US expansion
A UK founder's guide to raising in the US
Entity structure, timing, narrative shift and the introductions that matter when you take a British company to American investors.
9 min read
Crossing the Atlantic is a positioning problem long before it is a legal one. American investors are not buying a British company with a US plan; they are buying a US company that happens to have started in Britain.
Get the timing right
Go too early and you burn eighteen months of runway learning a market you had no proof in. Go too late and a US competitor has already bought the category language.
The usual trigger is unprompted US demand: inbound customers, US logos closing without a local team, or pricing that holds at American levels. Manufactured demand does not count.
Structure without over-engineering
Most US institutional investors will want a Delaware topco eventually. Flipping is cheaper and cleaner before the round than during it, but doing it prematurely creates tax and admin cost for a market you have not proven.
Take advice on EIS and SEIS implications early. Restructuring can strip reliefs your existing shareholders are counting on, and that conversation is far easier before the term sheet than after.
Change the narrative, not the facts
British pitching is comparative and hedged. American pitching is absolute and forward-looking. The same company, honestly described, sounds twice as ambitious in the second register.
Lead with the market you intend to own, not the market share you currently hold. Then let the evidence be quietly, verifiably British in its precision.
Take these away
- —Let real US demand pull you across, do not push.
- —Handle the entity and relief question before the raise, not mid-process.
- —Shift the register of the pitch without inflating a single number.
Theory is cheap. Preparation is not.
Two minutes on the readiness check will tell you which of these you actually need to act on first.