On November 2, LoopUp joined a group of industry leaders at the Tech City Future Fifty \u201cGoing Global\u201d event in London, where discussions focused on the challenges and opportunities facing companies looking to expand overseas, and the impact that recent events, like Brexit, may have on growing technology businesses.<\/p>\n
As part of this, Future Fifty asked a few attendees whose companies have locations outside of the UK to share insights regarding benefits and challenges with regionalisation and lessons learned when entering global markets.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what our own Steve Flavell had to say around LoopUp\u2019s journey establishing offices in the US and UK at the same time:<\/p>\n
Where \/ who did you look to for help\/ advice when entering the US?<\/strong> If there is one thing you could go back and tell yourself before entering the US, what would it be?<\/strong>
\nWe set up shop in the US at the same time we set up in the UK, and our founding team was made up of people in both regions. Our founding team members in the US included some highly talented people with experience in the region, prior experience at startups and with the product and engineering backgrounds we needed to be successful. We really relied on the individual strengths and experience of this early team (who are still with us today!) to help establish the company in both markets.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nGet a good accountant. Accounting, tax and regulation in general are all very different in the US, particularly given the differences that can exist from state to state. We underestimated this challenge initially and ended up getting a fair few things wrong \u2013 in particular with sales tax. In addition to sales tax, we found that there were other taxes associated with our product that varied from state to state, or existed in one state but didn\u2019t exist in another. It\u2019s not always clear which taxes apply to you and which don\u2019t when you look for them. Don\u2019t skimp on tax and accounting advice when getting started in the US.<\/em><\/p>\n