Use case · "I need to reassure investors on my international roadmap."
Backing your international roadmap with data before the next round
For founders raising a Seed, Series A or later round with "Europe in 2027" or "Asia next year" on a slide, and nothing behind it yet. Here is how to replace the slide with evidence.
The slide every investor has seen
A map of Europe or Asia with three countries highlighted, a year next to each, and a market-size figure from a report. Investors have seen it a hundred times, and they discount it to zero, because it costs nothing to make. The roadmap is not the problem; the absence of anything behind it is.
What changes the conversation is one line: "We tested the product with 20 users in Germany for eight weeks; week-6 retention was within 10% of home; here is what we would adapt." Now the roadmap is a plan with a first data point, and the round is about executing it rather than imagining it.
What investors are actually asking
- Does the product travel? Not "is the market big", which they can read themselves, but "does usage hold in a country where nobody knows the founder".
- Which country first, and why? A ranked answer with reasons beats a list of three flags.
- What will it cost to adapt? A list of what to change, from a real test, is the beginning of a budget. A guess is not.
- How do you decide to stop? Founders who set a go / no-go threshold before spending are the ones investors trust with the next cheque.
What a test looks like for this case
Either a single-country test on your most likely first market, or a comparison across the two or three countries on the slide. The second produces the ranked order investors want; the first is faster and cheaper if the choice is already made.
Timing
A test runs 10 to 12 weeks end to end. If the round closes in six months, there is time to run one and put the results in the deck. If it closes in six weeks, run the risk check, scope the test now, and present the signed plan: investors read a scoped, dated test as seriousness, even before results.
What goes in the deck
One slide replaces the map: the country, the panel's make-up, usage over eight weeks against your home benchmark, the three things people said most, the go / adjust / stop reading, and the adaptation list with a cost estimate. Sourced, dated, reproducible.
What you walk away with
A roadmap investors can question line by line, which is what they want to do. A first country chosen on evidence. And a precedent: you are the founder who tests before spending, which is the trait that gets the next round funded as much as this one.
Raising in the next six months?
Book a 30-minute call. Tell us the countries on the slide and the closing date; we'll tell you what can be tested in time, and what to present if it can't.
Questions founders ask before a round
Will investors take a 20-user test seriously?
Yes, if it is framed as what it is: a retention and fit test in a market where nobody knows you, not a statistical market study. Twenty well-targeted users over eight weeks say more about product travel than a 2,000-person survey. Investors know the difference.
Can I share the report with investors?
Yes. The report contains usage data, the panel's make-up and anonymised feedback, never tester identities. It is written to be read by people outside the company.
What if the test says "stop"?
Then you present a "stop" with reasons and the next country to test. Investors fund founders who kill bad plans early far more readily than founders who launch and explain later.