We've been in the US for a few months now, trying to get Trendoline off the ground in a bigger market. I want to write about what this actually looks like, as opposed to what I expected it to look like.
What I expected
I expected the US market to be more receptive to a European startup with some traction. I expected the startup ecosystem to be as open and networked as its reputation suggests. I expected the product to need adjustment, but not fundamental rethinking.
Most of these expectations were wrong in ways I should have anticipated.
What it actually looks like
Warm introductions matter enormously. You can have a good product and a compelling story and get nowhere if you're talking to people who have no reason to trust you yet. In Turkey I had a network I'd built over years. Here I'm starting from zero.
The pitch culture is also different in ways that are hard to describe from the outside. There's a cadence to how you're expected to talk about your company, what metrics matter, what the narrative arc should look like. I've been learning it by watching it, which is slow.
What I underestimated
How much of early-stage startup success is social infrastructure. Knowing who to talk to, who can introduce you to who, who's worth spending time with and who isn't. That knowledge is earned and it doesn't transfer between markets.
The product quality gets you in the room. The network gets you the meetings.
What's actually useful
Draper University has been a reference point in conversations here more than I expected. It signals that you've been in the ecosystem, which counts for something when you're building credibility from scratch.
Still figuring out the rest.
With gusto, Fatih.