Valuable Resources for Internationalization
Going international is tough — yet there’s very little literature on it. Here’s some good stuff.
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I started working as Head of International for a rapidly growing German EdTech startup 15 months ago. While preparing for the challenge, I figured I’d read some literature on the topic — only to realize that there are very few books on this topic (mostly university textbooks, which usually are outdated by the time they come out).
Why is that?
My hypothesis is that most literature for rapidly growing SaaS startups comes from the US. Given the size of the US markets, most companies don’t have to go international before their Series C, as they can get enough growth at home. For them, it’s not mandatory.
In Europe, this is different. Even operating out of Germany, we decided that we needed go international even before raising our Series A. The market simply isn’t big enough to build a unicorn company. You have to bake in internationalization from day one.
But internationalization (also commonly abbreviated as I18N) is complex. You’re dealing with different cultures, regulatory environments, a wide choice of countries to enter, varying customer preferences, in our case school systems, and much more. You can’t just translate your product to the local language, hire a few local salespeople and you’re good.
Reading up is needed. Luckily, plenty of companies have done it before, so there is some content on I18N out there.
I’ve put together a list of articles for you that have been very helpful for me. Without further ado, here it is:
(1) The Balderton Capital I18N Playbook: great summary of many things to consider when going international. As VCs, they’ve seen plenty of companies go international and summarize their knowledge here.
(2) Index Ventures: Expanding into Europe: very comprehensive guide, again written by a VC firm. This one is targeted towards US entrepreneurs looking to go to Europe, but offers a wide range of topics that you can learn from as European entrepreneur. It breaks down hiring, setting up an office, localization, marketing, culture, and legal. Takes a while to read, but it’s…
