The Gold Coast Hub was pleased to partner with City of Gold Coast and Austrade to deliver a workshop with Gabe Sulkes, the co-ordinator of the San Francisco Landing Pad, on how market ready companies can leverage the 90 day Landing Pad initiatives in San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Singapore and Shanghai (Learn more here.)
The workshop was delivered to a full house of representatives from Gold Coast based companies that are looking to expand into international markets, with several proving to be an excellent match for the Landing Pad programs.
If you have been considering taking on a new international market are 5 tips for Gold Coast companies considering applying for the landing pad program:
1. Make sure your business is ready for international expansion. The landing pad program is specifically targeted at businesses that have already achieve a level of commercial success locally or have already had some activity and/or interest in overseas markets. If you are still at idea, prototyping or customer validation stage, you will not be able to gain the full benefits of the program.
2. Do some initial market research. Austrade publish heaps of information on their website to help you work out where and who you should connect with overseas to grow your business. Check the online export market guides here.
3. Look at leveraging Gold Coast City Council programs to enhance your landing pad experience and for preliminary market exploration. Export Assistance Scheme will reimburse up to $3000 for pre-approved export sales trips to market and the Export training – Emerging Exporter Program is a series of 4 free 3 hour workshops, scheduled for October- Dec 2017 – register at link.
4. Consider applying for an accelerator program (Y-Combinator, 500 Startups) several Australian businesses have leveraged the Landing Pad to use in conjunction with participating in a startup accelerator.
5. Leverage rocketspace services – If you are heading to the San Francisco Landing Pad, make sure you register for updates with RocketSpace, they host loads of interesting guest speakers, workshops and networking opportunities that Landing Pad participants can take part in.
