The global expansion playbook: Key takeaways from our panel at UNBOUND

Expanding into new markets can scale a business from a local success to a household name. But what actually changes when you take your business across borders and what should stay the same? How can founders find and expand into the right markets, build trust with new customer bases and stay true to their missions along the way?

On our recent panel at UNBOUND, Wise Business’ Head of US Marketing and Growth, Fernando Trueba Gris, sat down with Bashak Ilhan, Founder and CEO at Road Group, Luis Orozco, CFO at Cinepolis USA and Santiago Loizaga, Executive in Residence and Limited Partner at Wollef (Prev: Amazon) to share their lessons from scaling businesses across the Americas, Europe and beyond.

We’ve summarised the key takeaways from their discussion below.

Currently, he oversees marketing and growth for Wise across North America and LATAM, driving customer acquisition, market expansion, and go-to-market strategy for one of the world's leading fintech platforms.

He spent 12 years at Amazon in founder mode: early team member launching Amazon Mexico (2015), led the launch of Amazon Ads Mexico (2018) and its expansion into Brazil (2021), then added US Hispanics (2023). Most recently he was Managing Director, LATAM & US Hispanics Advertising — a multi-$B P&L and 150+ person team across six cities.

Choosing the right market

Many founders launch their businesses with global ambitions but knowing which market to expand into first can be tricky — should you take on the biggest market? Or the market with the lowest barriers to entry?

For Luis, the right choice depends on your resources and your ability to adapt. At Cinepolis, his team highlighted India as a potential growth market. However, despite having a ‘population per screen ratio’ that fit their ambitions, “the reality of scaling locally was very different” to what they had experienced in Mexico.

The local cinema business in India worked on a very different model and “it took us several years to really adapt to that,” Luis shared. In other Central and South American markets, by contrast, "there were fewer barriers to entry and it was easier and quicker to develop.” That’s not to say markets that are further away aren’t worth it. Luis shared, "If you're willing and you have that flexibility to adapt to new market conditions, it's great, the opportunity is there."

The local cinema business in India worked on a very different model and “it took us several years to really adapt to that,” Luis shared. In other Central and South American markets, by contrast, "there were fewer barriers to entry and it was easier and quicker to develop.” That’s not to say markets that are further away aren’t worth it. Luis shared, "If you're willing and you have that flexibility to adapt to new market conditions, it's great, the opportunity is there."

Timing is just as important as flexibility. Cinepolis was already profitable when it started expanding globally, so it could be more patient when waiting for new markets to start generating money. Luis noted that every company’s economic pressures are different, so it’s important to be realistic about how long you can fund a potentially slow start and work backwards from there.

Creating relationships

The panellists agreed that business norms can vary hugely country-to-country and it’s your business’s responsibility to be aware of these nuances and adapt accordingly. In some markets, relationships are the very foundation of how work is done. Santiago shared that when Amazon first went to market in Latin America, it used a proven blueprint from Canada and Europe. This plan, however well thought out, wasn't enough to succeed in these new regions. While deals run through systems in Canada, the US and Europe, "relationships are a big moat" in Latin America.

In Brazil especially, clients want to get to know you as a person before doing business with you. In Santiago’s experience, “once you establish that trust, that's when things start to grow.” Unlocking local growth meant becoming close to clients and more often than not, these contacts opened doors to new ones.

Fernando echoed this sentiment. In the US, “you go into a meeting at 9:00 AM, shake hands and the deal is done. In Latin America, it starts with ‘how was the weekend’ and ‘how was the soccer game.’” Santiago says that “you have to invest in relationships upfront. Adjust your sales cycle and anticipate that there will be at least a few meetings before you even close a deal.”

Building locally

Entering a new market isn’t always as easy as unblocking regions from your website or app. For businesses with local real estate or inventory requirements, there are additional aspects of scale to consider when going to market. Luis said acquisitions were key to Cinepolis’ expansion. Cinema is “capex intensive” and real estate relationships are hard to build from scratch. Buying an existing business meant that “you bought the local trust built in that company”. With this local foundation already established, Luis and his team could grow from there.

