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Hello from San Francisco
USA Launching Pad Spring Newsletter
Spring has arrived, and with it, momentum across the U.S. innovation landscape continues to build, with new government-backed cohorts and new program launches.
At USA Launching Pad, the past months have been especially exciting. We’ve welcomed a new Scottish cohort through our continued collaboration with Scottish Enterprise, and launched a new program in partnership with Tenity, supporting growth-stage fintech companies expanding to Europe.
If you’re thinking about expanding across borders, or helping others do so, read on.
Don’t Miss This
 | Our founders Matt and Gert will attend the Select USA conference in Washington D.C. at the beginning of May. Reach out if you’d like to meet. This is the USA’s biggest conference connecting global investors, companies, and economic development organizations (EDOs) to facilitate business expansion. |
 | Earlier this week our founder Matt attended Select LA, the premier investment and business summit for Southern California that brings together international companies, investors, and economic development leaders exploring opportunities in the U.S. market. Reach out if you missed him and would like to meet. |
What We’ve Been Up To
Scotland: The MarketBooster Scaleup Program connects 60000 potential U.S. clients
The MarketBooster program by Scottish Enterprise continues to be an innovative example of government-supported U.S. expansion. Scotland created this program to promote the acceleration of scaleup companies and to boost the success rate of their U.S. expansions. We provided the customer discovery and iterative adaptation to the five companies selected for the program. The companies connected with 60000 potential U.S. customers through our program.
After the 2025 inaugural cohort set a strong benchmark, we’re excited to have welcomed the next group of cutting-edge Scottish scaleup tech companies, continuing to build a pipeline of high-potential scaleups entering the U.S. market.
MarketBooster is an excellent example how governments increasingly support their most promising scaelup companies. Our work spans trade agencies, innovation agencies, economic development boards, and university-linked entrepreneurship offices, all united by one objective: to accelerate their ecosystem’s ability to compete in the world’s largest and most demanding market.
The five Scottish companies with the MarketBooster team at their U.S. headquarters in Silicon Valley.
Program Highlights
USA Launching Pad teams reached out to 60000 potential U.S. customers and systematically analyzed feedback from discovery interviews and sales meetings held by the Scottish companies to help them adapt their Go-to-market plans. Once again, we’ve seen that systematically testing with potential customers brings key insights that reduce the risk of new market entries. At the same time, the program confirmed that customer outreach needs to be significantly scaled up to be effective in a market as large as the USA.
Here are the impressive achievements and insights of the companies:
Neuranics secured 30 meetings during CES, supported by USA Launching Pad outreach and meeting generation.
HaloDrive refined its U.S. market positioning and identified the key decision makers in the USA.
Fanbase adopted the outreach motion that USA Launching Pad created for them and hired a U.S. sales team during the program, accelerating their in-market execution.
ePass identified a strong product-market fit and selected its pilot U.S. market through targeted outreach and validation with potential customers.
Antaia hosted a targeted webinar and executive roundtable with prospective customers during SF Climate Week, with participants sourced through USA Launching Pad outreach.
London and Zurich: USA Launching Pad and Tenity Launch Program for U.S. Fintech Startups Entering Europe
A dual-city immersion program giving growth-stage fintechs structured market access in London and Zurich, culminating at London Tech Week and Swiss Fintech Week in June.
Europe’s financial centers offer compelling opportunities, which is why USA Launching Pad and the global Fintech VC and Incubator Tenity launched the Fintech Market Activation Program – London & Zurich, a high-impact program designed to help US-based fintech companies break into Europe's two most important financial hubs.
Running from mid-May through late June 2026, the program combines structured market immersion in London (June 8-12) and Zurich (June 15-19) with introductions to key players, on-site local support, regulatory and competitive intelligence, and go-to-market activation to reach the top potential customers. All culminating in access to London Tech Week and the Swiss Fintech Week, Switzerland's flagship fintech event.
