A Global Vision, Local Roadblocks

The company had momentum. As one of the UK’s most prominent players in advertising technology, it had proven product-market fit, a strong revenue engine, and a confident leadership team. Naturally, the next chapter was international expansion—and they had their eyes on the two biggest prizes: the United States and Japan.

Offices had already been established in both markets. On paper, the infrastructure was in place. But inside the company, something wasn’t quite working. The local teams were stretched thin, focused on sales execution and day-to-day operations. There was no time—nor a defined process—for exploring the bigger questions:

• Who are the right customers in these markets?

• What are their unique needs?

• How does our product fit into these vastly different ecosystems?

In short, the company had a presence, but not a plan.

A Call for Strategic Speed

It was one of the company’s executives who raised the flag. Expansion into the US and Japan wasn’t just about selling harder—it needed to be smarter. But building an in-house team dedicated to market discovery would take time and significant cost.

That’s when they reached out to Peetslist.

What they needed wasn’t a long-winded consulting deck or a generic playbook. They needed an agile, hypothesis-driven partner—someone who could help them learn quickly, cheaply, and precisely. Someone who knew how to translate curiosity into clarity.

Leading with Questions, Not Assumptions

Peetslist began where most strategies fail to start: with deep, pointed questions. Not “How do we sell more?” but:

• What problems do marketers in Tokyo and New York face today?

• Which market segments are underserved—or misunderstood?

• How might our existing value proposition translate—or not?

Armed with these “Important Questions,” we built country-specific learning agendas and ventured into both markets—not physically, but through sharp research, curated interviews, and local insight networks. Unlike traditional market reports, the information we gathered was focused, fresh, and directly tied to decision-making.

Our team’s knowledge of both Japanese and US tech sectors—shaped by years of venture investment and product strategy work—allowed us to navigate nuance. We understood what might work, and more importantly, what wouldn’t.

“Peetslist helped us move fast, but with a clear head. Their process made our expansion strategy easy to explain internally, and it gave us the confidence to move without overspending.”

“Their cross-market experience—especially in Japan and the US—was critical. They knew what to ask, who to talk to, and how to adapt our product story.”

- Customer

A Strategy that Scales (and Explains)

Within a matter of weeks, we delivered something more than a strategy—it was a story the executive team could tell.

• A prioritized market map of opportunities.

• A list of validated assumptions—and what to test next.

• Pilot approaches that could be run without new hires or heavy investment.

• A clear narrative that unified global leadership around a single direction.

And because the strategy was built on hypotheses and evidence, not opinion, it was easy to socialize across departments. This wasn’t just “expansion” anymore—it was informed acceleration.

From Uncertainty to Momentum

Thanks to this approach, the company was able to move forward confidently—identifying clear use cases, focusing resources where they mattered, and unlocking early-stage revenue wins in both target markets. All without the burden of premature hiring or high-cost launches.

The team didn’t just avoid mistakes. They built a repeatable process for testing and entering future markets—with a fraction of the usual risk.