I’ve recently been watching my friend Antony, of Melbourne-based company QMCodes, taking the steps to bring his company into the American market. It’s been interesting to watch each little struggle as it pops up, from getting a US bank account, transferring the funds overseas, locating a lawyer and this is all without even trying to open any brick and mortar operation yet. In a speech he gave at MEGA he explained how any small company who tried to break into the US or other foreign markets would just be silly to try and do it without the aid of Austrade. Austrade provided some of the typical aid you would expect of a trade mission, such as introducing him to connections and referring him to a lawyer, but they even got so hands on as to physically drive him around Los Angeles when he needed a way to get to meetings.
For larger scale companies with the money to spend (or who at least can’t afford to lose money on careless mistakes), a market entry strategist can be a way to navigate the business and cultural difficulties of of breaking into a new country. I’ve sat through meeting after meeting hearing from startups about the difficulty of breaking out of Australia, and my ears perked up hearing from RedBubble at the Hive on their success in the global market. In doing a bit more research, I stumbled across this video online produced by a man named David Brown who runs his own market entry strategy company. He runs a youtube channel dedicated almost entirely to Australians breaking into the international market and RedBubble is one of many companies he’s talked to, including Booking Angel, SmackBiz and 5th Finger. In his capacity of helping companies break into the US, David has some unique Silicon Valley access to those Australian companies who are on the brink, or who have already made it overseas, and he pulls some interesting information out of them. I particularly enjoy Patrick Collins of 5th Finger talking about how North America’s latency in accepting advanced mobile technology has allowed a door for some Australian companies to enter (long story short it ended up with 5th Finger bringing 25 Aussies to the states.)
I want to address the benefits of Austrade more in the future, and I’m interested in talking to startups who have used a market entry strategist or market entry strategists who have had experience bringing Australian business into foreign markets.
