In this talk, the speaker argues that modern startups are "global by default" because digital products can reach users worldwide from day one. The key question is not whether a startup can be global, but whether it can be globally great. He advises founders to start their venture wherever they happen to be—Silicon Valley is great but not essential— and to expand quickly by establishing offices in multiple countries. Evernote is used as a case study: the company has set up offices in nine countries, not primarily to sell locally but to tap into top local design, engineering, and partnership talent in hubs such as Beijing, São Paulo, Tokyo, and Zurich. By building the product everywhere, Evernote aims to create a product that works well for users worldwide.
Chapters
Where? The next W. Where should you start your startup? Now we're going to save a lot of time here because we're in Silicon Valley, so it's here. Usually this is a longer answer when I talk about it anywhere else, but you guys are already in the right place. A little bit more specifically, being global doesn't mean what it used to. When a company used to say that we're global, that used to mean that we sell our shit everywhere. And it doesn't mean that anymore. Because, well, it's just not interesting. In our industry, there's so few barriers to where you can sell things, where you can get users, that of course you're global. If you're starting something today, you're global by default. You're global from when you have 2 people and you release your first app. You're global automatically. Unless you explicitly try not to be, you're global. The only question is, do you want to be good at it? But you're global, you know, from the beginning because you can attract users everywhere. You can get to users everywhere. So what does it mean to be global? Well, for us, for Evernote, it means that we want to make products that are globally great. And the only way we can think to do it is to build it everywhere. So the answer to the question "where" is, well, when you're starting out, you should start out wherever you are. If you happen to be in Silicon Valley, great. Best place in the world. If not, doesn't matter too much. But at least for us, as quickly as possible, we said we need to be everywhere. So we have offices in like 9 different countries now. And we're there not to sell stuff. We're not in China to sell stuff to Chinese people. We're in China— although we do a lot of that— we're in China because I think Beijing is one of the top centers of innovation in the world. And we want the best Chinese designers and engineers and partners to help us make a product that's globally great. And we want the same thing in our office in São Paulo and in Tokyo and in Zurich.
