Ep 47 - Scaling Startups Across Europe with Maud Pasturaud, Matt Turzo, Boris Pfeiffer, and Ashanya Indralingam

In this episode, we sit down with a panel of growth experts that have cut their teeth scaling in foreign markets with hyper-growth companies. We learn that launching in a new market isn’t as simple as copy-pasting your strategies; Localization is critical and foreign markets need to be tailored to. 

We discuss the importance of localization, the best UA channels in Europe, how they differ from the US, strategies that didn’t translate well in foreign markets, and working-culture differences. 

Here’s What We Discussed

• [03:58] What steps should a US-based company prioritize when testing new markets? 
• [06:24] Boris talks about his experience expanding B2Bs outside of the US and what to keep in mind 
• [11:38] Ash talks about finding champions for your product by fostering a loyal community
• [14:27] Examples of strategies or features that worked in the US but failed in new markets 
• [21:22] The most valuable KPIs to track and which are just misleading or distracting 
• [27:27] What are the best UA channels in Europe and does it differ from the US?
• [31:30] Macro Vs Micro-Influencers: Who is more effective?  
• [34:14] - The importance of localization in the country you’re launching in – The panel shares their experience on what didn’t translate 
• [37:11] -  Our panel talks about the differences in working culture – work-life balance, hiring and firing costs, job expectations, and culture

About Our Speakers

Maud Pasturaud has more than a decade of experience launching and growing leading brands across the United States and Europe from Seed to Pre-IPO stage. From Bumble ($BMBL) and Mercari (¥MCARY), to Alan Health and Gilt Groupe - Maud’s experience speaks for itself.

Today, she advises VC-Backed, category-defining B2C companies across Europe and the US, helping founders unlock growth opportunities & set their growth operations up for scale. Maud also invests as an angel in exceptional, mission-driven teams.

Matt Turzo is passionate about building exceptionally high-impact teams. He is at his best when given an enormous, amorphous problem that needs to be solved quickly and sustainably. He founded Compliance and Retail departments at Lyft, ran Partner Management for Groupon in China (90ppl), and ran their customer care in Australia/NZ.

Boris Pfeiffer is the CEO and co-founder of Riddle.com. Before Riddle, he spent 5 years in the gaming industry managing the European branch of Kabam and setting up his own game studio after leaving Kabam. Before his adventures in the gaming space, he served as General Manager for Monster.com, running its Internet Advertising Division across Europe.

Boris has worked for a range of startups and public companies in games and online, setting up businesses in Asia, the U.S., and throughout Europe.

Ashanya Indralingam has 10 years of tech experience growing consumer and enterprise services. Her knowledge spans Content, Marketing, and Product and she has gained scaling product marketing at Framer from Seed to Series B, nurturing a viral gaming community to 15M and using influencer campaigns to drive 25M impressions for social good platform, Causes.com.

She is a strong proponent of inclusive workplace culture and leader of internal D&I initiatives that resulted in broader female, POC, and non-binary representation across the company and community.

About Our Host

Anish Shah is the CEO & Founder of executive search agency Bring Ruckus. Anish has worked in-house in Growth roles at Snapfish and Getable. He started Bring Ruckus as a Growth consultancy 11 years ago working with 40+ clients, then re-focused his firm on executive recruiting for Growth leaders.

 

Quotes

 

“When you go to a new market, hire someone who knows the market. Don't try to do it yourself.” – Boris Pfeiffer 

 

“Now something we prelaunch with is actual strategy – Thinking about content, community, and influence, really worked and it was really about having that cultural message that resonated and then having the right influencer to disperse that message.” – Maud Pasturaud

 

“At the early stages of a startup, it can be enticing to look at vanity metrics or only look at the numbers that are moving up and sort of galvanize the company around that.” – Ashanya Indralingam

 

“No matter what business you're running, start to think about other ways that are worth testing with like a few hundred bucks that you can see if there's actually a very efficient channel that other people in the industry haven't touched.” – Matt Turzo

 

“If you don't listen to them and don't include them in your communication, that will definitely set them up for failure faster than anything else. And it's probably the hardest thing in the world to do that across Asia or Europe.” – Boris Pfeiffer 

 

ABOUT RUCKUS

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