These 3 funded startups share their secrets to expand into Asian cities

A startup’s ultimate mission is to scale as fast as possible. Founders consider expanding into different countries for various reasons. Some see a great demand in a market while others have to fulfill their investor’s targets by expanding their global footprint.

Last month, Tech in Asia City Chapters (Hong Kong) organized the second founders’ meetup, discussing growth and regional expansion with panelists from Wantedly, KKday, and Lalamove, three startups in Asia with varying business models.

A summary of the three startups.

They all believe that localization is the key to success in a new environment.

To what extent should you localize?

Manage local teams appropriately

Having a strong local team will help the company adapt its values to the new environment. But how much autonomy a company gives to the local team is always the more difficult question.

Co-founder and director of Lalamove, Gary Hui.

Lalamove, an on-demand delivery solution, is expanding in China and is targeting to launch in 100 cities in the country by the end of 2017.

However, its co-founder and director, Gary Hui, explained that their localization efforts there vary from other countries.

“Things are different in China. We give little self-governance to the Chinese teams because the situation among cities are somewhat similar. While in other countries, the user preferences and behaviours are very different across cities. Therefore, we let the local teams develop their strategies with higher autonomy.”

How do you keep the local team motivated?

Reinvestment in marketing