“How to grow a global startup in the USA - Dos and Don’ts of doing business as an European founder” We'll try to cover all the basics, like choosing the right time, picking a location, handling bureaucracy, and getting local funding. and many more.

1. How to grow a global startup
in the USA
Dos and Don’t
Markus Wagner, 15th of Sept. 2015
CEO - i5growth Inc. (Palo Alto), Chairmen of Adv. Board - i5invest capital (Austria/Vienna)

2. 2 | 17/09/2015
That‘s us
CEE Austria:
 M&A and later stage bridge or
secondary capital in CEE
 First money in investments in CEE
companies with US potential
 Fundraising
 Corporate Development
 Wanna join – Looking for M&A
trainees!
USA (San Francisco/Palo Alto):
 US MARKET ENTRY / BUILDING
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
 European START-UPs
 European Later stage tech
companies
 Growth hacking, marketing US
 HR US
 Looking for an US cofounder?

3. 3 | 17/09/2015
Portfolio Overview
M&A and “First money in” - investments

4. US vs. Europe

5. 5 | 17/09/2015
MUCH MORE MONEY, MUCH BIGGER MARKET
BIP Austria 2014: US$ bln 437

6. 6 | 17/09/2015
MUCH HIGHER VALUATIONS
17/09/2015
Factors that should be considered when talking about a
bubble
Interest rates are
basically 0%
Total tech investments
incl. M&A close to 2000
Rising pre-money values
IPOs with negative
Earnings
Rising tech salaries
We are in Europe (with
still big global potential)
BUT: We need to improve the ecosystem and create
serial entrepreneurs with international exits
1
2
5
3
4
-
2,000.0
4,000.0
6,000.0
8,000.0
0
200
400
600
800
Tech investments
Number of Deals
Investments (USD in m)
2
4
0
20
40
60
80
100
The percentage of IPOs
with negative earnings
3
0
20
40
60
80
100
Pre-Money Valuations
Later Round
Second Round
First Round
(USD in m)
5
86000
88000
90000
92000
94000
96000
98000
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Software Engineer Base
Salary
(USD)
Source: i5invest analysis, PwC, DJ VentureSource, Jay R. Ritter / Business Insider and Glassdoor / BI.

7. 7 | 17/09/2015
9/17/2015
66%
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
Europe USA
Enterprise Value / Sales - Jan 2015
Enterprise Value / Sales
How do capital markets look at
Internet Companies?
Source: Capital IQ & i5invest Analysis
US-based companies trade at a 66%
premium above their peers in Europe.
Companies in the Anglo-Saxon Region
trade at higher multiples in general.
Does being in the US add value for the sake
of being in the US?
0.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
-
1,000.0
2,000.0
3,000.0
4,000.0
5,000.0
6,000.0
7,000.0
8,000.0
9,000.0
10,000.0
United Internet AG
(DB:UTDI)
Yandex N.V.
(NasdaqGS:YNDX)
Telecity Group plc
(LSE:TCY)
Top 3 "European"
Enterprise Value EV / Revenues
0.00
2.00
4.00
6.00
8.00
10.00
12.00
14.00
16.00
18.00
-
50,000.0
100,000.0
150,000.0
200,000.0
250,000.0
300,000.0
350,000.0
Google Inc.
(NasdaqGS:GOOGL)
Facebook, Inc.
(NasdaqGS:FB)
eBay Inc.
(NasdaqGS:EBAY)
Top 3 American
Enterprise Value EV / Revenues
What are the big players and
their valuations?
USD in bn
MUCH MORE & BIGGER COMPANIES

8. 8 | 17/09/2015
Macro trend “Digital Globalization”
• It never was that easy to go international
• It never was that easy for GLOBAL COMPETION to steal
your customers locally
 If you want to build an sustainable company, you need to
go international.
If you want to go international (other than copy cat
businesses and markets) – you need to go the US.
If you aren’t there, you are irrelevant = not successful
(ps.: definitely not the whole company needs to be there)
NO OTHER OPTION TO GO THERE

