Signature workshop
U.S. Market Entry: Five Lenses for Crossing Borders
How companies actually enter the United States, why Texas and Austin specifically, and what it takes to survive the crossing.
The second crossing is harder than the first.
This runs as a conversation, not a lecture. I bring the structure — five lenses, worked examples, the numbers — and the room decides where we go deep. The questions founders ask when they are seriously considering the move are usually better than anything I had planned to say.
The spine of it is a warning. Every founder in the room crossed a valley of death to start their company. Entering a new market means crossing it again, by definition — and this time with culture shock, unfamiliar norms and unpredictable policy on top. Founders forget this, and it is the single most expensive thing they forget.
The rest is practical. The United States is not one market, it is at least fifty, and Texas alone has 254 counties with their own tax postures. Where you land matters. Who you sell to first matters more.
What you bring
- A local founder who has already made the crossing, to open the session
- A local attorney for the legal layer — visas, entity structure, what changed this year
- Fifteen or so companies who are genuinely considering it, not merely curious
- A room where people can interrupt me
What the room leaves with
- The five lenses: riding a disruption, reading cultural difference, the niche hypothesis, customer readiness, and entry modes.
- The technology adoption curve, which is the one idea I tell every room to take if they take nothing else — and the 65% principle that comes out of it.
- How a $20 million beachhead pulls a $200 million market, which pulls a $4 billion one. The counterintuitive part is hunting for a segment small enough to sound unimpressive.
- The channel partner shortcut: find the company already selling to the customers you want, instead of building the segment from scratch.
- Practical, unglamorous advice — including why a major conference should not be your first trip.
Also available
The rest of what I speak about.
Don't Just Start a Startup, Launch a Personal Revolution
Kennedy's two-a.m. question in 1960, my father's answer to it, and the argument that nobody is coming to ask us — so we ask each other. Closes on building a bridge, in both directions.
Read →Why Austin Is Overtaking Silicon Valley
What international founders get wrong about the United States, and the three things you need before you land: mindset, relationships, and ecosystem fluency.
Read →Creating a Powerful Future Together in an Age of Disruption
Care, connection, creation — and why the places that have already lived through the worst of it tend to understand this fastest.
Read →Bring it to your city