Breaking into the US: Hard-won lessons from Kiwi leaders

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Considering breaking into the US? We brought together four operators who've actually done the mahi:  Caleb Helm (COO, Lumin), Nick Whitehead (CMO, Serko), Ruth Macleod (ex-NZTE Trade Commissioner, San Francisco), and Byron Powell (CRO, Parkable). They share an honest, no-fluff conversation about what it really takes to crack the world's biggest market.

Key themes:

1. Nailing your ICP before you do anything else
Ruth Macleod put it plainly: "The single most common thing we saw time and time again that put companies on struggle street was not understanding their ICP. Or looking at it a different way, thinking their ICP was everybody across a whole bunch of different verticals and industries."

Nick Whitehead added a sharp analogy: "Think of the US market as being just one giant field of dry grass, and you want to set that grass on fire, and marketing spend is the sunshine. Without your ICP, it's just a warm, pleasant day. But your ICP is like a magnifying glass that focuses all of that heat on a single, intense patch — and you've got a much greater likelihood of that catching fire."

2. The discovery year: validate before you scale
The panel agreed your first year in-market shouldn't be treated as a revenue-generating year. Byron walked through Parkable's journey, starting with ads and SEO to test demand, 20 product interviews with potential US customers, and sending the CEO on a city tour to understand geographic fit. Texas, for example, eventually emerged as a strong market, something that wouldn't have been obvious from a desk in Auckland.

"Think about your first year not as a revenue-generating year, but as a discovery year," says Ruth. That shift in expectation can be the difference between setting yourself up properly and burning through resources chasing the wrong things.

3. Partnerships as a force multiplier
Nick made a strong case for partnerships as a scaling mechanism, particularly for Kiwi companies who can't immediately field a large direct sales team. "It's a way to bring on a single partner who could give access to thousands of customers," he says, noting it also keeps sales and marketing costs lower than a purely direct model. The caveat: partnerships take time. They're relationship-built, and finding the right fit matters.

4. Getting boots on the ground

When hiring and building a US team, the panel's message was consistent: don't over-hire for seniority too early. Byron described Parkable's approach: flying a small team to the US for three months to test go-to-market fit across multiple verticals before committing to a permanent presence. "It's a lot cheaper, and less effort. You're not packing up your whole life." When he did relocate, the focus shifted to building a small local team with the right attributes: scrappy, entrepreneurial, comfortable with ambiguity, and genuinely motivated by solving a hard problem rather than just hitting quota.

Key takeaways:

  • Lock in your ICP before anything else
    A broad target isn't a strategy — unclear segmentation cascades into weak messaging, wasted spend, and the wrong hires.

  • Validate before you scale
    Run ads, do customer interviews, attend conferences and bring back real intel before committing to a full go-to-market push.

  • Explore partnerships early
    Reseller, referral and channel partnerships can unlock thousands of customers faster  and at lower cost than a direct sales motion from scratch.

  • Hire for the stage you're actually at
    Your first US hire needs to be scrappy and adaptable, not a polished exec expecting a tidy playbook on day one.

  • Get on the ground — even briefly
    There's no substitute for in-market experience. A short trip, a trade show, or a 3-month pilot will teach you more than months of desk research.

Watch the full discussion for all the insights.

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