By Tony Bailetti
This is part two of a two-part series that throws the spotlight on the need to develop prescriptive rules and practitioner-oriented models that can help technology startups operate globally upon or shortly after inception.
The lessons in this series are extracted from reading the literature and examining 21 companies that globalized early and rapidly. They were first published in the October issue of the TIM Review, a journal that provides free and unlimited online access to high-quality articles about technology and global entrepreneurship.
Part one covered the lessons learned from the literature. This post will share the lessons learned from examining publicly available information on 21 startups in 12 countries that globalized early and rapidly.
The three main findings are as follows:
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By Tony Bailetti
Entrepreneurs need access to the knowledge, approaches, methods, and tools they require to globalize their startups early and rapidly.
For the purpose of this series, globalization refers to the process by which a company meets the needs of a global market, one which integrates many formerly domestic markets including the company’s home market. A global market is the result of nation-states breaking down barriers to international trade, shifts to market economies, mobility of talent and capital, and advances in transportation, information, and communications technology.
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By Tony Bailetti
Conventional approaches call for a technology startup to gradually internationalize from local to home continent markets before entering the global market. Unfortunately, these conventional phased approaches take too long, cost too much, increase stakeholders’ risks, and waste the passion of many talented people who develop innovative products and services for startups.
While many founders talk about making their new technology firms global, they act as if the local market is the real home for their products and services. The reality is that only a few entrepreneurs invest in projects designed to use resources and sell products and services in multiple countries within the first three years of their technology firms’ life cycles.
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By Tony Bailetti
Most new technology firms first focus on the domestic market and then internationalize slowly, one stage at a time. They become global by emergence, not by design. Recent evidence suggests that the conventional phased approach to internationalization that is widely used to grow new firms is not working as well as it used to. Stage models of internationalization take too long, cost too much, and increase risks for both investors and customers.
Technology entrepreneurs, as well as the academics, educators, service providers, and policy makers who serve them, need to search for better approaches to launch and grow technology firms.
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As part of our ongoing series examining the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market, we asked Carleton University’s Tony Bailetti to share his thoughts on regional economic development and common pitfalls startup technology companies can avoid. This is the first of his commentaries and we welcome your feedback.
By Tony Bailetti
When bringing technology to market, a supplier typically produces a set of sound bites in order to feature and describe how its products and services benefit potential customers, partners and investors. A sound bite is a very short piece of information considered to be an important feature the supplier wishes current and potential stakeholders to remember. Sound bites also serve as points of emphasis in a supplier’s message to individuals and organizations in the business ecosystem in which the company operates.
The marketing collateral of 12 local technology companies distributed over the last four months was examined and it is evident that the quality of sound bites needs significant improvement. A technology company that is serious about commercializing its products and services needs to produce a set of high-quality sound bites.
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