Am in New York this week attending an Austrade and AIMIA digital media trade mission. Seven Australian companies spread across sectors including mobile development and online content creation are here to meet with and pitch to various US agencies and media companies. Today was officially Day 2 of the program, and consisted of presentations from both expat Australians in the US market, and from Rob Petty, former CEO of Roo Media, talked about his experience in building an online video business from New York, with his original vision from 2001 that the internet would become a broadcasting platform. From his first office in Brooklyn he began selling technology to distribute video on the internet.
The company struggled to raise capital and went public in 2002 – a difficult process in terms of paperwork and sorting out the shonks. But the company was able to sign Verizon as a customer, enabling him to build out the model for Roo as a company with global infrastructure and grew to 270 employees.
At the beginning of last year he handed off the CEO role to someone who would grow the business outside the English speaking world. After taking some time out to snowboard and study he is now looking for his next challenge.
He had some interesting points relating to breaking into the US market:
- Every meeting is a good meeting, but it can be a long process to get a result.
- We speak the same language, but the culture is phenomenally different.
- New York is like a jungle – if you think it, they can smell it.
- Keep your stories very simple, and enter the meeting to make the sale, not to educate them.
- Be careful about seeking advice from people in Australia about opening in NYC.
- No one in NYC will ever call you on your Australian mobile number.
- It can take one to two years to win their trust.
- Bring over the smartest guys you have, then start employing US people.
- You will be killed kindness, and you will not sign most of the deals you think you already have.
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