EP #467 - Britta Thiele-Klapproth & Tobias Britt: Should Swiss Startups Expand to Germany First?

This episode was co-produced with Switzerland Global Enterprise.

About Britta Thiele-Klapproth & Tobias Britt:

Britta Thiele-Klapproth is the Head of Export and Investment Promotion at Swiss Business Hub Germany, helping Swiss companies do business in Germany. Tobias Britt is the founder and CEO of iunctum, which supports companies to create digital twins by running cloud solutions. 

During their chat with Silvan, Britta and Tobias discussed expanding to Germany.  Although it makes total sense to start with your homemarket of Switzerland, to test the waters and iterate, if you want to scale your company up and grow sustainably, you need to go beyond Swiss borders. But why expand to Germany first?

• Germany is the only EU country which is 10x bigger than Switzerland, and also (obviously) a German-speaking nation. 

• Testing the waters and optimizing your product never stops. You do it when you first build the product, and you do it every time you enter a new market. Testing your product within Europe is beneficial because of the cultural proximity. 

What are the differences between Germany and Switzerland?

• Switzerland is so small, everyone knows everyone. Potential business partners like to establish trust firmly before jumping on a venture together. The same can be said for Germany, despite its larger size.
• However, Germans are, stereotypically, louder, more self-confident, and more aggressive in regards to company acquisitions. The modest, shy Swiss mentality may mean you run the risk of not being heard.

Definitely do not plan on expanding your Swiss company to Switzerland without first allocating a budget to explore the German market, but neither Britta nor Tobias can give you a minimum budget, because it highly depends on the industry. Swiss Business Hub Germany can help you tailor a solution to your specific industry needs. 

How should you change your pricing when approaching the German market? Again, it will completely depend on your product. But Tobias advises you not to overfocus on the pricing, especially considering costs in Germany can be lower in certain aspects. He encourages listeners to first get to know the market well and then think of how to finetune their German pricing.

Both Tobias and Britta recognize that in Germany one observes a unique relationship between companies and the government (which often results in a lot of bureaucracy, that Swiss Business Hub Germany is ready to assist you with). As his main challenge in expanding to Germany, Tobias cites the development of intercultural competence.

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