before you do anything you need to make assumptions that will shape your initial launch plan. The assumptions include…
Who is your target market? This should be as narrow as possible and never something like “males from 25-50”, something more like “men between 30-45 who work in the technology sector, live in New York and San Fran and have $100,000+ in income” or even more narrow.
As you can see from this assumption it helps you guide you plan in many ways. Let’s use my example since I know nothing about your product…
Then you can test this assumption with targeted ads and see how the people in those places and demographics respond. Measure those results and see if your assumptions should be changed.
Best of luck to you!
Bonus: A business plan can be a big waste of time for startups, if you spend weeks or months writing up a business plan then you have wasted weeks or months where you could have launched the product and actually started learning! Try using the business model canvas (or lean canvas) instead and iterate it over time as you learn more about your business.
With SaaS the quality of customer relationships is fairly important and you should focus on hubs in the USA that have money to spend on your product and won’t waste your time. If it was a social networking app then it would make sense to go global much earlier.
Unless you are in an extremely large market like search or finance, there will probably be negligible demand for your product outside silicon valley.
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