In this episode of #INSIGHTSPodcast Series, we focus on Cross-Border startups — particularly software startups that are cross-border in nature from early days. Dinesh Katiyar, our Accel India partner who is based in Silicon Valley shares some of his key learnings from working initially as a cross-border entrepreneur and now as a VC who focuses on this sector.
There is a range of important topics we cover in this podcast:
Sub-sectors in cross-border startups: What are the various sub-sectors within Enterprise Software that Dinesh is excited about? What are some of the nuances of each sub-sector and developing and scaling cross-border startups in these sub-sectors?
India advantage: Is there an India advantage while building Enterprise Software products out of India for the globe?
Product Market fit for cross-border startups: Does building a product for India first and then scaling to international markets make sense? What else startups need to think about in the early days while talking to potential customers of cross-border companies.
Enterprise customers: How can you service Enterprise customers sitting out of India. What can you do differently for these large enterprise customers vs. small-to-medium customers?
Getting the team right: Right hires in the US for an early stage startup with a majority of the team is based in India? Does it make sense to find a co-founder in the US?
Multi-cultural team: How do you build a multi-cultural team and why is that super important for a cross-border company?
World class products out of India: Israel is seen as a hub for tech startups that go global— is there a scope for India to build such a hub and if so how? Some examples of world-class software products built from India.
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We’re building Passionfroot 1, an operating system for creators to manage their business.
We’re based in Europe and raised our $ 3.4m pre-seed round from Creandum and US angels such as Vlad (Webflow) and creators like Ali Abdaal.As we’re creating a new category and as the creator economy is global and mostly online, we’re building from Day 1 a global company and product that helps creators monetize around the world.
This brings a lot of complexities especially in terms of payments and taxes as our early users are based both in Europe and the US and deal with cross-border transactions.What are Do’s and Dont’s for European startups who have a global ambition and build products for a global customer base from Day 1. Anything you would do differently?
Thanks @pjbouten! Love how you’ve thought about incrementally shaping a category with a focus on product and service, and only then thinking about getting the message out there vs the other way around.
And totally agree on the distinctions and overlaps both self-serve and enterprise motions share.
Thanks, PJ, for taking the time to address questions from the great vantage of shaping Showpad into a global, enterprise SaaS brand!