Expanding into the U.S. market is one of the biggest growth opportunities for international B2B companies. It’s also one of the fastest ways to burn time, money, and momentum if you approach it the wrong way.
In this Belly2Belly episode, Bill Kenney sat down with Cameron Heffernan of Beyond Borders Marketing to unpack the most common challenges overseas founders face when entering the U.S. and what actually helps teams move forward.
Rather than focusing on paperwork and logistics, Cameron brought the conversation back to what really drives success: go-to-market clarity, realistic timelines, and learning fast.
Here are the core themes they explored.
Focusing on Operations Instead of Go-to-Market
One of the first traps founders fall into is obsessing over setup:
Entity formation
Bank accounts
Payroll providers
Office locations
Those things matter. But Cameron consistently sees teams delaying the harder questions:
Who actually wants this product in the U.S.?
Where will customers come from?
What is the go-to-market strategy?
Without sales traction, operational perfection doesn’t matter.
As Bill put it, sales is the lynchpin. You can recover from messy operations. You can’t recover from zero demand.
Running U.S. Marketing from Overseas
Many companies attempt to manage U.S. marketing from Europe or elsewhere. On paper, this feels efficient. In practice, it creates blind spots.
Cameron highlights several issues:
- European compliance mindsets (like GDPR) unnecessarily restricting U.S. outreach
- Marketing teams who don’t live in the U.S. missing what actually matters to American buyers
- Messaging that doesn’t resonate because it isn’t grounded in U.S. market reality
Even though English is shared, culture is not. Understanding buyer concerns, expectations, and decision-making requires proximity. You can’t fully empathize with a market you’re not immersed in.
Being Afraid to Fail (or Expecting Instant Success)
Founders often assume a straight upward growth line:
Launch in June.
Grow in Q1.
Double revenue by year-end.
That’s not how real expansion works.
Cameron reframes failure as learning. If something doesn’t work, that’s valuable information. The real danger is spending years discovering what could have been learned in months.
External forces like regulation changes, market shifts, or geopolitical events can disrupt even the best plans. Agility matters more than perfection.
Underestimating the Time Required for Traction
For B2B companies, Cameron recommends planning for at least two quarters before expecting meaningful U.S. traction.
A realistic framework looks like this:
- The first quarter focuses on confirming product-market fit and refining targeting for U.S. buyers.
- The second quarter is about launching outreach systems, running campaigns, collecting data, and beginning to see early signals.
- By nine to twelve months, companies should have enough insight to decide whether further investment makes sense.
Anything faster is usually wishful thinking.
Going Too Broad Too Fast
Many companies arrive in the U.S. aiming at massive markets immediately. Cameron advocates the opposite.
Start small. Pick a niche. Focus on customer density. Whether that’s a specific industry or geographic region, narrowing your initial target:
- Reduces budget requirements
- Improves messaging relevance
- Makes early wins easier
- Builds credibility faster
He calls this the “David versus Goliath” approach. -Win small first. Let momentum compound.
Leading with Non-Relevant Case Studies
U.S. buyers want proof that feels close to home. European success stories may help, but only if they’re recognizable or directly relevant to U.S. prospects.
Ultimately, credibility matters more than volume. One strong, relevant U.S. case study is often worth more than ten overseas examples. Niching down accelerates this because each win makes the next sale easier.
A Smarter Way Forward
The core theme of the conversation is simple, U.S. expansion isn’t about having a perfect plan. It’s about having an adaptable one.
Success comes from:
- Prioritizing go-to-market over operations
- Learning fast instead of fearing failure
- Starting narrow before scaling wide
- Giving yourself enough runway to prove traction
- Building credibility through focused wins
Or as Cameron puts it:
“Fail faster, niche down, and let real customer signals guide your next move.”
That’s how overseas companies turn U.S. expansion from a risky leap into a repeatable growth strategy.
Further Reading
You can read more about avoiding the most common missteps when expanding to the U.S. market in Cameron’s article here.
About
MEET helps B2B & B2G companies gain traction and scale in the U.S. through trade shows, events, and strategic connections. Contact Bill Kenney for a no-obligation conversation: bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.