Helping EU/UK tech founders crack the US market 🚀 | CEO @ USXP | Podcast: Scaling Stateside 🎙️ | US Launch • Ops • GTM • VC 📈 | Cycling • Music 🎶
Chapel Hill, NC USA
Joined May 2008
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Great US market entry strategies live or die on execution.
USXP COO Rebecca McElroy breaks down the part most plans never write down, and how the Readiness Assessment makes it concrete.
European startups get plenty of attention. The Scaling Stateside 50 measures which ones are actually ready for the US.
The inaugural ranking goes live October 14: 50 B2B scale-ups, each scored on public evidence across 11 dimensions.
scaling-stateside.com
A strong business and a US-ready business aren't the same thing.
The Scaling Stateside 50 scores both: a Foundation Score for the company, a US Readiness Score for the groundwork done.
First ranking of 50 European B2B tech companies: 14 October.
scaling-stateside.com
"Book the bloody ticket."
Matt Oxley's advice for founders who are almost ready for the US. He and Marc Cohen cover timing, founder-led sales, hiring, fundraising and adapting for the US market in this In2America House session:
youtu.be/yFm10naNCPM
European founders rarely lose in the US on product quality.
They lose to teams that engineered every step of how a product gets sold.
Germany engineers products. America engineers selling.
Watch full episode here: youtu.be/OtF03BHoiBc
Six-hour time overlap with Europe. Real non-tech buyers. Three airports. One of the world's deepest international talent pools. New York is quietly becoming the landing spot in the US for European founders who've hit product-market fit. @blwiertz makes the case in this new @techeurope_ video: youtu.be/3UekS1qGuIY
European founders underprice America.
Bigger budgets, higher costs. Carrying home-market pricing into the US costs you a year of margin.
Tom Fandrich on what he'd redo, with 70% of revenue now US.
New episode: youtu.be/OtF03BHoiBc
One thing I like about the way we built the Readiness Assessment: “not ready yet” isn’t treated as a stop sign.
It tells you what needs to happen first.
Sometimes the U.S. plan is right. The sequence is just wrong.
usxp.co/readiness-assessment…
Most teams debate the US for a year, then commit blind.
Tom Fandrich ran US hours from a Hamburg satellite office for one quarter, hit 30 opportunities, then moved.
Today ~70% of revenue is American.
New episode: youtu.be/OtF03BHoiBc
"When should you move to the US?" is the question I hear most from European founders. @MariusMeiners and @peec_ai just answered it: they did a third of their revenue stateside before opening an office there. The demand shows up earlier than most teams expect.
When should a European company move to the US?
Peec AI grew to 15 million in revenue from Berlin, without any presence in the US.
A few weeks ago, they opened a GTM office in New York. Even before that step, they already made 1/3 of their revenue in the US.
The goal for the expansion: 50% US revenue share.
My learning: European companies need to sell into the US market as soon as they can. Being too European-focused in GTM will cost you the leadership position in your market, and you will become an acquisition target rather than the acquirer quite quickly.
The full video of me visiting Peec's GTM office in the US is online on YT!
Opening a US office is the easy part. Winning the US market is the real work.
@blwiertz from @techeurope_ flew to New York to sit down with Berlin's @peec_ai on their go-to-market journey — and what it actually takes to compete stateside.
Worth a watch: youtube.com/watch?v=4SPxjQ2s…
3,000 generic investor emails can do more damage than 30 researched ones.
Get marked as spam and your future emails are less likely to reach the people you actually needed.
Marc Cohen on doing the unglamorous work.
Watch full episode here: youtu.be/zCE-3Zpemu0
Stephan Dietrich moved his family to Boston. Marc Cohen won't back a US move without hearing the founder will relocate.
Different investors, same signal: commitment beats everything else.
Watch full episode here: youtu.be/zCE-3Zpemu0
"Profitable" is a bad word in a US pitch.
Marc Cohen explains why: that line was written for UK angels. US VCs are reading for the opposite signal.
Same deck. Two audiences. Opposite conclusions.
Watch full episode here: youtu.be/zCE-3Zpemu0
"The deck says: we'll be profitable in two years. No, you're not."
Marc Cohen on the line that kills European pitches in US rooms, and what good investors actually want to hear.
New episode of Scaling Stateside: youtu.be/zCE-3Zpemu0
Every European founder defaults to NYC or the Valley.
Stephan Dietrich's test: give me three good reasons. "It's where everybody is" fails.
The default costs 30 to 50% more than Nashville.
Watch the full episode: youtu.be/lPnlxGEqwKY
Part 1 here: youtu.be/vhp73wwGwOw
His biggest US mistake after a $600M Adobe exit?
Going too late.
They stayed disciplined ($35M raised, $600M exit). The competitor who went bigger sold for $2B.
Part 2 of our conversation is live: youtu.be/lPnlxGEqwKY
Your TAM tells you whether the US matters.
It can't tell you when to move.
For that, watch six things: US paying customers, US revenue as its own line, US share of total revenue, growth velocity vs. home, direct inbound leads, partner inbound leads.
No single one is decisive. All six rising together over a few quarters is the market telling you it's ready.
Full breakdown: usxp.co/resources/us-market-…