K atie c ouric

Investing Abroad Makes You Stand Out
Carey shares that if you’re pitching a US, UK, Canadian, or German
company in Indonesia, Thailand, or Vietnam, you’re so unusual that you’ll
get better quality meetings with more senior people and have a better
opportunity to close deals. One time, Carey invested in a company called
Paranoid Fan, a sports and entertainment mapping company that shows you
where the shortest queue for the restroom is, where tailgate parties are
happening, and other interesting things related to sports and entertainment
events. The company works with NFL, NBA, and major league soccer
teams in the States. Then they got some interest from Mexico and Brazil, so
the company went down and did a little miniature road show around
Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile, pitching their B2B and
mapping solutions to an array of different clubs. They walked away from
that trip with deals with all the major Mexican, Brazilian, Uruguayan,
Argentinian, and Chilean football teams, and with a bunch of partnerships
with the governing bodies as well. They captured about thirty million users,
without ever having to spend a dime on marketing. When Paranoid Fan met
with executives on those trips it was praised for being there in person.
People in other countries explained that US companies had pitched to them
before but only by sending emails asking for conversations by Skype.
Going down there and physically meeting people gave Paranoid Fan the
opportunity to sign deals quickly.
Later, Paranoid Fan also went to the World Football Summit in Madrid,
Spain, and did deals with most of the major European soccer clubs. If it had
gone with only two million users, it wouldn’t have been as desirable. But
the fact that it had thirty million users gave it credibility, and it didn’t matter
where those users were located.

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