The monthly KPMG go-global event was in the Boxworks in Waterford this time.
The participants
A cracking mix of companies, from smart boating, video interviewing, waste, data, sensors, automated coaching, engineering to semantics, spectrometry and AI. Companies that are changing the world, with global ambition, disruption markets, have great products and services and genuinely are exciting to talk to. I am a lucky man. The breakfast session lasted about one and a half hour, but we could have gone on forever.
To give you a flavour
We talked about internationalisation and scaling.
- On how one company focused on user experience and absolute simplification of a service
- About the importance of boots on the ground and how old school still works
- The importance of finding a partner you can trust
- How social media and marketing is VERY different in China
- How high buyer intent informed a Google-Add campaign
- About “Cloud-everything” as a service
- About the fantastic work, Enterprise-Ireland is doing supporting companies abroad
- About entering the US market versus entering the UK and the Commonwealth
- About people, process, tools as a framework to operate
- The difference between building an infrastructure for the UK and Ireland and building a global infrastructure
- How trade shows work and how they do not work
- How to qualify sales leads by the size of the deal (no interesting in first sales under a 100K, so you know you are re talking to the right people)
- How to partner with associations can break open a market and create credibility, so much so that it led to a large distribution deal with a key player
- The importance of (layered) storytelling
- On the importance of segmentation and market definition
- How to sell through thought leadership
- How to sell strictly online and the opposite (focus on face to face enterprise sales)
- How random things are in business
- About the cost of sales and deal size
- How to use your investors as sales channels
- About chain busting (as a new entrant you are always replacing somebody in the chain)
- On how to use the Irish bar as a sales tool
- How to contact lower level purchaser to get access to the purchasing team
- How you need at least a million to enter the USA market
- How to engage with research centres to innovate
- How to leverage research funding to raise over a million in VC funding
- On the importance of using an advisor when you are looking for large loans
- How understanding finance is an important part of the necessary skill set of an entrepreneur.
- How some use LinkedIn, others use Facebook, Google or none at all
- How the IP policy of universities work and does not work
- The importance of focus on a few markets
- That profit is sanity
- That an iPad does not fit on a moped
We did not talk about Br.x.t.
Next event
The next event is in The Mill in Drogheda, which starts at 8:00 AM, finishes at 10:00. The date is 30 April. It is an invite-only event. Drop me a line if you want an invite.
