Market Entry Strategies

For 13 years, I’ve been on the frontline of the B2B data wars. Here are the 5 strategies startups can use to defeat larger incumbents in their battle for market share: BACKGROUND: When I was VP at ZoomInfo they outflanked D&B by going after SMB. When I was President/COO at Apollo I saw them build a self-serve PLG engine to take that very same SMB segment from ZoomInfo. In the coming years, some B2B data startup will do to Apollo what they did to ZoomInfo, and ZoomInfo did to D&B. That is the nature of the beast. Here are the 5 ways I've seen new companies defeat incumbents: 1. Capture Attention Better Than Your Competition -  Only companies with the ability to cut through the noise succeed -  No matter what you do, there are likely over 20 teams doing the same -  Lower the search cost for the buyer. Nurture a community, develop a memorable brand, think about market virality early on, invest in an Inbound flywheel 2. Just Be Different - There’s always room to innovate - Innovation can be in GTM or packaging (doesn't have to be product) Example (Packaging): ZoomInfo differentiated from D&B by selling a self serve tool for $5K/year; when most data vendors were selling data dumps for $100K+/year. Apollo differentiated from ZoomInfo by selling a self serve tool for $99/user/mo to SMB; when others were selling $25K/year plans to enterprise. Example (GTM): ZoomInfo innovated in GTM with efficient inside sales teams as opposed to D&B’s field sales staff. Apollo innovated with PLG for the data business as opposed to ZoomInfo’s inside sales team 3. Refuse To Copy Your Dominant Competitor - Most entrepreneurs have so much respect for the dominant competitors that all they can think of is playing catch up and aim for feature parity - By the time you copy a feature, the dominant player will build 5 more and the gap widens - Instead, craft your own path. Identify an audience that your competitor is ignoring and roadmap that will make you look distinct 4. Relentless Focus On Optimizing The Low End Of The Market - Most disruption comes from the low end of the market - Zoominfo went after the SMB, which D&B was willing to forego without a fight - As the ZoomInfo business grew, they moved upstream and Apollo went after the low end of the market that ZoomInfo did not care as much about anymore - It’s only natural that Apollo will find going upstream more attractive as the business scales, paving way for a NewCo to acquire the SMB market once again 5. Be the best at something and don't try to be good at everything - Every team can be exceptionally good at something - Identify what your superpowers are - Is it Product, Sales, Marketing, CS? - Double down on your strengths, ignore your weaknesses - Do more of what you are good at to create a competitive edge TLDR: 1. Learn how to capture attention 2. Be different 3. Don't copy your competitor 4. Focus on low end of the market 5. Be the best at something P.S. Have questions? AMA in the comments. 👇

Recently, I had the opportunity to share my learnings and insights from "Launching Products Globally" with an amazing audience at Plug and Play Tech Center with the presence of global audience including entrepreneurs from HKSTP - Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation. Here are a few learnings and insights from the evening: 1) You need to "localize" your product & go-to-market strategy: This doesn't only mean just translating or localizing your product. It's a lot more than that. You need to localize your "go-to-market" motion as well. You may have product-market-fit (PMF) locally, in the first country/region you launched, but that doesn't mean you can take the same product and go-to-market strategy to launch in a new country/region. As an example at Fitbit, we learned how the French think about fitness (they count walking to a restaurant to get a glass of wine as their "fitness") is very different than how Americans define workout and fitness. So all our marketing and go-to-market strategies had to align with the way locals will see benefits in our products. 2) Having boots on the ground is essential for successful global expansion: You need to have boots on the ground who truly understand the nuances of how to go-to-market, how to sell, and how to deliver your value proposition to customers in different regions. There are a lot of nuances of how to do business locally that will take outsiders to any market a long time to learn. At Cleo, where we had global customers like Salesforce, Redbull, Pepsi, and Uber, we had to have local health Guides to deliver our services with an intimate understanding of customers needs and approaches in that region. 3) Understanding local, cultural, and social aspects is critical to a global expansion success: Even though at the surface things may seem similar in each region, there are a lot of nuances that make your go-to-market strategy and the way you deliver your services resonate with the local customers or not. At Teladoc, we've learned that people in different countries think about their mental health and how to get support for that "very differently" than each other. Huge thank you to my hosts Rahim Amidi, Dr. Yahya Tabesh, Amir Amidi, Ahmadreza Masrour, and Akvile Gustaite, and HKSTP leaders, Albert Wong & Pheona Kan, who are interested in continuing these conversations. It was awesome to meet great entrepreneurs and see old friends: Reza Moghtaderi Esfahani, Daniel Lo, Houman Homayoun, Wayne Chang, Golnaz (Naz) Moeini. #product #gotomarket #globallaunch #globalbusiness

