Going West: Reflections on five european SaaS startups expansion to the US

1. 99% of factories are on a similar digital maturity curve — and the 1% are from another planet

Stepping onto a US factory floor, the first surprise is how familiar it feels. The ERP system is just as clunky. Production scheduling still leans on a tangle of Excel files. WhatsApp groups (or their US equivalents) still act as the unofficial coordination tool.

From the Rust Belt to the Gulf Coast, the baseline maturity level for digital operations is remarkably close to what we see in Europe. That’s a comforting discovery — it means the problems our products solve travel well.

But then there’s the 1% — the outliers. Visiting Hadrian, SpaceX, or Tesla doesn’t just feel like meeting an advanced customer; it feels like visiting another industrial epoch entirely. Every machine is connected, data flows in real time, and the software stack is deeply embedded into the operating rhythm. The expectations here are different — not “Can you automate this?” but “How do you integrate into our orchestration engine?”

For us, this has meant having two distinct go-to-market approaches: one tuned to the broad middle of the market, where foundational gains are still the priority, and another for the outliers, where we need to plug into systems more advanced than many startups have ever touched.

2. You think you’re good at sales? The US will test that belief

We came in thinking our European sales playbooks were strong. In many ways, they were. But the US redefines the baseline for what “good” means.

Here, responsiveness is measured in hours — sometimes minutes — not days. Prospects expect concise but data-rich decks, product demos that feel effortless, and answers that anticipate their follow-up questions. There’s an unspoken rule: if you’re not moving the conversation forward in every interaction, you’re moving out of contention.

One founder in our portfolio likes to tell the story of closing a major aerospace account in 19 days from first contact to signed contract. The speed was thrilling — and also daunting, because the relationship was in motion before all the internal systems were ready to support it. The same opportunity in Europe might have taken six months, with plenty of breathing room between milestones. In the US, the breathing room is gone.

3. Sales salaries are higher — but so is the return

There’s no getting around it: US sales talent costs more. A senior account executive in Chicago or Houston can easily command a salary and OTE package that makes European CFOs twitch.

But that same AE often carries a larger quota, moves deals through the funnel more quickly, and handles bigger contract sizes. When we look at the ratio of ARR generated per dollar of sales salary, the US numbers in our portfolio are, if anything, stronger than the EU equivalents.

This creates an interesting arbitrage: keeping engineering in Europe, where talent is abundant and cost-competitive, while building frontline sales capacity in the US, where closing speed and contract value can more than offset the higher payroll.

4. Your product has to be more turnkey than you think

In many European markets, customers accept — even expect — a period of onboarding, configuration, and gradual roll-out. Workshops and “configure as you go” deployments are tolerated as long as the ROI arrives eventually.

In the US, patience is shorter. Buyers expect the experience to resemble consumer SaaS, even for enterprise-grade tools. They want to sign, install, and start seeing value almost immediately.

One VP of Operations in the Midwest put it simply: “If my team needs five training sessions to use it, we’ll pass.” That’s not a threat — it’s a reflection of a work environment where managers are already stretched and have little appetite for extended adoption curves.

For us, this has meant re-thinking default configurations, building in stronger “out-of-the-box” workflows, and making sure that the first experience with the product feels complete rather than provisional.

5. Everything moves faster — in both directions

The speed of US business can be energizing. Emails answered before you’ve finished lunch. Pilot scopes defined over a single call. Purchase orders signed before your European colleagues are awake.

The other side of that speed is the equally rapid disengagement if expectations aren’t met. In one case, a portfolio company closed a $500k ARR deal in record time — and lost it just as quickly when the initial deployment lagged and the customer’s priorities shifted.

It’s not just about winning fast; it’s about delivering at the same pace you sold. In the US, the window between a “yes” and a “why are we still doing this?” can be measured in weeks.

6. Budgets are larger, and reshoring is more than a headline

There’s a genuine industrial investment cycle underway in the US. Federal incentives, state-level grants, and corporate strategies are aligning to bring manufacturing back onshore. For companies in automation, productivity, traceability, or compliance, this creates a fertile environment for budget conversations.

The question isn’t usually if there’s budget — it’s whether your solution sits in the top three priorities for the year. If it does, the funding can be substantial, and the decision process streamlined. If it doesn’t, even a well-liked product can find itself stalled.

7. People are the constraint

Everywhere we went — from aerospace suppliers in Wichita to electronics assemblers in Texas — the refrain was the same: not enough skilled hands. The labor gap covers operators, technicians, welders, quality engineers… it’s across the board.

That shortage changes the calculus for digital tools. In some markets, automation competes with low-cost labor. Here, it competes with no labor at all. If you can help a plant run with fewer people without degrading output quality, you’re not offering “nice-to-have” efficiency — you’re helping them stay viable.

8. The founder’s presence matters — maybe more than anything else

Early traction in the US almost always correlated with the founder being physically present. Not just for closing big deals, but for building credibility in a market that values direct access to decision-makers.

It’s not that US buyers don’t trust local teams — they do. But for the first few accounts, the founder’s involvement signals commitment, flexibility, and a willingness to stand behind the product personally. One of our founders spent three months rotating between Houston, Chicago, and Boston, personally leading demos, joining implementation calls, and checking in with early users. Those customers became advocates because they felt heard and supported from the top.

Scaling beyond that point does require building a local team. But getting to that point often depends on the founder being the primary salesperson, relationship-builder, and problem-solver.

9. Relationships matter more than you expect

The US is often portrayed as a purely transactional market — fast-moving, efficiency-driven, and focused on measurable ROI. That’s only half the truth. In our experience, the ability to create a genuine personal connection has outsized influence on deal outcomes and long-term retention.

Conversations don’t just happen in conference rooms; they happen over breakfast at the diner near the plant, during the walk across the shop floor, or in the parking lot while waiting for the next shift to end. Small gestures — remembering a plant manager’s kid just started college, asking about a long-running maintenance project — can open as many doors as a strong demo.

One founder closed a complex multi-site contract largely because he spent two days with the operations lead, driving between facilities and talking about their shared background in small manufacturing towns. By the time the formal proposal landed, the deal was already emotionally committed.

It’s not about forcing rapport. It’s about showing up as a human being first, a vendor second. In a competitive market, that can be the tie-breaker.