🇺🇸 Winning in the US: A Conversation with Index Ventures' Martin Mignon
How European Startups Can Break Into the World’s Largest Software Market
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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.”
✅ The 3 Key Takeaways
🧭 1. Think Global from Day One
The first and most resounding piece of advice? Don’t wait.
“Too many startups fall into what I call the midsize country trap,” says Mignot. “They start in one country—France, Germany, wherever—and plan to expand sequentially after reaching €10M ARR. But by then, it’s almost like starting a new company from scratch. Meanwhile, someone else will have seen the same opportunity and launched in the US already.”
That delay can be fatal. Martin notes that while some horizontal products—like HR tech (e.g., Personio) or tax platforms (e.g., Pennylane)—can afford to expand later via local acquisitions, such cases are rare.
Instead, he argues for global architecture from day one:
Structure your company with English as the working language.
Assemble multi-national / cultural teams.
Build with international scalability in mind, regardless of where you start.