Scaling Stateside — 10 Episodes In: What We've Learned & Where We Go Next

0:11Hi, everyone. David Rose here with USXP. Welcome to another edition of the Scaling Stateside Podcast. Along with my co-founder and co-host Matt Oxley, we are on a mission to help founders from the UK and Europe successfully scale in the United States. And as part of that, we're having discussions on the podcast with two principal parties that can really help founders understand that path. And one is founders who've already made the journey from Europe and successfully expanded into the U.S. market. And the other is VCs who are funding U.S. expansion for the portfolio companies. So we've been having these ongoing discussions.

0:50We're 10 episodes in. I'm really pleased with how things have gone. It's actually gone much better than we thought out of the gates. And Matt, I think we can say the mission while we're doing it. I don't know if you want to comment on that just kind of briefly. Yeah, so the core reason we created Scaling Static Side is to bridge the gap that we see between venture-backed European founders and their US expansion. What exists at the moment is not supporting them, not proactive, and doesn't really get them kind of off the ground and that was a gap that I saw clearly coming back to the UK having been on that that journey myself so that that is the gap that we're we're filling and Scaling Stateside to us was all about providing our network and entrepreneurs and founders with information with context with stories so that therefore they can better go on their adventures and go on their journeys themselves.

1:51And that's what we've done over the last 10 episodes is interview founders, interview VCs, interview people kind of with knowledge and market so that everybody's more informed. That was a very core concept of it because that was the gap that we saw initially. So yeah, I'm really kind of happy with the success that we've seen. I quite honestly never thought that we'd get to 10 episodes and that we'd have the viewership that we do. but obviously we're kind of we're certainly hitting a note with founders and we're supporting the vcs and in how they're doing this so yeah really excited by and proud of what we've done but also what we've what we've got next on our on our docket and matt for those who maybe weren't with us at the very beginning can you just recap who the founders we've had on just names and brands they may recognize yeah of course and sorry i'm going to look at a sheet here so if it's weird that I look over there, just bear with me.

2:49Stephen Wentworth was Incident.io. We interviewed Stephen in November. We have Hussein, who's on Fido, but obviously quenched before that. Alex Packham, who's CEO of Jack, just raised a big round with Jack and previously sold his company, ContentCal, to Adobe for over 100 mils. Amazing founders in their own right. Amazing stories that they've got. Very differing experiences with the US. and how those came about. But just three very successful entrepreneurs. It's obviously a very privilege to speak to and kind of ease out their stories. Yeah, and I think a lot of, almost everyone we talk to who wants to expand their business to the US, they almost all want to raise venture capital in the US.

3:35You know, higher valuations, bigger brands, bigger reach, bigger round sizes. And as part of these discussions, we want to have also, in addition to founders be part of the podcast, have venture capital general partners who are funding U.S. expansion for their portfolio companies on. So you can hear directly from them kind of their views on the topic. And we've had some really great guests on. So we had Ali Mitchell from Odyssey Ventures. He was previously at EQT, was in San Francisco, running their office there. He's been a founder. He's been a VC in both the Valley and in London. So he has that great coastal or bi-country experience, operator experience.

4:08He's a great VC, gives a lot of great perspectives. We had Luke Pappas from NEA. Again, he started with NEA in the U.S. and now he runs NEA's London office. We also had Maria Palmer from Odyssey Ventures. Again, she was a VC in London. She now is a VC in San Francisco and focuses on deal flow across both continents. And so having that perspective of a VC who's been previous operators and also have been a VC in Europe and in the U.S. really gives important insights into the U.S. VC fundraising process. because a lot of the things we want to uncover, there's a lot of gaps in knowledge. So if you've never expanded to the U.S.

4:47before, if you've never raised in the U.S. before, it's fundamentally a different experience. And so we want to help our community better understand the topics, the pitfalls, the best practices. So hopefully set them up for success when they want to expand into the U.S. market and they want to raise venture capital in the U.S. market. So we're really, as Matt said, we're really pleased with how things got started over the first 10 episodes. and we're really excited Matt's been working really hard on expanding the Scaling Stateside kind of mission and brand and Matt give us the give us the update on what's next for Scaling Stateside.

