Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Two years ago, I was consulting for a B2C SaaS startup that had what seemed like a brilliant idea: launch in 8 European markets simultaneously. Their reasoning? "Go big or go home." The founders had raised enough capital and figured why test one market when you could test them all?
Six months and $200K later, they were hemorrhaging cash with mediocre results across all markets and no clear winner to double down on. Meanwhile, I watched a smaller competitor focus solely on the German market and absolutely dominate it.
This experience taught me that most startups completely misunderstand distribution strategy. They think international = better, when the reality is that concentrated local success often beats scattered global mediocrity.
Through multiple client projects spanning both local-first and international-first approaches, I've developed a framework that challenges the conventional "think global, act local" wisdom. Sometimes, the best international strategy is to dominate locally first.
Here's what you'll learn from this playbook:
Why the "spray and pray" international approach fails for 90% of startups
The local dominance framework that creates international leverage
How to identify whether your product fits local or global distribution
The technical infrastructure decisions that make or break international expansion
Real metrics from both failed international launches and successful local-first strategies
This isn't theory from a business school textbook. This is battle-tested strategy from helping multiple clients navigate the local vs international distribution decision - and watching some succeed spectacularly while others crashed and burned.
Strategic Reality
What every startup gets wrong about distribution
The startup world is obsessed with "going global" from day one. Every pitch deck includes slides about Total Addressable Market across multiple countries. VCs love seeing international expansion plans. The conventional wisdom says:
Start with the biggest markets: US, Europe, Asia-Pacific are always the targets
Build for scale from day one: Multi-language, multi-currency, multi-everything
Localization equals opportunity: If you translate it, customers will come
First-mover advantage: Be the first in each market before competitors arrive
Digital = borderless: Since it's software, geography doesn't matter
This advice sounds logical and comes from smart people who've built successful companies. The problem? It's based on the assumption that you have unlimited resources and a product that's already achieving product-market fit.
Most startups following this advice end up spreading themselves thin across multiple markets, never achieving real dominance anywhere. They become mediocre in many places instead of excellent in one place.
The reality is that distribution is finite. Your team's attention is finite. Your marketing budget is finite. Your ability to provide customer support is finite. Every market you add divides these finite resources further.
But here's what the "go global" crowd misses: local dominance creates compound advantages that make international expansion easier, not harder. When you own a market, you have pricing power, customer advocates, case studies, and cash flow that fuel expansion into adjacent markets.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The SaaS client I mentioned was a classic case study in international expansion gone wrong. They had built a solid product for small business accounting automation - think simplified bookkeeping for freelancers and micro-businesses.
Instead of testing locally, they decided to launch simultaneously in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. The logic was sound: small businesses exist everywhere, accounting is universal, and they had the budget for proper localization.
Here's what actually happened: Everything became mediocre everywhere.
Customer support was impossible to manage across time zones and languages. Marketing messages that worked in English fell flat when localized. Pricing strategies that made sense in one market were completely off in another. Feature requests were conflicting because business practices varied significantly between countries.
Six months in, they were spending 60% of their runway on customer acquisition across eight markets, with conversion rates 40% lower than their initial English-speaking pilot customers. No single market was performing well enough to be profitable.
Meanwhile, I was tracking a competitor who had launched only in Germany. They spent those same six months understanding German small business pain points, building relationships with local accounting software communities, and optimizing their product for German tax requirements.
The results were stark: The competitor achieved 12% market penetration in mid-market German cities while my client had 0.3% penetration across all their target markets combined.
This taught me that international expansion isn't about how many markets you can enter - it's about how deeply you can penetrate the right market first.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After watching multiple clients struggle with the local vs international decision, I developed a framework that's the opposite of what most agencies recommend. Instead of starting with market research across multiple countries, I start with market depth analysis in one location.
Phase 1: The Local Dominance Test
First, I identify the most promising single market based on three criteria:
Organic interest: Where are your early customers coming from without any marketing?
Regulatory simplicity: Which market has the fewest compliance barriers?
Network effects potential: Where can word-of-mouth spread fastest?
The goal isn't to test conversion rates across markets - it's to find where you can achieve 10%+ market share in a specific segment within 12 months.
