非美国公司在硅谷取得成功的最佳案例

    进军大西洋彼岸的向导

    麦克洛克林希望，Huddle在大西洋两岸的成功将激励其他英国初创公司向西扩展。

    “从第一天开始，我们就致力于成为一家国际公司，”他说。“我们公司的名字听起来就像是一家典型的美国公司，这一点也帮到了我们。人们想当然地认为，如果你叫Huddle，你肯定就来自加州。这个品牌的确是成功的重要因素之一。就传统而言，英国的企业级软件公司不太擅长从事品牌推广，提升品牌知名度这类活动，而我们在这方面投入了很大的精力。”

    与现有的美国公司合作也是Huddle挺进美国市场的推动力之一，麦克洛克林说。

    “Huddle能够在美国亮相的重要原因是，我们很早就跟惠普(HP)和商务社交网站LinkedIn建立了深度合作关系。这一点对于我们这样一家总部设在伦敦东南部的小公司而言尤为关键。这些交易的达成显然跟我们的产品质量过硬有莫大关系，同时还要感谢阿拉斯泰尔的卖力吆喝。还有就是，我毫无惧色地去跟这些美国大佬探讨合作的可能性。”

    英国初创公司千万不要被硅谷的光环吓倒，他说。最好的策略是，了解行之有效的运营方式，悉心学习。

    “许多英国公司不够自信，缺乏进入美国市场的胆略，”麦克洛克林说。“用心观察一下美国公司，你就会注意到，美国的顶级商界领袖不仅具有卓越的运营能力，而且很善于表演，比如Salesforce.com的马克•贝尼奥夫和甲骨文公司(Oracle)的拉里•埃里森。但在英国和欧洲很难看到这种集运营和表演才能于一身的企业领导人。”

    尽管如此，Huddle迈出第一步的地方依然是英国。2008年，全球经济陷入严重衰退之际，这家公司从英国伊甸园投资公司(Eden Ventures)手中获得了第一笔风险投资。寻求美国资本则是后来的事情。

    “在英国获得投资时，我们正处在典型的早期阶段，”麦克洛克林说。“我们俩当时坐在一间屋子里，除了一个测试版的软件产品和宏伟愿景之外，几乎一无所有。进行B轮募资时，我们已经有了市场号召力，客户和收入，我们这时候发现，美国投资者的动作要快得多。相较于英国风投资本，美国人愿意冒更大的风险，下更大的赌注。这种状况正在改变，但欧洲人向来厌恶风险。他们总是一头钻进各种指标中，恨不能把企业肢解开，逐一剖析。只有在完成这些工作后，他们才会安心做下来，跟你谈投资的事情。”

    2010年，Huddle觉得自己已经拥有足够大的市场号召力，于是决定在旧金山（还有比它更合适的地方么？）开设第一家美国分公司。

    “英国公司在美国运营还是有一些优势的。人们往往认为说一口纯正英国口音的人肯定比满口美国腔的人更加聪明，”麦克洛克林笑着说。“这样说当然很不靠谱，但我们可不打算劝说他们放弃这样的想法。”

    A guide for westward expansion

    McLoughlin hopes that Huddle's transatlantic success will inspire other British startups to look westward for growth.

    "From day one, we have always tried to position ourselves as an international business," he said. "It helps the name is quintessentially American-sounding. People assume if you are called Huddle you have to be from California. The brand has really been a big part of the success. Traditionally British enterprise companies haven't been good at branding and brand awareness, and we've concentrated a lot on that."

    Partnering with existing U.S. companies also helped Huddle enter the market, McLoughlin said.

    "Being able to launch the product in the U.S. with significant early partnerships with HP and LinkedIn, especially when we were just a very small company based in south-east London, was key. Obviously a lot came down to the quality of the product but also a lot of hustle from Alastair and I not being afraid to go and have those conversations with these big American players."

    It's important for British startups to not get intimidated by the aura of Silicon Valley, he said. It's far better to take what works and learn from it.

    "A lot of British companies struggle with having the confidence to really put yourself out there," McLoughlin said. "When you look at American companies you realize the very best American leaders have a mixture of operational excellence but also showmanship. Look at someone like Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com and Larry Ellison of Oracle. These are fantastic operators with an element of showmanship which you tend not to see so much in U.K. and European leaders."

    Still, Huddle started locally. Its first venture capital came from U.K.-based Eden Ventures in 2008, when the global economy was retracting. Only later did the company pursue U.S. investment.

    "The investment we took in the U.K. was classic early stage," McLoughlin said. "We were basically two guys in a room with little more than a beta software product and a grand vision. What we found when we came to the B round when we had traction, customers, and revenue, was the American investors were a lot quicker to move. Americans are prepared to take more risk and bigger bets than British VCs. It is changing, but traditionally the Europeans have been more risk-averse. They want to dive in to the metrics and really pick apart the business before they are comfortable talking about investment."

    In 2010, Huddle felt it had enough traction to open its first U.S. office in -- where else? -- San Francisco.

    "Being a British company in America has pluses. People tend to assume because you have a British accent you are more intelligent than someone with an American accent," Andy said with a laugh. "That is massively untrue, but we're not going to dissuade them of that notion."