11 Oct The Index Ventures Guide: Expanding to the US
Expanding to the US – The guide for European entrepreneurs
About Index Ventures
Index Ventures is an initially European venture capital company, founded in 1996, which has successfully expanded into the US. Today, the venture capital firm has two headquarters in San Francisco and London and has helped more than 40 European technology companies to expand into the US. Thanks to its own expansion, Index Ventures has the first-hand experience in establishing and scaling in the US, as well as a team and portfolio that is equally balanced on both continents.
Why expand to the US?
Index Ventures describes the reasons behind the technical success stories in Europe: beyond the general ambition, key elements would come together: strong talent pools, experienced executives, investors and service providers, excellent infrastructure and generally well respected legal systems and regulations.
But once a company has established itself in the European tech ecosystem, the question arises: where to go now? According to the VC firm, some of the European start-ups could succeed without looking to the US, and produce leading technology companies listed on the European stock markets. However, the majority would continue to operate in global markets and have global ambitions – which would require European funding to meet investment needs.
But in this area, Europe has been marginalised: VC companies are still too conservative when it comes to innovative technology. They invest less in technology, and if they do, all too often it is with a view to compliance rather than to the transformation of companies. European software companies selling to businesses are therefore forced to succeed in the US before they get the chance to do so in Europe. As long as this does not change, there will continue to be entrepreneurs crossing the Atlantic to scale and list software companies. And the global competitiveness of European companies will be further weakened, Index Ventures said.
The report describes that companies first make a strong performance in Europe before they are ready to expand into the US. The European Champions Alliance confirms this attitude and is committed to developing a strong European tech ecosystem, which gives promising start-ups the chance to develop globally later on.
Expanding to the USA – The guide for European entrepreneurs
The Guide for European Entrepreneurs by Index Ventures is providing knowledge and advice on how to expand a successful European company to the US. Much information and research on European start-ups are included in the report, which makes an interesting read for everyone involved in the European Tech ecosystem.
We would like to give you a quick overview over the 11 chapters of the guide: The Index Ventures Experience, Archetypes for expansion, The Archetypes in B2B, The Archetypes in B2C, When to Expand, Where to set up, First boots on the ground, Operational issues, Scaling up, Fundraising in the US and Culture & communication.
Read the guide here to gains some deeper insight.