After reading this article by Anne Sraders, I knew I needed to weigh in my own experience working with overseas companies in that region. I have also included a guide to companies overseas that you can use to support the motion for tech outside of the US.
Starting with the number one reason I was drawn to companies outside of America in the first place. The goal is always to better the overall company, group, and family as a whole. The majority of American selling positions put the individual as the point of success.
Example…
Overseas companies would promote barbeque sauce to better your company cookout, increase the health of the family, and even grow your community.
VS
American advertising would promote Barbeque sauce to make you the champion of your cookout, the best employee around, or crush the competition.
This stands as the reason I would never compare Europe and Silicon Valley, it's just not the same vibe.
Onto some examples! Of companies I have worked with that highlight the general need to improve the greater good, not just for a cash grab.
Jan Svach - A venture capitalist out of Pague, Czechia, and a friend I met over Reddit of all places. Jan is growing the Czech tech (that's a fun thing to say) scene and took time out of his day to talk with me about specific things that VCs in the area are looking for in their investments and their partners. Just a note - Jan is interested in investing in companies outside of Czech, so if you can not find funding in your home country, this is the guy to call.
Vijesh Sharma - A man out of India creating the breakthrough technology for anyone trying to better their RoAS. He has created live landing pages that essentially bring all of your product to your landing page catered by the user's history, the campaign, and even the device they are using will shift the landing page to create the best return for your business. I am biased here because he is a current client, but I promise you, he is going to change the world.
Ștefan Ardelean - A man from Romania on a mission to grow his advertising company while still in school, the guy hustles. Went out of his way to talk advertising with me, and we even got his site up and organized to start driving traffic from his current customers to gain more customers.
Hammad Ahmad Khan - The king of SEO out of Pakistan, took a few days to collect research and do keyword searches against my competition to help me better my position on Google. After sending me a few articles, I feel better prepared to tackle the nightmare that is SEO. Hammad is also one of the Top Web development voices on LinkedIn.
Maria Britze - My competition in Germany! But honestly, a woman who speaks 4 languages and carries a graphic design background, willing to not only localize your site through translation, but she is ready to give it a full designer's eye to make the most out of your internet real estate. Stay tuned for a collaborative article coming from the both of us here soon! Maria is also a Top Branding Voice on Linkedin.
Shahida Baloch - The master of backlinks out of Pakistan, who went through many conversations to not only teach me about backlinks but also suggested a list of ones available. If you are not back-linking your site, you are not getting the traffic you deserve!
Bhakti Kapasi - My personal accountability partner to keep up on Linkedin, we actually met on Slack and hold each other accountable for posting regularly. I highly recommend getting an accountability partner. Out of Dubai, Bhatki works with a company that uses AI to organize, tag, post, and keep up with people post-conference or event. NO MORE BADGE SCANNING - yes you heard me right. Every photo will include contact details and you can organize photos by person, the dang system even creates automated posts for every event goer, so as a venue, its driving free traffic to your site.
Aleksi Lehtola - A great mentor who also works in consulting out of Mexico. Currently a full-time employee, but always a resource for the market in Mexico, advice on marketing yourself as a consultant and currently head of sales at Huble.
Mikael Hugg - The growth land marketing genius out of Estonia, growing the community of Mentorsprint as well. This is your guy for the Ai connection and all around a great conversation. He literally spent over an hour teaching me the ins and outs of creating advocates in countries I have not visited and the ways to reach an audience that might not relate to normal American messaging.
Ilinca Crudu Olga Melniciuc of Startup Moldova & Aliona Rotaru of Dreamups - who are hosting me to give a talk to the startups in their community to help grow their sites in the US market. All three are huge players in the startup world of Moldova and Romania, all are great resources for connecting with events and reaching the community of startups in the area.
Elena Oprea & Viorica Vanica - The masters of a mindset, the queens of questioning your reality, the owners of selftalk.space and the voices you see all over the world talking at conferences about mental health and taking control of your own experience. They have grown SelfTalk into a beautiful app that will soon re-release, stay tuned, but imagine a personal therapist in your pocket at all times. These two kicked off my entrepreneurial journey and have stayed a constant reminder that if you want it, just do it.
Cheers,
-Zach
"Europe as the next Silicon Valley: A rebuttal."
NOTE - this is always a dangerous list because if I neglect to include someone it is not on purpose, I literally can only write so much in an hour!
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