Decoding Market Entry: How Startups Can Conquer New Markets 🌍 Hi everyone! Ankita here, diving into an exciting yet challenging phase for any startup—entering a new market. Whether it’s expanding to a different city, country, or even industry, breaking into untapped regions requires strategy, research, and execution. Let’s explore how startups can navigate this journey successfully. Why Market Entry Is a Game-Changer Expanding into new markets can unlock tremendous growth, diversify revenue streams, and boost your brand’s visibility. But the key lies in doing it right. Here’s a step-by-step guide for startups looking to make an impact: 🌟 Research, Research, Research Understanding the new market is the foundation of success. Study customer behavior, competitors, and cultural nuances to tailor your approach. Tip: Leverage local insights by partnering with agencies, conducting surveys, or collaborating with local experts. 🌟 Validate Your Product-Market Fit What works in one market might not work in another. Test and adapt your offerings to meet the unique needs of the new audience. Tip: Start with pilot projects to gather feedback before scaling. 🌟 Build Local Partnerships Partnering with local businesses can help you navigate regulatory challenges, gain credibility, and access existing networks. Tip: Look for mission-aligned partners who share your vision and can accelerate your market entry. 🌟 Localise Your Marketing Strategy Your messaging should resonate with the local audience. Consider language, culture, and regional trends when crafting your campaigns. Tip: Use localized content and platforms that your target market engages with the most. 🌟 Understand Legal and Regulatory Landscapes Every region comes with its own set of rules. Compliance is non-negotiable and can save you from costly pitfalls. Tip: Consult with local legal advisors to navigate taxes, permits, and other regulations seamlessly. 🌟 Focus on Building a Local Team A local team understands the market better and can help you connect authentically with customers and stakeholders. Tip: Hire people who embody your startup’s values but bring local expertise to the table. 🌟 Measure and Iterate Success in new markets isn’t guaranteed overnight. Continuously track your progress, learn from mistakes, and refine your strategies. Tip: Use KPIs like customer acquisition cost, churn rate, and revenue growth to assess your performance. 🌟Stepping into the Unknown with Confidence Entering a new market is a bold move, but it’s also an opportunity to redefine your growth trajectory. With the right planning and execution, startups can not just enter but thrive in untapped regions. 💬 What strategies have worked for you when entering new markets? Let’s exchange ideas and help each other conquer new frontiers! #StartupExpansion #DecodingMarketEntry #GoGlobal #StartupStrategy #GrowthHacks

92% of healthtech founders make the same mistake: They wait until their product is perfect before launching. Founders spend months building - refining features, fixing bugs, polishing UX. But when they finally launch? – No users – No feedback – No market pull Because they were optimizing for perfection - not market validation. The best founders don't wait to sell. They start before they're "ready." Here's the exact playbook that works: ▶︎ 1. Build your target list first Identify 100 specific people who feel your problem daily. Whether its a diagnostic tool or a workflow software, be as specific as you can. ▶︎ 2. Find them where they already socialise Join medical/health groups on LinkedIn, attend conferences, follow their publications. Don't cold email - engage with their content first. Comment thoughtfully on their posts about industry challenges. ▶︎ 3. Share one painful problem you've discovered each week Example - "I noticed ICU nurses spend 40% of their shift on documentation instead of patient care." Ask if others see this too. You'll get replies from people living this problem daily. ▶︎ 4. Turn conversations into 15-minute calls When someone engages, offer: "I'm exploring solutions to this exact problem - would you spare 15 minutes to share what you've tried?" Most say yes because you're asking for expertise, not selling. ▶︎ 5. Test demand before building Mock up a landing page. Show what the product might do. Then ask: “If this existed, would you pilot it for 30 days?” Real demand = budget, pilot interest, usage. Founders who do this aren’t waiting to get “fundable.” They’re testing their demand and product from day 1. Because your goal isn't to impress investors. It's to find 100 people who can't live without what you're building. So if you are still in the pre-launch stage, DM me what you’re building and I’ll send a few ways to test it fast. #entrepreneurship #startup #funding

