From expansion question to repeatable growth engine.
International expansion combines market selection, route to market, economics, operating model and ownership. I work across that chain, and an engagement starts at whichever point is unresolved.
Expansion Thesis & Opportunity
Where should we grow, and why?
For a company with several plausible directions and no clear basis for choosing between them.
- A strong home-market business weighs its first serious foreign market
- Several markets exist and management is unsure where to deepen
- A sponsor has underwritten international growth and wants the assumptions tested
- The next move may be geography, channel, category or acquisition
- How much of the success is company-created, and how much market-enabled?
- What travels, and which market conditions does it need?
- Which growth configurations are materially different?
Growth Configuration & Economics
What model should we use?
A market can be attractive while the entry model is unattractive. The choice covers the channel, the proposition, the economics and the capital.
- DTC and marketplace
- Retail, wholesale and distributor
- Direct and partner-led B2B
- Franchise, JV and acquisition
- Deeper penetration of an existing market
- Contribution economics and channel margin
- CAC and payback
- Local fixed cost, working capital and CapEx
- Time to breakeven and to meaningful EBITDA
Expansion Operating Model
What needs to exist to make it repeatable?
The first market can be launched through heroic effort. The test comes when the third and fifth markets have to run without multiplying cost and coordination.
- Every country becomes its own mini-company
- HQ and markets fight for control
- The company adds people where it should build shared capability
- Market launches slow down
- Decision rights are unclear
- Central and local responsibilities
- Decision rights and governance
- Shared capabilities and launch workflows
- Data and KPI model
- Team and role design
Embedded Expansion Leadership
Who will actually get it built?
Some growth initiatives cut across commercial, operations, finance and local teams, and no senior owner has the capacity to run them end to end. I step in on an interim or fractional basis.
- Own one market or channel workstream
- Turn the strategic hypothesis into a live test
- Coordinate the cross-functional team
- Set the operating cadence and KPIs
- Resolve central and local decisions
- Fractional or interim Head of International Expansion
- Senior ownership of one material workstream
- A defined handover point
For investors: these map to diligence, the first 100 days, value-creation execution and the mid-hold re-underwrite.
See the investor viewThree rules I hold on every engagement.
Operator first, consultant second
I built my own cross-border business and worked on multi-market operations at enterprise scale before I advised on them. I own outcomes and I build things.
Fixed fee or outcome-based
I never bill by the hour. You know the scope, the fee and the date before the work starts.
The asset stays with you
The work ends with a system your team runs: playbooks, decision rights, operating cadence. I hand it back once it repeats.
Start with an Expansion Review.
One company and one expansion question, at a fixed scope and fee. The review tells you which of the four engagements you need, if any.