The program is designed for growth-stage fintechs with a working product and traction, who are ready to invest in structured European expansion - not just exploration.
Two participation tiers are available depending on the readiness and objectives of the companies:
Activation Program: Full 8-week dual-city program including structured sessions, outreach to top potential customers, local introductions, and meeting support.
Discovery Program: A focused market evaluation sprint for fintechs assessing their business opportunity, regulatory landscape, and competitive positioning before committing to full activation.
"Breaking into European markets takes more than a great product. It takes the right relationships, the right presence, and the right timing," said Luca Casuscelli, Managing Partner at Tenity. "This program is built to give US fintechs exactly that."
Applications are open until April 30th, 2026.
 | London Tech Week: Happening from June 8-12th, is one of Europe’s leading technology events, bringing together founders, investors, corporates, and innovators to explore the future of tech, growth, and global business. |
Tickets are included for companies in our Fintech Market Activation Program, and the Tenity team in London will host the entrepreneurs and make introductions.
 | Swiss Fintech Week: The key gathering for the fintech ecosystem, startups, financial institutions, investors, and industry leaders across one of the world’s strongest financial hubs. Zurich, June 19-25th. The Tenity Zurich team will connect and guide the entrepreneurs on site. |
Startups admitted to the Fintech Market Activation Program receive complimentary tickets and access to exclusive side events.
Company Highlight
 | One of the standout companies from our recent Scottish cohort was ePass, a fast-growing GovTech company that helps public sector teams modernise how licensing, registration, and permitting are managed. |
Its platform replaces fragmented legacy systems with shared digital infrastructure that brings state and local government, frontline teams, businesses, and residents together in one place.
With ePass, agencies can manage applications, reviews, inspections, and renewals from one system instead of juggling paper forms, disconnected data, and scattered tools. The result is faster approvals, less manual work for staff, and a better experience for the people and businesses you serve.
During the program, ePass refined its U.S. market strategy by engaging with over 20000 potential customers, holding a dozen structured discovery interviews, validating product-market fit, and selecting its pilot U.S. launch market. Outreach generated strong interest and meetings with its core ICP, particularly Permitting and Compliance Managers.
Follow what’s next for this ambitious Scottish innovator.
 |  James Buchan (CEO) and Chris Renga (CTO) of ePass |
Top of Mind
Thought Leadership for Founders & Expansion
1. Speed of Learning > Speed of Launch
Many founders ask: “How long will our U.S. expansion take?” A better question is: How fast can you learn?
The U.S. market often doesn’t reject you loudly, signals simply weaken. Replies slow down. Calls stay warm but don’t progress. Momentum fades. The winners interpret those signals quickly and adapt.
The companies that move fastest in the U.S. are not always the ones building the fastest, they’re the ones learning the fastest.
For example, the French startup Ochy refined its positioning through market feedback and went on to land partnerships with the Olympics and adidas.
2. Clarity Beats Complexity
When traction slows, many teams respond with more decks, more meetings, and more opinions. But complexity rarely fixes confusion.
If your value proposition takes three slides to explain, it’s too complicated. If everyone describes your company differently, your message isn’t sharp enough.
In the U.S. market, clear positioning tied to revenue growth or cost savings cuts through faster than features alone.
3. Scale Tests the Organization
U.S. expansion is not just a market move, it’s an organizational test.
As companies grow, alignment across product, pricing, partnerships, and messaging becomes critical. The market rewards teams that arrive with internal clarity already built.
For example, Shopify’s continued scale came not from doing more, but from staying disciplined on ownership, principles, and what would not change as complexity increased.
Here’s a pic of a group of corporate innovators from HWZ University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich, Switzerland, that Gert brought to University of California, Berkeley. They were seeking ideas, clarity, and how to create momentum - to take it home to their organizations.
Stay Connected
If you’d like to learn more about how our programs help founders test, validate, and scale in the U.S. market, reply to this email or get in touch at [email protected]