Go Global or Win Local First?: Habiba Alami & Milan Kuzmanovic (EP#575)

This episode was co-produced by Founders Hive, a community of successful startup founders, industry experts, and investors promoting entrepreneurship in Switzerland and helping early-stage business concepts get ready for seed-stage investment. Founders Hive is a partner of the Entrepreneurship Training programme, empowered by Innosuisse, the Swiss innovation agency supporting SMEs, startups, research institutions and other Swiss organizations in their research and development activities. Click here to find out more about Founders Hive, empowered by Innosuisse.

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Episode description:

Habiba Alami is the founder and CEO of HappyPot, a Swiss startup making group money collection easier. Milan Kuzmanovic is the founder and Chief AI Officer of Nextesy, an AI-native business administration platform built to reduce repetitive back-office work. In this Opposing Views episode, they discuss a question many founders face early on: should you build for global expansion from day one, or focus on becoming strong in one market first?

For Milan, the ambition was global from the beginning. The problem Nextesy tackles exists far beyond Switzerland, but the company still chose to prove itself at home first. Habiba sees it differently: the problem HappyPot solves may be global, but trust, payment habits and user behaviour change from market to market. That makes Switzerland less of a limitation and more of a demanding testing ground.

The conversation gets into the real trade-offs behind international expansion. Move too late, and the market may move without you. Move too early, and you risk spreading the company before the product is strong enough. Habiba and Milan also share what they are working on next, and what founders should ask themselves before deciding whether it is time to expand.

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