Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or watch on Youtube.
Timestamps
2:20 Wait for product-market fit before going international
3:06 Let your existing customers show you which market to enter next
4:36 Skip the legal entity: run new markets from your HQ
6:45 Why Shakers has no country managers (and what they hire instead)
10:43 Use a major conference as a forcing function for your launch deadline
10:43 The one metric to benchmark every new market: time to first €100K net revenue
12:13 How to turn one pan-European account into revenue across multiple markets
15:51 Southern vs. Northern Europe: know how mature your market is before you pitch
18:11 The 14-markets-in-6-months mistake and why it almost broke them
19:45 Key takeaways: Rhys’ 6-point summary
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The conventional playbook for European expansion: hire a country manager, set up a legal entity, find an office, start again from scratch, and repeat for every market.
Shakers, the AI-powered talent marketplace connecting enterprises with vetted tech professionals, did none of that. They now operate in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, and the UK - all run from their Madrid headquarters.
When Nico De Luis,COO and co-founder of Shakers, joined us on Sidekick, he walked through the their international expansion and four lessons stood out.
Lesson #1. Wait until the model is proven. Shakers waited four years and a Series A before expanding. It's discipline: expansion amplifies whatever you already have. If the model is leaking, new markets make it worse.
Lesson #2. Run everything from your hub. Every market is managed from Madrid with no local offices, no separate cultures, no duplicated overhead. Instead, Shakers hires native speakers from the target market and bases them at HQ. The product, marketing, finance and people teams remain global functions serving every market simultaneously.
The contrast with Nico's previous company is shocking. There, they opened 14 markets in six months (!): one legal entity per market, one lawyer, one accountant, local offices, local hires. Some markets failed and winding them down cost as much as building them. At Shakers, they use the opposite model. If a market does not work, you redirect the BD. No leases and no dissolution.
Lesson #3. Use your existing clients as a launchpad. Shakers did not enter Portugal cold for instance. Their Spanish enterprise clients already had operations there so the relationship existed and the trust was built. Following a known buyer into a new geography is a fundamentally different exercise from acquiring a new one.
Lesson #4. Create a hard deadline. Expansion without a public commitment drifts. Shakers ties every market launch to a major industry event. For France, that was VivaTech. The date was fixed, which forced the team to have the local BD hired, the product localised and the press release ready on time.
Their benchmark for success is equally simple: time to first €100K in net revenue. Not GMV, not sign-ups, only real money. Comparing that number across markets tells them whether the model is translating and whether the market is ready to scale.
Nico also shares a story from a previous company (14 markets in six months!) that explains exactly why they did it differently this time. Sharp, honest, and packed with things you can actually use for your international expansion.