The secret to company success is deep-customer understanding. And no one did it better than Gillette. How? By literally living with their customers and seeing how they use Gillette products. When Gillette wanted to expand to India, they realized that Indians didn't shave the same way as Americans. To understand Indian customers better, one of Gillette's executives, Chip Bergh, asked his team to go to India and live with the customers there. They wanted to observe how people shaved and how it fit into their lives. This concept is called ethnographic market research. One scientist from the UK thought they simply could talk to Indian men living nearby, but Chip said it wouldn't be enough. They needed to see and experience things firsthand. In India, the team discovered that many people in India didn't have access to a big sink with hot running water like in the West. They used a small cup of cold water to shave. This made shaving with regular razors difficult because the small hairs clogged the blades. So, they innovated a razor called the Gillette Guard: it had a single blade with a safety comb to prevent cuts and was easy to rinse. Perfect for Indian customers. This way, they could make razors that people needed and loved. The lesson: The key to unlocking consumer experience lies in understanding the consumer’s needs in-depth. #consumerresearch #customersatisfaction #startups #entrepreneurship

Only a small fraction of U.S. companies succeed long-term when expanding into emerging markets—and the biggest underreported reason? They assume the law is the same everywhere... just in a different language. That’s the quiet shift we’re seeing: as global brands expand faster, legal localization is becoming the new product-market fit. It’s not just about selling—it’s about aligning with cultural, legal, and regulatory expectations from day one. Take Chipotle’s upcoming launch in Mexico. On the surface, it’s a full-circle brand moment. But underneath? It’s a legal and cultural test. You’re not just introducing burritos—you’re re-entering a market that invented the cuisine and expects authenticity. We should be talking less about “franchise agreements” and more about how general counsel and local legal partners co-create trust across borders. So what does this mean for you? Here’s what I see playing out: Legal is now part of go-to-market strategy, not just post-deal cleanup. It has to be in the room when expansion decisions are made—not after the ink dries. Local counsel is your culture translator. They’ll tell you what’s legally enforceable and what will get you laughed—or walked—out of the market. “One-size-fits-all contracts” are dead. Your boilerplate U.S. terms won’t hold if they ignore the norms and expectations of your new customers or workforce. Chipotle’s Mexico move isn’t just about growth—it’s a test case for what it means to scale with the market, not just into it. #ProductCounsel #InHouseCounsel #GTMStrategy -------- 🚀 Olga V. Mack 🔹 Building trust in commerce, contracts & products 🔹 Sales acceleration advocate 🔹 Keynote Speaker | AI & Business Strategist 📩 Let’s connect & collaborate 📰 Subscribe to Notes to My (Legal) Self

✨ What does iterative multivariate testing look like? Take a look at the chart below. A couple of years ago we helped a client make a big decision: should they enter a new market? Serious investment would be required, and the company’s board wanted evidence that the company could generate demand in a market with a lot of established competitors. The company had ZERO knowledge of the new market (and the market had no knowledge of the company). Together, we developed hypotheses about what might work to position the company for success. I want to note the plural in that last sentence: HYPOTHESES. That’s how multivariate testing works. You test MULTIPLE hypothetical strategies at once with MULTIPLE audiences. It’s very different from how most people approach strategy, which is to test (if they test at all) that one perfect strategy. Multivariate testing of strategy is incredibly powerful. In the chart below, you can see the results of the first set of tests—those first lumps of traffic and revenue on the left. Clearly there’s something there, but nobody’s killing it, right? Wrong. Averages are deceiving. In the second wave of testing, we dropped the losing strategies and audiences and focused on the winners. Things started to pick up. By the third wave of testing (which was really a series of mini-waves), we weren’t just finding what worked—we were optimizing it. We call this sort of testing HEAT-TESTING, because it finds the ‘hot spots’ between strategy and audience. What does heat-testing tell you? Which audiences are most receptive How large those early audiences are How to position your product Which user flows are most productive in generating interest or revenue The cost to acquire a customer Whether you should move to the next step of a big investment I’ve been a strategist my entire career and here’s what I know: no amount of competitive analysis, focus groups, and surveys will deliver the one perfect strategy. Testing multiple strategies, ideally in an environment that gives you real-life, behavioral feedback, gives you raw material to iterate your way to a validated strategy. Always be testing.

So You Built a Digital Health Startup… Now What? Breaking into healthcare as an early-stage digital health company can feel like navigating a maze with no map. I was recently interviewed for a fireside chat with a startup incubator, and we tackled one of the biggest challenges—how to simplify this complex industry into actionable steps. After years in the trenches, I’ve learned that winning in healthcare isn’t just about having a great product. It’s about understanding the ecosystem, aligning incentives, and getting the right people on your side. Here are three key takeaways I shared with the group: 1. Know Your Customer & Economic Buyer Who uses your product, who pays for it, and who makes the decision? These are often three different people with completely different motivations. ·     Do you save them money? ·     Make them money? ·     Improve efficiency? ·     Do you have the clinical and economic data to prove it? If you can’t answer these questions, you might be selling to the wrong person. 2. Advocacy is Key to Market Entry No one wins in healthcare alone. You need stakeholders who believe in your solution and will push for its adoption. This influences everything—whether you go direct-to-consumer, B2B, physician-led, hospital-driven, or payer-backed. And if reimbursement isn’t in your corner, you’d better have a solid alternative strategy. 3. Follow the Competitive & Financial Landscape Pricing isn’t just about how much your product costs—it’s about how the healthcare system values it. ·     Who are your competitors? ·     How does money flow in your sector? ·     What financial incentives drive adoption? Understanding these levers is the key to scaling strategically (instead of just throwing money at the wall and hoping something sticks). I love helping companies navigate the twists and turns of this industry—because, let’s be honest, healthcare is never simple. But when you get it right, the impact is massive. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received about launching in healthcare? Let’s hear it. #DigitalHealth #Startups #HealthcareInnovation #GoToMarket #HealthTech

