👋 Hi, I’m Andre and welcome to my newsletter Data Driven VC which is all about becoming a better investor with Data & AI. Join 34,460 thought leaders from VCs like a16z, Accel, Index, Sequoia, and more to understand how startup investing becomes more data-driven, why it matters, and what it means for you.
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Building a Global Company from Day 1
The US software market is not just a bigger pond—it’s an ocean. Roughly twice the size of Europe’s, it offers not just more dollars, but a higher velocity of adoption and a mindset of experimentation.
Every founder eyeing up the US from the outside faces the same question: do we have what it takes? Breaking into such a large and competitive market will probably be one of the most daunting feats you’ll ever face as a founder—but, if you succeed, it will also be one of the most rewarding.
For European founders, the fundamental question is shifting from "How do we expand to the US?" to "How do we build a global company from day one?" Rather than treating US expansion as a bridge to cross at some point, founders are increasingly looking to the horizon and building with transatlantic ambitions from the start.
For today’s episode, I sat down with Martin Mignot, General Partner at Index Ventures, to discuss their latest publication, “Winning in the US”—a data-driven, founder-backed playbook for navigating the Atlantic leap.
The interesting part: A French native, Martin took the leap from Europe to the US himself when opening Index’ NYC office in 2022. In our interview, he not only shares his personal experience and learnings as an investor helping startups cross the pond, but backs it up with stories from 40+ European founders such as Adyen, Celonis, Collibra, Hugging Face, UiPath, and many more who successfully scaled in the US too.
Let’s dive in!
What’s “Winning in the US” About?
In Martin’s words, the book was built to combine quantitative and qualitative insights—evidence-based recommendations, founder stories, and tactical tips that are tangible, personal, and actionable.
The key message? European founders need to think globally from day one.
That’s not just a mantra—it’s a strategic imperative. Because as Martin states “If you scale country by country and wait until €10M ARR before making a move, someone else will already be winning in the US by then.”
