When should an international founder expand into the US market versus scaling in their home market?
2026-08-04 · Lounge · Video answer (transcript)
Hey. First of all, thanks so much for your participation in the community and all your good comments. I appreciate it.
This is a tricky one, and I'm afraid there is no bright line that says, "This is the point where all of a sudden you move from your core market into an even bigger one." It's going to have to be by feel.
My gut says you should stay focused where you are—in the market you understand, where you have a brand, and where things are working really well. You used the term "start over in another market," and I absolutely wouldn't do that.
There will be a point where you have figured it out, where all of a sudden it's crushing it. You figure out how to acquire customers, you figure out how to maintain engagement, you have long retention, and you have long lifetime values. You totally have the business model wired. Then it's not unreasonable to say, "What would it take to take what I've learned and apply it in a larger market in the United States?"
I can't tell you when you've reached that point, but I would not be overly tempted to jump into the US just because it's bigger. You are right—it is way more competitive, people don't know you, and English being your second language is going to come off differently. I don't think it's a positive differentiator.
So that's my feeling. You've got a good thing going. Continue to nail it.
Once you have that running smoothly and you say, "I'm going to put a few cycles into seeing if the things I've proven work here can work somewhere else," fine—go for it. But I don't think you're missing something by delaying or waiting to enter the US market.
Public Hand Raises only. Questions anonymized; answers are Marc Randolph's mentorship responses with names redacted.