Omar Mohout, Guest speaker & CEO Sirris

1. #BETECH STARTUPS
The good, the bad & the ugly
Omar Mohout

2. SIZE
SILICON VALLEY
LONDON
PARIS
BERLIN
STARTUP DELTA

4. FOUNDING YEAR
1981 2014

5. TYPE
B2B
B2C
69%
31%

6. TOP 5 INDUSTRIES
1. HealthTech
2. AdTech
3. Manufacturing
4. FinTech
5. HRTech
31% of total

7. TOP 5 BUSINESS MODELS
1. Marketplace
2. Hardware
3. Data Analytics
4. Apps
5. Social Media
56% of total

8. STARTUPS WITH FOREIGN BRANCHES: 11%
31% 11% 11% 7%
USA France Netherlands UK
4%
Luxembourg

9. FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE

10. 2015
€238M€100M
2014
TEST
#BETECH VENTURE CAPITAL RAISED

11. #BETECH ACQUIRED in 2015

12. EURONEXT
• 1965 Zenitel
• 1997 Option, Barco, Melexis
• 1998 EVS, IBA
• 1999 Ubizen, I.R.I.S.
• 2000 Arinso, Keyware Technologies
• 2005 Zetes
• 2006 Metris
NASDAQ
• 1995 Lernout & Hauspie
• 1997 Icos Vision
• 2014 Materialise
• Netherlands 10 companies
• Israël 63 companies

13. GO GLOBAL OR STAY LOCAL

14. RESOURCES
MARKET POTENTIAL
HighLow
Low
High
Offshore
8%
Open branch
11%
Partners
38%
Online/remote
43%

15. PAIN
Low
High
FREQUENCY
High

16. Playbook 1 – STAY IN BELGIUM
• Market big enough to become sustainable
• Bootstrap or less than € 1M capital required to grow
• Not attractive for VCs
• Defensible market position, i.e. not-winner-takes-all market
• Once growth slows down, consider international expansion or
adjacent domain
• Cash cow strategy, not an exit strategy

17. Playbook 2 – LOCK-IN BIG 3 EU
• Become dominant in UK, FR & GE
• > € 10M in series A & B required – European investors
• Example: Mailjet raised € 16M
• Challenging: P/M Fit per country differs
• Local office required
• Exit strategy horizon 3 - 7 years

18. Playbook 3 – SCALE FROM BELGIUM
• Local ecosystem available
• i.e. B2B, Manufacturing, HealthTech, FinTech, Hardware
• Series A, B & C / IPO required – International investors
• Business model that requires boots on the ground
• i.e. sales, support, service – follow the sun capabilities
• Very few people have this experience
• Consider partnership model
• Exit strategy horizon 7 – 10 years

19. Playbook 4 – MOVE FROM BELGIUM
• B2C: marketing driven consumer services
• Pay Never cash flow model
• No local ecosystem available
• > € 10M in series A & B required – International investors
• Decide based on market potential and access to talent & capital
• Proven Product/Market Fit in target market

20. Tips, tricks and advice
• Market with fastest adoption
• Non-obvious countries: Turkey, Brazil, Nigeria…
• Working with partners requires a certain price level
• Support: follow the sun capabilities is expensive
• Test markets with localized landing page
• Brand protection (domain, trademark…)
• Localize content, interface & payment methods
• Plan your holidays & conferences in function of expansion
• Hire somebody who comes from the target country

21. #BeTech competitive advantage
• Global mindset
• Internationalization starts only at series B in the US
• Fragmented domestic market offers loads of cultural differences and
multiple languages to localize for
• Access to talent and technology capabilities
• Growing confidence that the region can produce global tech giants
• Thriving ecosystem and vibrant community

23. Get support

24. #BETECH

26. OMAR MOHOUT
GROWTH ENGINEER
http://www.linkedin.com/in/omarmohout
https://twitter.com/omohout
http://www.slideshare.net/omohout/presentations