9. Why startups come the US:
1. Fundraising
2. Doing Business
3. Selling the Company

10. Fundraising in the US?

11. 11 | 17/09/2015
What are investors looking for?
1. Amazing management team
2. Sources of credibility & trust: known team-members,
angels, accelerators, …
3. Huge market size
4. Right cap table
5. HQ Office location: US / Silicon Valley / SF, Visa issues:
none
6. User traction, great growth
7. Revenues - proof of revenue potential
Your competitor’s founder team most likely looks like:
…and raised US$ 5mln+ from Andressen Horowitz

12. 12 | 17/09/2015
You will find great startups from all over the world there
Hundreds of accelerators, incubators
Tens of thousands of startups
Thousands of founder teams of ex-googlers, facebook,
NASA, Tesla, Microsoft, EA, …

13. So, what do Americans think
about Austrian tech
companies?

14. 14 | 17/09/2015
…first thought

15. 15 | 17/09/2015
…second thought
 You must not be an Austrian company, you need to be a
company that is doing business in the US

16. Doing business in the US

17. 17 | 17/09/2015
Doing business in the US
Step 1: Testing the waters / product market fit / building
knowledge / fact finding / inspiration
a) Go-Silicon Valley Program (WKO) 1-3 Month
b) Individual trip (i.e. conference as trigger) going there for 2-3 weeks
Step 2: Business Dev. Presence
• Setup structure (subsidiary or HQ/flip, visa, tax, budget)
• Building Business dev presence (exec, or someone you really trust,
otherwise you get screwed)
• Make money, look for partnerships, do business, gather world class
expertise, learn new tricks, adopt strategic positioning
• Tier 1 - Acclerator?
Step 3: Serious presence
• Business dev, sales, key account, marketing,
product management, growth hacking

18. Fundraising and M&A
- once you built business,
traction and the network, you
can do it

19. Come prepared

20. 20 | 17/09/2015
Where to go (go where the business is)
NYC: Some finTech, ad Agencies, adTech, Media Companies
LA: Agencies, Media Companies  LA
Seattle: Microsoft
Texas: HW, Datacenters, Network (Houston, Austin)
SF/Valley: finTech, adTech, deepTech, Space, bigData, travel, education, biotech,
payment, wearable, analytics, pharma, medTech, HW, Datacenters, Apps,
gaming, …  global companies from all over the world
Young, single, party, b2c, apps (VC, accelerators)
Family, house/garden, Stanford, hardware,
deep tech, b2b, b2c (VC, accelerators)
Older, family, house/garden, network, storage,
semiconductor, hw, deep tech, b2b

21. 21 | 17/09/2015
Come prepared 1/2
1. Create a great linkedin presence (premium)
2. Create a great Angel.co presence
3. Create a great crunchbase presence
4. Choose a time of interesting industry events
5. Look for the right place to work (bay vs. SF, …)
6. Look out for interesting accelerator programs
7. Look out for experts, evangelists in your space, they might
become angels later
8. Meet competitors, connect with peers
9. Meet former employees of competitors and potential future
team members
10.Act as you always have been there
11.Bring a unlocked phone, multiple credit cards (or check)
12.Bring English business cards, pitch deck, train the pitch

22. 22 | 17/09/2015
Come prepared 2/2
13.Watch silicon valley show:
http://www.hbo.com/silicon-valley#/
14.Start-up Class from Y Combinator Sam Altman in
Stanford: http://startupclass.samaltman.com/
15.Reading Advice: http://www.amazon.com/Zero-
One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/0804139296
16.Start to read techcrunch frequently
17.Watch great company pitches on youtube, i.e.
TechCrunch Disrupt
18.Learn about growth hacking: #500Distro
https://www.youtube.com/user/500startups
19.Look for the right meetups (www.meetup.com)
20.Go Silicon Valley - Austrian Pavilion Group
DROP ME A LINE - THANK YOU!

23. Wondering if its the right time for your startup to
test US/global waters?
Look for US co-founders?
Want join a global M&A and business dev team?
Planning a trip to the valley?