Going global? First some basics

An expert panel provided a worldwide perspective and issues that startups should consider before going global –legal, accounting, taxation, market development, sales channels, and new geographies to target.

There is an entrepreneur in each of us. On May 14th and 15th, more than 2,500 dynamic entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, industry executives and thought leaders gathered together for two full days of practical business idea sharing, networking and power-connecting on TiECON 2010.

This year Jorge Zavala, CEO of TechBA Silicon Valley –the Mexican Accelerator office in San Jose, CA– coordinated a roundtable about Entrepreneurship: When should a startup go global?
 

The panel was conformed by people from India, Italy, Mexico and the US who exposed their cases when they tried to become global brands. From Mexico, José Antonio González, CEO of Infolink, pointed the key issue: “Selling is underestimated by entrepreneurs. Unfocus selling is the worst mistake. Is hard to sell abroad, so get a strategy”.
 

Zavala addressed the conversation of the panel to a main difference: cultural behavior and how should entrepreneurs have to learn on how to overpass it. For example, Fabrizio Capobianco, from the Italian company Funambol Inc., mentioned: “Be aware of cultural business issues. Is difficult to come back from a mistake. Get someone who knows the local market”.
 

The panel concluded on why entrepreneurs should hire a law firm “is basic, we spent a lot of time to find the correct partnership to be a trusty company in a foreign market”, explained Karla Callahan, CEO from Vizyontech.
 

And of course, as Andrew Tsao and Raja Sujith commented how it is crucial to answer these questions on international operations as soon as posible: How fast you become profitable and tax efficient? What are you going to do with the revenues: re-pat or leave it in the abroad country?