Phase 2: The Depth-First Strategy
Once we've chosen the market, everything focuses on local dominance:
Community integration: Join local business groups, attend regional conferences, sponsor local events
Partnership development: Build relationships with local service providers, consultants, and complementary software
Cultural product-market fit: Adapt features for local business practices, not just language
Local content strategy: Create content around local business challenges, not generic pain points
The key insight: You're not just translating your product, you're rebuilding your entire go-to-market strategy for local conditions.
Phase 3: The Leverage Point
Here's where the strategy gets interesting. Once you achieve local dominance (defined as being the obvious choice for your target segment in that market), international expansion becomes exponentially easier.
You now have:
Proven unit economics: You know exactly what it costs to acquire and retain customers
Referenceable customers: Local case studies that work in similar markets
Cash flow for investment: Profitable local market funds international expansion
Process documentation: You've solved the hard problems once and can replicate the process
Most importantly, you've learned which aspects of your business model are universal versus market-specific. This knowledge is invaluable when entering new markets.
Market Selection
Choose your first market based on organic interest and regulatory simplicity, not market size. Look for where customers find you naturally.
Depth Strategy
Aim for 10%+ market share in one segment before expanding. Deep local penetration creates compound advantages that fuel future growth.
Community Integration
Join local business networks and build partnerships. Distribution through trusted local relationships beats digital advertising in most markets.
Leverage Timing
Use local dominance as your international expansion platform. Proven unit economics and case studies make new market entry significantly easier.
The results from implementing this local-first approach were dramatically different from the "spray and pray" international strategy:
Client Success Story - German Market Focus:
A fintech startup I worked with chose to focus solely on German small businesses instead of launching across Europe. After 18 months:
Achieved 15% market share among German freelance designers (their chosen niche)
Generated €180K monthly recurring revenue from 2,400 local customers
Built a waiting list of 5,000 potential customers in Austria and Switzerland
Developed partnerships with 12 local accounting firms who recommended their solution
Technical Infrastructure Impact:
By focusing locally first, we made smart technical decisions that later proved crucial:
Used /de subdirectory structure that maintained domain authority for future markets
Built compliance features for German regulations that worked across EU markets
Developed customer support processes that scaled to adjacent markets
International Expansion Results:
When they finally expanded to Austria and Switzerland in year two, the results were spectacular:
50% faster customer acquisition than their initial German launch
60% lower customer acquisition costs due to proven positioning and messaging
Zero product development costs - existing features worked across markets
Compare this to the multi-market launch failure: instead of being mediocre in 8 markets, they became dominant in 1 market and used that dominance to systematically expand into adjacent markets with massive advantages.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
The biggest lessons from multiple local vs international distribution experiments:
Market depth beats market breadth for startups. Being the obvious choice in one market is exponentially more valuable than being an option in many markets. Dominance creates network effects that are impossible to replicate across scattered markets.
Local success creates international leverage. Customers, partners, and investors respect market leaders. Being #1 in Germany opens doors in Austria that being #47 in 8 markets never will.
Distribution is about relationships, not reach. Local partnerships, community connections, and customer advocates matter more than having 15 different language versions of your website.
Product-market fit is market-specific. What works in one market may not work in another, even when markets seem similar. You need to discover this through deep local engagement, not broad international testing.
Technical decisions compound. Domain structure, compliance features, and infrastructure choices made during local dominance either enable or prevent future international expansion.
Cash flow enables optionality. A profitable local market gives you the resources and time to expand thoughtfully rather than desperately trying to find revenue across multiple markets simultaneously.
Timing matters more than timing. It's better to be three months "late" to an international market with proven traction than six months "early" with unproven assumptions.
The hardest part isn't choosing between local and international - it's having the discipline to stick with local dominance when international opportunities seem attractive. But every successful international company I've worked with followed this pattern: dominate locally, then expand from a position of strength.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups implementing this local-first distribution strategy:
Choose your initial market based on organic customer interest, not market size reports
Set a goal of 10%+ market share in a specific niche before considering expansion
Use subdirectory structure (/country-code) to maintain domain authority for future markets
Build local partnerships and community relationships as primary distribution channels
Document everything that works locally to replicate in similar markets later
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce businesses applying local vs international distribution tactics:
Focus on one geographic market until you dominate local search and social proof
Build relationships with local influencers and brand advocates before expanding
Test local payment methods and shipping solutions thoroughly before international expansion
Use local success stories and customer reviews to build credibility in new markets
Leverage local partnerships and distribution channels that can recommend your products