5:20Yeah I'm I think firstly let's take a step back I mean what we what we attempted to deliver with with the podcast was a different vehicle for having US expansion information come come to market you know and hear directly from the people that are involved and I think that has just been fantastic just like hearing the highs the lows the stories the yarns that that everything that is involved in it has been amazing so i think what we realized you know a couple of months ago was that we're under something really good here and i think we're serving the market in a way that they're they're really responding to so the conversations that we were we were having with our ecosystem is very much like what does the next level of this look like so you know we've joined forces again with wilson cincini and what we're kind of really pleased to announce is that we're taking scaling stateside to be a true brand in itself and what that means is we're going to create a more of a platform for this and in the platform you're obviously going to have the podcast What we're also going to be doing is we're going to be doing scaling stateside events.

6:34And these are going to be in the shape of three forms, really. One is workshops. And this is something that isn't typically done by organizations running events. But what we really feel is that we want to give entrepreneurs and CEOs an ability to work on their business in these workshops. because you know in many events it's like you have somebody speaking at you so what we want to do is we want a conversational where you work away with experience a artifact something that is going to drive your business forward and that you're going to get value in and David maybe we can at the end of this speak to the event that we're running in in April because that's a really good example of this we are also going to be doing our showcase events where we will get entrepreneurs and VCs up on a stage and we've got actually got one at London Tech Week that we're going to be doing and showcasing at the HSBC auditorium and then we're going to be doing more kind of localized dinners and this is invite only individuals that are going to be coming together to really kind of talk about the US expansion journey.

7:44So those are the things that we're doing from an event standpoint and the logic behind that is we want conversations and we want to create kind of cohorts of people that are going through it so a we can learn from one another and b we can influence and help as and when we're going to bring in experts into all of those so we're we're supporting on on the journey the second thing that we're going to be launching on monday but it's great me saying monday because you guys know have no idea what data is today is which is cool so if we don't hit the hit the It's fine. It's a following Monday. Following Monday.

8:20Is a US readiness assessment. And what you have the ability to do is put in your credentials into the website, the platform that's being created. And what you will get within 24 hours is a readiness assessment based on public information, based on your company, based on some of the information you give us, which will appraise your readiness to going to the US. And this is really powerful, a really deep report that should really help founders. Whatever level you're at should really help founders understand, hey, am I ready? Should I be thinking about this journey? Should I be thinking about this chapter?

9:01So that's something that we're kind of really kind of proud to, again, have part of the platform. And it's constantly going to be growing, OK, because we're going to be listening to people. We're going to be, you know, understanding what people need. So we've really kind of lent in, and this is now a joint venture with Wilson Sincini. So we're kind of really spearheading this with them. But we've been joined along the journey by two amazing partners as well, which is HSBC Innovation Bank and Fraser Deter as well. So both of these organizations have been around the U.S. expansion ecosystem for a long time, supporting them.

9:40And that's why we've chosen them to come on the journey with us. So again, it gives us more reach. It gives us kind of more emphasis, you know, more exposure as well. So again, thinking about this as a, you know, a real kind of brand moving forward. That's kind of, that's what we've done. Matt, you've created a website where all these is kind of a home of all the content and the events and the readiness assessment. If you need to share the URL, so people listening, we'll put it in the show notes. But if you're listening and not reading, if you're driving, listening to the podcast, Matt, what is the URL so people can find it?

10:13It's scaling-stateside.com. Yeah, good looking site. We had this designer who was fantastic to create the whole thing. Yeah, it's horrible. Vibe coding. Vibe coding, yeah. In reality, the actual output. Well, you know, talking about the first live event, we're really excited about this. And so the goal with the live events is to really give founders actionable, practical advice they really aren't going to get anywhere else. I think so much of the advice about coming to the U.S. or raising in the U.S. comes in the form of a top 10 things PDF. Matt, you talk about that all the time. And we really want to make this high value.

