Written by: By Bill Kenney (MEET) & Jayce Zidel (Yonda Tax)
Have you ever learned a lesson you’d rather not repeat?
Expanding into the US market is full of those moments - missteps that leave marks but also sharpen understanding. After working with hundreds of international businesses entering the US, we’ve seen three key truths emerge time and again. They shape the early stages of traction and lay the foundation for sustainable scale.
And there’s one more truth, often missed, that deserves a place in the conversation.
Customer Density Matters
The first customer is always the hardest. The second gets easier, only when they’re close in geography and industry to the first.
Targeted customer density lets you build operational efficiency, repeatable sales messaging, and implementation know-how. It reduces onboarding friction and simplifies support. The businesses that move fastest are those that resist the urge to spread out until there is a proven template for growth.
Founder-Driven Sales Work
Founders carry the original story, the product logic, and the vision. In early US market entry, handing sales off too quickly to local reps — often without context, case studies, or internal support — sets things up to stall.
Founder-led sales give customers a sense of clarity and authenticity. Over time, this presence evolves into a more scalable structure — but early on, it’s often the difference between slow traction and none at all.
Messaging Must Be Agile
The messaging that works in your home market may not translate across borders. It’s easy to assume that positioning, proof points, or tone will resonate, but local expectations often differ.
Testing messaging, adjusting collateral, and learning through small iterations helps founders and teams validate what connects. A rigid communications strategy slows learning. An agile approach shortens the feedback loop. Think of every geography and industry as a language that must be learned and practiced.
Regulatory Exposure Is Part of the Market Fit Conversation
While sales and marketing get the spotlight, regulatory obligations — particularly US Sales Tax — are often an afterthought, and that’s where businesses get caught off guard.
In the US, Sales Tax is administered at the state level, and rules vary widely. Simply storing goods in a US warehouse (via a 3PL) creates what’s called physical nexus, triggering a legal obligation to register, collect, and file Sales Tax in that state. Even without a physical presence, you might trigger economic nexus — which is based on annual revenue or number of transactions into a state (e.g., 200 orders or $100k in Florida).
Here’s the challenge: many businesses don't realise they’ve triggered nexus until much later — sometimes after they’ve scaled significantly, putting them at risk of penalties, delayed registrations, or even denied funding during due diligence.
And this isn’t just a technical compliance issue. It affects:
- Pricing (as Sales Tax is often added on top)
- Customer experience (especially if tax is handled inconsistently)
- Margins and forecasting (due to late tax liabilities or remediation costs)
In short, Sales Tax can quietly become a growth blocker, especially for well-funded foreign companies aiming to scale fast in the US. A proactive understanding of where exposure exists — and how to structure around it — should be baked into the go-to-market plan from day one.
What’s Worth Discussing More?
Whether it's customer targeting, founder involvement, or regulatory blind spots, these truths keep showing up in U.S. expansion journeys. They’re practical, learned the hard way, and often revisited too late.
We’d love to hear your take:
- Which of these truths has been most relevant in your own market entry experience?
- Are there others you think deserve attention earlier in the journey?
- Have tax or compliance requirements ever forced you to rethink your strategy?