I had the pleasure of catching up with Sian Simpson, Global Community Manager of the Kiwi Landing Pad (KLP) in San Francisco. The KLP was founded in 2011 by well-known Kiwi entrepreneurs Sam Morgan and John Holt.
KLP helps selected high growth New Zealand technology companies establish and grow their business in the USA by offering a soft landing point into the US market, where they can hit the ground running and be plugged into the community from day one.
In the past two years, KLP and Sian, have worked with over 1,000 NZ businesses, meet with over 1,500 entrepreneurs and grown the NZ tech community in the United States to 3,000+ members.
Sian was back in New Zealand to run the popular Sales and Marketing Jam series. As always, I found the event highly valuable and it was great to pick Sian’s brain further on what it takes for New Zealand tech companies to successfully break into the US market.
Episode highlights:
- Getting introduced – how to make it easy for others to help you
- Building communities around events – lasting impression beyond the event
- Creating strategic partnerships around a common mission
- Perfecting your pitch – how to communicate your mission
- Handling Tall Poppy Syndrome – letting your customers sing your praises
- Assessing whether Silicon Valley is right for your company’s expansion
- Using social media effectively to build networks in new markets
Listen to the full episode below or on iTunes:
Helpful links in this episode:
- Kiwi Landing Pad
- NZ Sales and Marketing Jam series
- Sian’s Twitter, email and Linkedin contact details
techmarketer.org 