Nigel Eccles CEO of prediction game site Hubdub has a guest post on Techrunch UK this morning with ten pieces of sound advice for startups looking to target the US from the UK. In a nutshell USAify yourself – including taking the for me painful step of using US English. Nigel is speaking from a position of some knowledge since his company consists of four people in Edinburgh and generates 75% of its traffic from the US.
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Advice for UK startups targeting the US |
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We did some work on this stuff, been meaning to respond but combo of time / NDA gets in way – plus hate always seeming to be the nay-sayer. Anyway, Issue is not in early stage, but when you have to defend a contested market from 6,000 miles and a 6 hour time difference.
Was just thinking – what’s your blog readership split Nic – and will you use US English
Hi Alan – you are right, it isn’t easy to go to the US. But it isn’t impossible either, and no business is easy
And my readership is well over 50% European, so I will be making the queen and Prince Charles happy by using ‘u’s and ‘s’s where they should be used!
Having worked in the US for 6 years I can honestly say that targetting the US from the UK is very difficult unless you have a committed long term investment, and people on the ground (preferably locals) who understand your buisness model inside out.US English is reasonably important, although I think that US Contract lawyers won’t shout too loudly about this, as if provides some easy additional billable hours