Which market? How do you identify the Look at demand (such as inbound requests), market size, existing reference next market to enter? customers, business drivers, and the complexity of setting up there; then compare different markets and choose the most attractive in monetary terms. Office When do you open In the early stages, you can simply rent an office address and travel there an office in the to keep costs light. As the business develops, you can then create a new market? full organization. Legal Entity When do you establish a le- You may need to create a legal entity early to help with sales. gal entity/local subsidiary? However, that doesn’t mean you need to employ staff directly until much later. Founders What should be the role of In Europe, a founder can simply travel to manage new markets. However, founders when entering a if entering the US, one of the founding team should move there for at least a new market? year to provide direct oversight of operations. First Employee/Sales Rep. When do you hire the first Start searching for candidates immediately after you enter the market, but sales rep. for the new mar- don't employ someone until you have certain amount of traction, such as 2-4 ket? test customers. Then you can commit to hiring an account executive with relevant market experience, selling to your target markets. Next Employees Which employees should be Scale the sales team as in your first country, adding a SDR, pre-sales engineer hired next? as you grow. Country Manager/MD When do you hire a country Don’t hire a local country manager until you have a sufficient size of team manager? What skills do they (around five people). Ensure that they have local language skills, but most need? importantly that they have experience of selling locally to your target market. Sources: Stefan Groschupf, Automation Hero; Amnon Drori, Octopai; Jens Hutzschenreuter, Digital Business Group; Jens Lapinski, Angel Invest Ventures 47