If you’re: • Entering a new market with an existing service • Launching a new offering • Capturing market share during times of disruption Here are the 3 lenses I review with clients in order to make strategic decisions on where to invest time, energy, personnel and money to grow their company Lens 1: Historical Context & Qualification Here’s what to look for:  • What measurable, fact only (no opinion) data points can validate this opportunity’s viability? • Does the new market fit your criteria (and align with your capabilities)? • What’s the risk vs. upside and how do we quantify both? This can help you easily eliminate bad ideas you thought were opportunities. Lens 2: The Future Since no one can predict the future, you have to go further than just reviewing market trends and forecast reports (which are valuable in themselves) Here you must identify first, second and third order consequences of what might potentially happen. As you review each potential consequence, you have to process how that may affect you. A simple way to do this is by asking “if this were true, how would this affect X” Since we’re dealing with hypotheticals, we’ll tie this thinking to Lens 3 to keep it grounded. Lens 3: Unchanging Principles Principles are laws or foundational blocks that never change regardless of the situation. For example, the law of gravity does not change over time or space (or even if you believe it may not exist, it will still work!) Your job here is to identify what principles are at play with  • your market • your offering • the opportunity you’re looking to enter into  • the external forces at play (macro economic, social, consumer behavior) Once you’ve identified the principles at play, you use them to anchor your thinking from lens 1 & 2 back to reality and create working hypothesis. Then all that’s left is to make your move, measure, optimize etc. 

Startup go-to-market goes through 3 major phases. Failure to recognize which phase you’re in will cause pain, frustration — and often, failure. 🔴 Phase 1 — Market Experimentation This phase is all about learning. But it’s not “research.” The fastest way to find a viable market is by selling. The keys to this phase are speed and volume — you’re trying to get in front of as many potential customers as you can. You’ll start with your network, but should also be creating content, cold DMing prospects, attending meetups, etc. The goal isn’t to hit $1M ARR. It’s to figure out who cares most about the problem you’re solving. Once you know that, you can focus your efforts. 💢 A word of caution: This phase is messy. You’ll face rejection. A lot. But keep going and remember, this is temporary. You’ll know you’re ready for the next phase when you have a gut feeling that you could sell a lot of your product to a specific market. 🔵 Phase 2 — Beachhead Growth This phase is about building systems. The name of the game here is “repeatability.” 👉 To create effective systems, you MUST narrow your focus. You need to solve one use case for one specific group of people. This focus is your competitive advantage for breaking into the market. Without it, you’ll feel like you’re boiling the ocean, and your GTM efforts won’t be effective. Tactically, this phase is about setting up the “plumbing” for how prospects find, evaluate, buy, and use your product. This often involves: • Building marketing and sales assets (homepages, sales decks, email campaigns, etc.) • Developing top-of-funnel content (blogs, social posts, webinars) • Setting up tools to track leads and prospects (CRM) • Creating onboarding materials The goal? Dominate this segment. This should get you to at least $1M ARR. 🟢 Phase 3 — Expansion Growth By this point, you should have a repeatable GTM program that’s generating revenue and earning you some name recognition as a rising player. Now, it’s time to reinvest that revenue and grow. You have 2 main options to consider: • Enter adjacent markets with the same use case (horizontal) • Solve new use cases for your current market (vertical) Which route you take depends on the type of business you want to build, who you want to serve, and your market’s appetite. 💢 But don’t make the classic mistake of going after multiple markets all at once. Expansion is like restarting phase 2—new segments require new systems. The smartest move? Take it one segment at a time. (Sequencing) ——— Remember: Building GTM programs is just like building a product. Mindset is key. There’s a time for learning. There’s a time for building something small (but viable). And there’s a time to scale. Know what phase you’re in, and you’ll have a much smoother time growing your startup. #startups #gotomarketstrategy #growth