1. Lean Internationalization
By Katapult Group
2015 Copyright Katapult Group
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2. Agenda
• 9-9:45: Welcome and intros
• Including: Expectations to the workshop?
• Top of mind questions and fears regarding the USA?
• 9:45-10.15: Characteristics of firms that succeed in the USA
• 10.15-12 Lean Internationalization
• 12-13: Lunch
• 13-18 Individual 30min sessions
• 18-18:30 Wrap-up and evaluation
2015 Copyright Katapult Group
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3. What we hope to achieve today
What we want to deliver:
•Share the relevant parts of our methodology so you can
internationalize more efficiently
•Educate you so you know the most common pitfalls and traps to avoid
•Help come up with concrete next steps for assessing and smartly
entering the USA
•Provide input to your US strategy (if you have one yet)
Our context today will be on the pre- and early stages of your US
expansion
2015 Copyright Katapult Group
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4. Pitfalls to success in the USA
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5. Biggest pitfalls
• Lack of Executive buy-in and support
• Lack of support from the home organization (ex. Tech support)
• Lack of focus
• Everything vs ones strengths
• All segments vs perfect customer
• All USA vs logical scope
2015 Copyright Katapult Group
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6. Biggest pitfalls
• Emphasizing the wrong things at the wrong time
• Team is doing many non-important things
• Non-competitive price/value
• Thinking the product will sell itself
• Forgetting the soft aspects
Note the Supporting information section for characteristics on firms
that succeed in the USA
2015 Copyright Katapult Group
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7. Lean Internationalization
Using Lean Business Building® to internationalize your firm
2015 Copyright Katapult Group
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8. Key principles of Lean Internationalization
• Continuously rank and test the biggest risks assumptions
• Do only the most necessary to achieve the above
2015 Copyright Katapult Group
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9. Benefits of Lean Internationalization?
• Primary benefit: Accelerate time to cash-flow positive
• Accelerates time it takes to define the attractiveness of the US
market, i.e. Go vs. No-go
• Enter the US-market at at fraction of the investment
• Higher chance of surviving Year One in the USA
• Stronger foundation and increased odds for long term winning
business
2015 Copyright Katapult Group
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10. Group work
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11. 2015 Copyright Katapult Group

12. Individual company sessions
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13. Wrap-up
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14. How to contact us
Via phone: +1.844.528.2785
Via email: hello@katapultgroup.com
Twitter: @katapultgroup

15. Supporting information
cc: Paul Keller - https://www.flickr.com/p ho tos/182 59771@N0 0

16. Characteristics of firms that succeed in the
USA
• Segments:
• Understands who their perfect customer is
• Focus on niche and expand from there
• Product / Service characteristics
• Strong and differentiated along one relevant competitive dimension
• Strong price-value balance
• Focus is on succeeding with one solution before expanding the portfolio
2015 Copyright Katapult Group

17. Characteristics of firms that succeed in the
USA
• Organisation and team:
• USA market is a priority for the CEO and Board of Directors
• USA lead person is one of the company founders or an executive with 5+ years history
at company and deep and trusted roots across the home organization
• 24/7 attitude with an ability to execute on the plan but learn, change and adapt to
find product market fit
• Sees the US market as a marathon, not a sprint. Long term the US-market is
considered a “must”
• Dedicated person championing and supporting the USA mission in the home office on
a daily basis
• US-Founder = Heavily charged with customer engagement
• Recruits help / Outsources less value added activities including admin, book keeping,
etc.
2015 Copyright Katapult Group

18. Characteristics of firms that succeed in the
USA
• Financials and funding:
• Well funded, financial runway for 24 -
36 months
• Extremely lean operation until product-
market fit has been found and can
support scale the USA
2015 Copyright Katapult Group

19. Operations and people:
• US leadership and the operation receives extraordinary amount of
visibility and priority at home in the initial years
• Higher degree of interaction between HQ and US-market office, I.e.
meetings, visits, calls, other
• Emphasize customer engagement pre- market entry and continue
putting sales as the primary activity during growth of the firm
• Focus is on small and frequent wins throughout the company building
Characteristics of firms that succeed in the
USA
2015 Copyright Katapult Group