This document discusses reasons for startups to consider going global or staying local. It argues that startups should go global if they live in a small country with few local investors or predatory local investors. However, startups should stay local if they have no customers, revenue, or language skills in other markets and their local market is large enough. It also provides tips on assessing global markets and distribution platforms that can help startups reach customers internationally.

1. Startups Gone GLOBAL!
(What a #ShitShow)
@DaveMcClure
@500Startups
Pioneers Festival
Vienna, Oct 2012

2. This Talk Is About…
(Pro Tip: Leave Now B4 This Gets Ugly)
• 500 Startups
– Internet Seed Fund + Accelerator + >100 Intl Startups
• Assessing Global Markets
– (# users, by language/geo) * (avg $ GDP) * (% internet) = avail online spend by lang/geo
• Why You Shouldn’t Go Global
– You’re a Crappy Little Startup with no customers, revenue, or funding
– You Don’t Speak the Language (not very well, anyway)
– Your local market is >50M+ users, and nobody else is going after it
• Why You Should Go Global
– You Live in a Small Country / Startup Ghetto
– There aren’t any local market investors worth a famn.
– There ARE local market investors, but they might be predatory, revenue-focused a-holes
– Your customers and partners are in [X] (where X = California, NYC, London, Beijing, Brazil, etc

3. Dave McClure
Founding Partner & Sith Lord, 500 Startups
00’s & 10’s:
• Investor: Founders Fund, Facebook fbFund, 500 Startups
• Companies: Mint.com, SlideShare, Twilio, WildFire, SendGrid
• Marketing: PayPal, Simply Hired, Mint.com, O’Reilly
80’s & 90’s:
• Entrepreneur: Founder/CEO Aslan Computing (acq’d)
• Developer: Windows / SQL DB consultant (Intel, MSFT)
• Engineer: Johns Hopkins‘88, BS Eng / Applied Math

4. 500 Startups
Mountain View, CA – Founded 2010
• Seed Fund & Startup Accelerator
– $50M under management
– 16 people / 8 investing partners
– 10,000 sq ft / Silicon Valley HQ
– SF, NY, MEX, BRZ, IND (+ more)
– 700 Founders / 200 Mentors
– Focus: Design, Data, Distribution
• 400+ Co’s / 100 Intl / 20+ Countries
– Wildfire (acq GOOG, $350M)
– Twilio
– SendGrid
– TaskRabbit
– MakerBot
– Viki
– 9GAG

5. GeeksOnaPlane.com
(my excuse for an Intl road trip w/ geeky friends)
• Travel The World with Geeks & VCs
• Meet MORE Geeks & VCs in other countries
• Learn about Intl markets, technology, people
• Get drunk & eat great food with friends who
don’t speak your language 
• East Asia (3x), Europe (2x), LatAm (2x), India
• Next: Middle East, India, SE Asia, Africa

6. Global Languages
• English: 1-2B+ ppl, most online, high GDP, modest growth
• Mandarin: 1B+ ppl, lots online, med GDP, flat growth
• Spanish: 500M+ ppl, some online, med GDP, strong growth
• Arabic: 500M+ ppl, some online, low/med GDP, strong growth
• Others: Hindi, Portuguese, French, German, Japanese, Russian,
Korean, etc

7. Global Markets
• US/Can/UK/AU (400M+): big market, not much growth but lots of spend
• Europe (400-500M): not much growth, many lang, high GDP
• China / E. Asia (1B+): lots of ppl, growing usage / GDP, flat growth (pop.)
• LatAm (500M+): Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile; LOTS growth
• India/Pak/South Asia (1.5B+): lots of ppl, growing mobile, strong growth
• SE Asia (600M+): Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines; strong growth
• Middle East / Arabic (500M+): growing mobile, lots of future growth
• Africa (700M+): growing infrastructure, lots of future growth

8. How to Assess Global Markets
• 1) # of ppl / language speakers by geography
• 2) % internet usage (web, mobile, smartphone, etc)
• 3) $ Avg GDP / $ online spend / disposable income
• Online spend / lang, geo = (#ppl) * (%internet) * ($GDP)
– % Growth rates of ppl, lang, internet, GDP
• Currency, country, culture, etc
• Online distrib’tn platforms (search, social, mobile, video, etc)
• Online payment methods / credit card distr
• Physical goods delivery / logistics
• Social media usage / behavior
• 3 markets in 1: rich, middle-class, internet poor

9. Distribution Platforms
Customer Reach: 100M+
• Search: Google (also Baidu, Yandex, Yahoo-J)
• Social: Facebook, Twitter (also TenCent, Sina, vKontakte)
• Mobile: Apple (iPhone, iPad), Android
• Media: YouTube (Video), Blogs, Photos, Music
• Comm: Email, IM/Chat, SMS, Voice

10. Why You SHOULD NOT
Go Global
cause ur a shitty little startup,
u don’t speak the language,
& ur local market is plenty big enough

11. Why Stay Local? Cuz Ur an Idiot.
• You don’t speak English (well enough).
• Your solution won’t travel well / you won’t localize it well.
• There’s not as many people competing locally.
• Your local market has 50M+ users.
• You have customers / revenue.
• You have great living situation, family, kids, etc

12. Why You SHOULD
Go Global
Because u live in a ghetto little country,
all the local investors are a-holes,
who don’t write checks
and/or give u shitty low valuations.

13. Why Go Global / US / China?
(bcz California is fucking *awesome*)
• It’s BIG. (US, China are huge markets)
• All the [rich, online] customers are here.
• All the investors are here (Silicon Valley)
– also: Local Investors Screw You / Don’t Invest / Low Val$
• All the platforms & partners are here (Silicon Valley).
– NorCal: Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Android, YouTube
• Because you watch too many goddam action movies and listen
to too much rap.
• Because you love California / NYC. (hey, we understand )

14. Angel* List: It Rocks.
(Use it, You Idiot: angel.co)
• Startups & Investors
• Activity & Metrics
• Platform & APIs
• *ps – not just for Angels,
not just for USA