What SEA founders get wrong about expanding to the US

Many Southeast Asian founders plan their expansion to the US as if it were a short business trip. They budget for a handful of meetings, a fundraising pitch or two, and a flight home. Then they wonder why nothing sticks.

At VC firm Square Peg, I worked with founders across Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam, many of whom turned to the US for customers, capital, and growth. Today, as the founder of Beyond Border, I help other founders and their teams navigate the immigration decisions involved in making that move.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Expanding to the US requires a sustained commitment of time, capital, and senior leadership. Here are the common pitfalls I see and how founders can avoid them.

Not a two-week market visit

The default US expansion plan I often hear is: “Let’s spend one or two weeks there to feel out the market.”

It appears to make sense. As a founder, you are careful with your budget, and your Southeast Asia-based team still needs you around. But as someone who has gone through the US expansion journey, I can tell you that two weeks is far too short for the initial phase.

A founder we advised was building memory infrastructure for AI agents. They established the company in China, attracted backing from leading Chinese VC firms, and later raised a series A funding round from a top international investor.

See also: ‘Champions League’ mindset drives more SEA founders to US

But rather than establishing a sustained US presence while that momentum was fresh, the founder relied on two-week trips to meet investors.

Twelve months later, the company was still trying to establish itself beyond Asia and had struggled to begin meaningful series B conversations with Silicon Valley investors. Without the founder spending enough time in the US to develop investor relationships and meet prospective hires, fundraising and recruitment became harder to pursue.

The same dynamic applies to customers. You cannot expect to build meaningful customer trust over a single meeting, particularly if you are chasing enterprise accounts. A pilot project that might begin at US$10,000 in Southeast Asia could be worth significantly more in the US, which means the perceived risk for the buyer is also higher.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Winning that account requires more than a strong pitch. You need time to build trust, meet different stakeholders, and cultivate multiple internal champions who can help move the sale across the line. Those do not happen during a two-week trip.

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Leaving hiring and immigration planning too late

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