For Santiago, regional hiring was one of the biggest lessons. Companies often assume talent in foreign markets is cheap, but experienced talent is scarce and expensive.

“Setting the right compensation in your new market is the first challenge. But finding the right talent is a domino effect. Your most important hires in a region are your first few because they're going to refer other good people into your business.”

“Setting the right compensation in your new market is the first challenge. But finding the right talent is a domino effect. Your most important hires in a region are your first few because they're going to refer other good people into your business.”

Your metrics may also have to adjust based on where you’re scaling. Santiago explained, “when we launched Amazon in Mexico in 2015, we were benchmarking against the other local e-commerce players. And e-commerce back then was still very, very new. The problem that we faced was that for the Mexican buyer, Mexican consumer, the benchmark was not the other local players, the benchmark was Amazon in the US.” A failure to predict this meant that local consumers were often disappointed with the product at first.

For Bashak and her team working in retail and e-commerce, nailing pricing in new markets is also critical — it’s not as simple as converting a home-market price in a new currency. Her team starts with local competitors and the cost of selling the product there, then works backwards. “We tell them this is the price point you can sell, and then they go back to their costs.” Creating a local approach to pricing ensures that the businesses can protect their margins while remaining locally competitive.

Maintaining your brand at scale

Even if your business has to flex to a new market, it’s important to stay true to your central positioning.

Bashak encouraged founders to think of their brands as a person — "Our brands have a DNA as well, like us. They have a hometown." Successful brands have a central language and can react to new markets without losing their identities. This DNA is what sets you apart from the competition and keeps you from having “a difficult time trying to find yourself in a new place.”

Bashak encouraged founders to think of their brands as a person — "Our brands have a DNA as well, like us. They have a hometown." Successful brands have a central language and can react to new markets without losing their identities. This DNA is what sets you apart from the competition and keeps you from having “a difficult time trying to find yourself in a new place.”

Fernando agreed, drawing on Wise’s experience scaling globally.

“I think you have to define your non-negotiables for the brand — your colors, your font, your positioning. But then you have to adjust. If humor is a part of your tone of voice, you have to adjust to what humor means to that particular culture. For example, Wise's headquarters is in the UK but British humor doesn't transfer well to Mexico or Brazil. And Brazilian humor, completely different from Australia.” To stay relevant “you need people on the ground who can basically react to what you're doing to see if it's relevant for the audience."

“I think you have to define your non-negotiables for the brand — your colors, your font, your positioning. But then you have to adjust. If humor is a part of your tone of voice, you have to adjust to what humor means to that particular culture. For example, Wise's headquarters is in the UK but British humor doesn't transfer well to Mexico or Brazil. And Brazilian humor, completely different from Australia.” To stay relevant “you need people on the ground who can basically react to what you're doing to see if it's relevant for the audience."

Localising your approach doesn’t mean that everyone on your team needs to move to the new market. In Santiago’s experience, “client facing roles need to be local on the ground but their supporting functions can work centrally from other hubs.” Luis said that at Cinepolis, where they build a team comes down to ROI. Argentina, for example, wasn't big enough to justify a full corporate office, so it was serviced from a regional hub in Costa Rica.

At Wise, Fernando shared that their first local hire is typically someone with a “banking background to navigate local regulation and build relationships with regulators.” Next, they bring in “someone with a Swiss army knife approach who understands the product and engineering to build the product out locally.” Only after these hires are integrated do they “start hiring for the functions that must be local, like sales.” While it’s possible to scale a market remotely, he warned “If you don't have anyone in the new market, growth goes very slowly.”

The big picture

Despite coming from disparate backgrounds, the panellists agreed that international scale can open exciting doors for businesses across industries. But that doesn’t always mean it’s easy. Business owners should be realistic about how long it will take them to launch and roll out their products in new places, set their sites on markets that they can effectively tackle and prepare themselves with the advisors and tools they need to operate successfully.

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