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Ask HN: 10% WoW growth. Moving to the US. Who should we call?

9 pointsflibble9y ago12 comments

We're based in Ireland and provide a 'white label' / custom branded online ordering system for restaurants.

Our growth rate has been around 10% week on week recently. Here is a graph showing weekly food sales and revenue in more detail: http://www.getflipdish.com/flipdish-images/sales-201612.jpg

We plan to raise a further round of funding and relocate to the US in 2017.

We would like feedback on which investors and VCs would be a good match for us, when we're doing about €60k - €100k/mth revenue. We're at €12k/mth now.

We will probably be too small at that point to talk to a lot of the big name VCs that we hear about over here, but aren't familiar with investors who seek to work with companies at this stage.

Any advice from our US HNers would be very welcome!

conor@getflipdish.com

12 comments

12 comments · 6 top-level

sharemywin9y ago· 3 in thread

why wouldn't you stay where your at and saturate your initial market. Seems like a lot of trouble to start practically from scratch.

flibbleOP9y ago

Our local market is 2,000 restaurants, vs 200,000 or so in the US. It's a great market to learn and improve, but we want a place with a larger customer base. We aren't abandoning our local market, far from it, but want to be in a place with space for us to grow.

The United States is also much much bigger. It's ~130 times the land area of the Republic of Ireland. The distance between New York and San Francisco is ~4200 km. That's ~1700 km further than the distance from Dublin to Moscow. More like Dublin to Uralsk, Kazakhstan.

I suppose my point is that the US is not a local market in the same way Ireland is. You can get up in the morning, drive all day, and still not be at the other side of Texas even if you don't stop to talk to restaurant owners.

What about the UK? Much closer, simpler business structure to work there, abundance of capital.

zer00eyz9y ago· 2 in thread

Why the hell are you moving to the US?

Are you looking for capital? You can get that in Europe. Are you looking for a larger market? You should be looking in Europe.

By moving to the US your going to create an amazingly complex tax and business situation that will just make things harder for you not easier. Hell most US companies want to MOVE some or part of their operations TO Europe for tax reasons.

After you capture DE, FR, the whole of the UK, AUS, and ZA then think about the US and think about going to Canada first.

flibbleOP9y ago

The perception is that if we can our sales process work in the US then it will be much easier to scale out than in the EU, where most every country comes with its own language.

Your sales process is the last reason you should do that.

Market size might be interesting but between tax, labor and business laws your going to find yourself on very alien ground. Language is a lower barrier than you think and solving the problem now (at your size) is a much easier goal that after you have done the US.

What does your current sales process look like that the american market looks appealing?

bsvalley9y ago· 1 in thread

Beside the number of restaurants, did you guys look at the competition in the US? What would make you guys successful here? Who are the big players in that space in the US? Seems like a lot of companies have already covered that space.

flibbleOP9y ago

Yes, of course. It's a very active space and there are a number of US based companies making moves in the US. No one with quite as nice a platform (from the consumer's POV) as us exists - we're confident in our ability to make it work there.

ronankenny9y ago

The Digital Irish events are a great way to pitch your business ideas to Irish-American investors in New York. Check out http://digital.irish - Good Luck!

eb0la9y ago

Use that cash in hand to develop the product for the Germany/Austria region.

Same currency, (almost) same timezone, same taxes, and a 85 Million people market; plus you can also make a dent in the Swiss market later.

For the US market, you won't have language problems; buy will havo to localize for (local) sales taxes, etc.

I'd recommend an immigration lawyer to make sure that moving to the US is a practical option for your business.

Good luck.

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