What Technology Startups Must Get Right to Globalize Early and Rapidly

Abstract

Upon or shortly after inception, growth-oriented technology startups must operate in a market that is global. Management teams and investors of technology startups can benefit from approaches and models that can help them operate in a global market early and rapidly. How well a technology startup addresses the realities of globalization will determine its success. A better understanding of what management teams and investors of technology startups must get right to globalize their startups is needed. This article is an attempt to meet this need. In this article, lessons that have been extracted from six literature streams and from information on 21 startups founded in 12 countries are used to identify the six elements that a startup must get right to globalize early and rapidly. These six elements are: i) Problem scope, ii) Stakeholders’ commitments, iii) Collaborative entrepreneurship, iv) Relational capital, v) Legitimacy, and vi) Global capability. The main contribution of this article is that it throws the spotlight on the need to develop prescriptive rules and practitioner-oriented models that can help a technology startup operate globally from an early stage.