What We Will Use Our Expertise For
- Fits established B2B SaaS companies outside Europe that already have product-market fit and paying customers at home and are now weighing Europe as the next step.
- Runs in three phases: an on-site discovery workshop, remote plan development, and a working session to present findings and decide next steps.
- Takes 4 to 6 weeks elapsed time and roughly 12 to 17 working days of advisor effort, depending on stakeholder availability and research depth, the six steps below add up to that window.
- Ends with an executive presentation, a detailed written report, and a live working session, not a slide deck you receive by email and never open again.
- Delivers a plan and a recommendation only. Hiring, entity setup, and in-market execution are explicitly out of scope, so there is no incentive to inflate the opportunity.
- Targets the KPIs a board actually asks about before approving expansion capital: projected time-to-first-revenue in the new market, customer acquisition cost relative to the home market, and payback period, not just a qualitative country ranking.
Who This Is For
This engagement fits leadership teams at an established B2B SaaS company, typically the CEO, CRO or VP Sales, VP Marketing, VP Product, and CFO or finance lead. Before it makes sense, three things usually need to be true. The company already has product-market fit and paying customers in its home market. It is actively evaluating Europe, or has already decided in principle to expand there. And it wants an outside, structured view of where to start and what it will cost before committing budget and headcount.
Because the process relies on confidential, individual stakeholder conversations, it works best when leadership genuinely wants an independent read rather than validation of a decision already made. If the team wants the option, but not the obligation, to continue with hands-on advisory support once a plan exists, that fits the model directly. Companies at this stage often already know the general questions raised in taking a startup international and European market expansion. This evaluation turns those general questions into a company-specific plan. Some companies’ sales, marketing, and product teams don’t yet share a stable commercial operating model at home. That gap often widens once a second market enters the picture, and it is usually worth fixing before or alongside this evaluation, not after.
How the European Market Entry Evaluation Works
The European market entry evaluation runs as a structured, six-step sequence, typically taking 4 to 6 weeks elapsed and roughly 12 to 17 working days of advisor effort. Each step has a defined output before the next one starts.
The Six-Step Sequence
- Kickoff and stakeholder mapping (Week 1). An intake call, document review, and confirmation of which stakeholders we will interview, based on the company’s org structure.
- On-site discovery workshop (Week 1-2). Individual, confidential conversations with 5 to 8 stakeholders, covering current go-to-market, product and pricing, what makes the company win deals today, and why Europe, why now. On-site delivery is intentional, since culture and unstated assumptions rarely travel well over video calls.
- Market sizing and desk research (Week 2-3). Analysis of the addressable opportunity for the specific offering, plus a shortlist of plausible first customers or segments.
- Cost and ROI modeling, entity check (Week 3-4). A resourcing plan covering people, sequencing, marketing spend, and localization needs. Plus a high-level view of whether the company needs a local legal entity now, or whether an employer of record, distributor, or direct export makes more sense initially. We always flag this point for confirmation by qualified legal and tax counsel. The resourcing timeline also accounts for local holiday calendars. A launch that lands in a country’s summer or year-end shutdown looks very different on paper than in practice.
- Deliverable build (Week 3-4, overlaps with the previous step). An executive presentation suitable for a board or leadership team, and a detailed written report covering findings, market analysis, resourcing plan, cost model, and recommendation.
- Presentation and decision (Week 4-6). We present findings back as a working session, not a one-way readout, and the team leaves with an informed yes, no, or not-yet decision.
What You Receive
- An executive presentation suitable for your board or leadership team
- A detailed written report covering findings, market analysis, resourcing plan, cost model, and recommendation
- A working session to present and discuss both, with questions answered live
The Measurable Outcome
By the end of the engagement, leadership has a documented, board-ready answer to five specific questions: which country or region to enter first and why, what resourcing (people, sequencing, marketing spend, localization) that entry requires, whether a local legal entity is needed at this stage or whether an alternative structure fits better, how large the addressable opportunity is for the specific offering, and what the expected cost and break-even horizon look like. The deliverable is a decision, together with the evidence behind it, not a set of generic market slides. The findings are built to move the specific KPIs leadership tracks for an expansion decision: projected time-to-first-revenue in the new market, cost per validated opportunity before any headcount commits, expected customer acquisition cost relative to the home market, and payback period against the board-approved case.
Start With a Decision, Not a Guess
Entering Europe without a fact-based plan is expensive to undo once you have already committed headcount and budget. A European market entry evaluation gives leadership the evidence to make that call deliberately, with a documented plan either way.