10:48And so the first event we're going to have, and it's going to be at Wilson Sincini's office in London on Tuesday, April 21st, is a U.S. VC fundraising workshop. And so if you plan to raise venture capital as a European founder in 2026 or beyond, this is where you come to learn practical, actionable advice. We're not going to talk about 50 ,000-foot views or industry trends. We're going to give you the information you need to be practically successful in the near term in the U.S. And there are big differences between raising in Europe and raising in the U.S. We want to shed light on those type of things.

11:26And there's a lot of things that are mysteries. You've probably never seen a U.S. VC term sheet before. You've probably never seen a U.S. VC due diligence request. You've probably never seen a U.S. VC ready pro forma financial model. All these things we're going to make available to the people in the workshop. Not only that, but you're also going to hear from subject matter experts on all these topics, whether it be term sheets, whether it be due diligence and perform perform models. You're here. And also we're super excited. Ali Mitchell from Odyssey Ventures. We spoke about earlier. Again, he was a VC EQT and he was actually in the South Silicon Valley.

12:02He's now back in London and Odyssey Ventures. He is going to be our featured guest speaker. So you're going to have a U.S. experienced VC in the room where he's going to share best practices and tips on how to raise venture capital from U.S. VCs. And he's going to be available for Q &A. So if you have questions you want to know about your situation or your company or your experience from an experienced U.S. VC, this is your chance to have that live and in person. So we're super excited about the event. You can register at the Scaling Stateside website. Again, it's scaling-stateside.com to come to the site.

12:35You can go there and apply to register. Again, the people who want to come to this are companies who are already in that process. They've already have some product market fit signals in their home country. They've raised some capital. They're ready to expand to the U.S. They're ready to raise in the U.S. market. And those are the community members we want to help better understand all these processes. So we're really excited about this. And this is just the first event we're going to have several throughout the year. We're very kind of focused on US expansion, but also kind of obviously looking at the news wires about who's investing and where.

13:07And certainly you're seeing what I'm seeing, which is a huge volume of US VCs actually investing in local European organizations. I mean, are you seeing the same? It's incredible. You know, Matt, I'm a geek about looking at US deal flow out of Crunchbase. And it's insane. I've never seen deal flow like this out of Europe. And so USVCs are super active all over Europe, writing really big checks. And a lot of companies or a lot of founders may not be aware, but there are currently 60 USVC firms with an office in London actively looking for European deal flow. And so if you're a European founder and you want to raise from those brands, which is, let's face it, are top in the world, the Sequoias and Andreessen Horowitz's of the world, you really need to prepare yourself.

13:58You need to come into that knowing what they're expecting to hear, knowing how to pitch them, knowing the outcomes they're looking for. These are all very different, which you're probably used to raising locally. So, again, our goal is to help you as a founder be prepared. And so if you get the opportunity to pitch to one of these USVCs whose names you probably all know really well, we want to make sure you're prepared and ready to be successful in that journey. And that's why we're really doing the podcast, we're talking to founders who've already raised, and of course talking to USVCs to help you understand all those pieces and parts.

14:29And we think this is a really great first step to help founders be prepared. yeah so i think in in conclusion we're just really excited by what we're building with the flat platform um i think we've been overwhelmed with you know the success and i think the uptake on the podcast on i think creating a what one might call a normal narrative about this and informing entrepreneurs and founders that are in the in the trenches with this kind of quandary at the moment so yeah we're really excited uh we'd love kind of thoughts comments i think suggestions about you know direction guests topics that we should cover but i think what we're going to be doing is 10 episodes is the end of season one we're now looking to season two so we've got some great guests kind of lined up and get really excited by kind of just continuing the conversation and as you mentioned with the market i think this is only going to get more eyeballs i think it's only going to get more kind of interesting and i think it's only going to get more important for european venture-backed you know organizations as they as they kind of come up for air so yeah really excited really excited and if you're a founder in london and um you're in going to be in london on tuesday april 21st go to the scaling stateside website and sign up for the event or apply for the event it's not for everyone um but go do that today the seats are limited and we'd love to have you be part of the community.

15:57Thanks everyone.