Most enterprise software is actually small business software that has grown into the role. You can start with a SaaS that charges thousands of SMEs a double or triple digit sum, and slowly work up the food chain to the multi-million dollar contracts.
And there are thousands of such niches. Millions, really. They're all around, everywhere. Find any office, anywhere, in any business. You will find some repetitive-but-business-critical proces being performed by someone following a yellow photocopied guide taped to the wall above the fax machine.
start in the wrong country and you have a big barrier. you need to start in the US, no way around it. single biggest homogenic market (language, culture, legal). your 3 sales people can cover a lot of ground. start in France and great, once you have France where do you scale out to? Germany? The US? Your French sales people are likely worthless outside of France.
You see this pattern in enterprise companies. Way fewer in central Europe than there should be. Germany's SAP made it, Software AG follows. Cegedim in France. UK has advantage of US-ties. Eastern Europe? Kill yourself (outliers: Skype, Kasperksy). Qliktech started in Sweden and nearly died. Only after it was re-located to the US it kicked off.
I agree that the USA is the market that matters most; but the second best starting position isn't Europe -- it's the Anglosphere. Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in particular and I think in that order.
It's easier to move into the US market from Australia, for example, than it would be from France. Common language, lots of shared history, ease of travel, all that stuff.
one could argue that the UK and Ireland are Europe, but I fully agree - the Commonwealth countries are second best. don't underestimate timezones though. UK has a way better fit than Australia when it comes to covering US and Europe.
Oh timezones are crazy. I'm literally on the other side of the planet from the US east coast.
I'm working on a niche business tool at the moment and it's at the back of my mind that upon moving into the middle tier, I'll need to think about having someone in the USA simply to act as level 1 support.
That said, Patrick McKenzie of patio11 fame pointed out that he's using a virtual assistant service to fill that role. That might be my first port of call.
I've had a couple of jobs at places in Europe / the UK who basically had a tiny sales office in the US. One of them was a small business of only around 15 employees total, and they still had a sales guy in LA or NYC.
I guess it would be the same with support. The only job I've worked in a tech support role in, only had enterprise customers in Europe.
And there are thousands of such niches. Millions, really. They're all around, everywhere. Find any office, anywhere, in any business. You will find some repetitive-but-business-critical proces being performed by someone following a yellow photocopied guide taped to the wall above the fax machine.