When Rareș Bănescu and I started Retargeting in 2013, we made a decision that looked brave back then, maybe even reckless: we would not build a product for Romania, we would build one for the world, with the United States as our main target. A marketing automation and personalization platform for online stores, made in Bucharest and sold across the ocean. Many people asked why we did not start with the local market, where we knew people and had connections. The answer is simple: a SaaS business lives on volume, and the volume is where most online stores are.
Almost four years later, we have made plenty of mistakes, fixed them on the go and learned things you will not find in textbooks. This is not a guaranteed recipe, but if you are thinking of building subscription software from Romania for customers all over the world, here is what I would do again and what I would do differently.
1. The product is in English from day one
It sounds obvious, but it is the first trap. Many founders build a Romanian version first, “just to test it”, and then try to translate it. You can tell: clumsy copy, buttons that are too long, examples that make no sense to an American. The interface, documentation, automated emails, website and invoices all need to be designed in English from the start. If you also want Romanian, it becomes the translation, not the other way around.
More important than the language is the mindset. Your customer is not a local business owner you can call and visit. It is someone in Ohio or Texas who has never heard of you, judges your product in a few minutes and leaves without telling you why. Everything has to be clear without explanations.
2. Prices in dollars, monthly plans, no haggling
We quickly learned that SaaS for the American market is sold with a public pricing table, in dollars (and possibly euros for Europe), with clear monthly plans. No “request a quote” for small customers, no discounts negotiated over the phone. People want to see what it costs, pick a plan and pay by card.
A few things that matter:
- plans should grow with the customer: as their store grows, they should move naturally to the next tier;
- annual billing with a discount, for those willing to commit, helps your cash flow a lot;
- do not price with a local mindset: what feels expensive in Bucharest may be cheap for a US store, and vice versa.
3. Self-serve onboarding and a free trial
You cannot afford a personalized demo for every customer from 7 to 10 hours away. The product has to sell itself: sign-up in minutes, simple installation, first results visible quickly. A free trial is the market standard, and customers need to see value before it ends.
This is probably where we invested the most time: automated welcome emails, step-by-step guides, messages that show up exactly when a user gets stuck. It is ironic, but a marketing automation platform has to run flawless marketing automation for itself. If you cannot convince your own users, how will you convince theirs?
4. Integrations are your distribution channel
An online store owner does not want a developer poking around the code to install a new tool. They want to click a button. That is why integrations with popular ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento or WooCommerce are not a technical detail but a sales strategy. Each platform has its own app ecosystem, and that is where customers find you.
My advice: pick one or two platforms and do them really well, rather than ten done halfway. An integration that breaks with every platform update brings you more support tickets than customers.
5. Support across time zones
When your customer wakes up, you are getting ready for bed. That is the reality of a Romanian team selling to America. The solutions are not magic: a good knowledge base that answers most questions on its own, chat and email replies within hours rather than days, and staggered shifts for the support team. Until you can cover 24 hours, be honest and state your support hours clearly.
The upside is that Romania has many young people who speak excellent English and understand technology. It is one of the few real competitive advantages we have, and it is worth using wisely.
6. Content and partners instead of an army of salespeople
You do not have the budget to compete with the sales teams of American companies funded with hundreds of millions. You do not need to. For a self-serve product, the most effective channels are content and partnerships: useful articles for online store owners, guides, case studies, webinars and a presence in the platforms’ app stores.
Partners, meaning marketing agencies and developers who build online stores, can become your sales force. They already have the customers’ trust. Give them a fair commission, good materials and a product that makes them look good in front of their clients, and they will recommend you.
7. Company structure and getting paid
This is the less glamorous part. For US customers, card payments are essential, and not every payment processor popular in the US is directly available to companies registered in Romania. Study your options early: processors that accept Romanian companies, international gateways or, sooner or later, an entity in another jurisdiction if the business requires it. Talk to a lawyer and an accountant who actually understand software companies, not just the one who files your monthly returns.
Think about this before your first hundred customers, not after. Moving recurring subscriptions from one processor to another is a painful operation I would not recommend to anyone.
8. The numbers that matter: MRR, churn, CAC, LTV
A SaaS business is run on a few simple indicators you should know every week:
- MRR (monthly recurring revenue): the sum of active subscriptions; it is the company’s pulse;
- churn: how many customers or how much revenue you lose each month; high churn cancels out any sales effort;
- CAC (customer acquisition cost): what you spend, in total, to bring in one paying customer;
- LTV (customer lifetime value): how much a customer brings in before they leave.
The industry rule of thumb says LTV should be several times higher than CAC, and acquisition cost should be recovered within a year at most. If that is not happening, you do not have a marketing problem, you have a product or pricing problem. One more thing: churn among small stores is naturally higher, because many of them close. Do not fool yourself with averages; look at segments.
It can be done, but it is not the shortcut you think
Building from Romania for the world has clear advantages: lower costs, talented people and a target market many times larger than the local one. But it is not a shortcut. You compete directly with the best products in the world, and customers give you no discount for being far away. You have to be just as good, often better.
What do you think a Romanian startup that wants to sell abroad lacks the most: the product, the money or the courage?