Five questions with NextWorld’s newest Advisor in Residence

We’re excited to announce Simon Webster as an Advisor in Residence at NextWorld.

Simon brings over 30 years of experience in enterprise software with a proven track record in executive management. For the past 3 years, he’s been the SVP & GM EMEA at DataStax, where he consistently delivered record results and built a strong operational team. Previously he led different sales and operational teams in enterprise software companies from HP, Siebel, Peregrine, Touchpaper, nlyte to 1E.

Simon’s expertise and experience is in scaling up companies across EMEA and building “high performing teams.” We’re thrilled to see him partner with NextWorld’s platform programs that focus on accelerating our portfolio companies’ go-to-market, partnerships, team-building, and customer intros.

To kick off his tenure, we started with a few questions for Simon.

1) Why did you join NextWorld as an advisor?

I first engaged with NextWorld Capital when I met with Frédéric Halley back in 2014 as part of my due diligence process before joining DataStax. On joining DataStax, I gave Frederic regular updates on how our business was performing in EMEA. I also got to know Ben Fu and Elisa Russo during this time. I really liked the people at NextWorld Capital, the fact they have deep expertise and insights into emerging and disruptive technologies and how they really do ‘roll their sleeves up’ to help their portfolio companies succeed. Personally, I was looking to make a career change from an ‘operational’ role to an ‘advisory’ role and wanted to work with people I knew, respected, could learn from and enjoyed the company of. The Advisor in Residence role at NextWorld Capital ticked all my boxes and furthermore would allow me to continue my passion of helping people and companies achieve their full potential.

2) What’s the top piece of advice you’d give US companies expanding to EMEA?

In my opinion, you have to absolutely hire the right leader (and they really do need to be a leader) to drive your expansion into EMEA. You need a ‘Type A’ person that can attract the best talent, lead from the front but also knows when to step back, can build an eco-system, scale with the business and has a successful track record of doing this with other companies. To understand the different political, cultural and economic landscapes, this leader should be a European. Not only does it show commitment, but they will understand that doing business in Germany, for example, is very different from doing business in the UK. On the flip side, hiring the wrong person, can set you back up to 12 months and the opportunity might be missed.

3) Why do you think the Global Enterprise platform is so important (and different)?

The Global Enterprise Platform is important and different because I believe it is unique. Having worked for one of the portfolio companies, I have experienced first-hand, how this works. Having access to NextWorld Advisor community not only accelerates brand awareness but also gets start-ups in front of C- and VP- level executives within some of the most respected companies in Europe. This accelerates the sales cycle and ultimately bookings. It is also different, because the Platform connects European companies to Silicon Valley so when Ben Fu talks about the innovative technology trends coming out of the Valley, people really listen and take note.

4) What are the biggest challenges facing start-ups launching in EMEA?

One of the obvious challenges is that unlike North America, EMEA is a very fragmented market with language and cultural barriers. Because of this it is important to establish a firm foothold in one market (your primary market) before moving onto another. You need to be disciplined. You need to learn to say “no” (as hard as that may be) to opportunities in non-priority or tier 2 markets until you are ready to move into those markets. Putting your limited resources into chasing opportunities that have a low ASP, are unlikely to expand, are not referenceable and likely to ‘churn’ at their first anniversary is not a business model for sustainable and predictable growth. A more focused approach will also ensure your marketing spend is more impactful as you build brand awareness (a major challenge for start-ups) and recruit your partner eco-system.

You also need to be patient. Europeans are more risk averse. Europe is typically 2–3 years behind NA when it comes to the adoption of emerging or disruptive technology. Longer sales cycles become a challenge as companies take longer to evaluate new technology or products. Local partners, already established in the region, can help here.

Finally, partners bring many benefits as previously mentioned, but don’t assume that a partner you have success with in NA will have the same impact in Europe. The challenge is to find the right partners who really understands your proposition and knows how to articulate the business value.

5) Which sports team are you currently rooting for?

I am a big fan of rugby and we have the ‘Six Nations Championship’ (which was first played in 1883 between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales), taking place at the moment. The tournament now includes France (since 1910) and Italy (since 2000). Given we have representatives from Italy, France and England in the EMEA team, we are all rooting for our respective countries. Go England!

*DISCLAIMER: The portfolio companies identified and described herein do not represent all of the portfolio companies purchased, sold or recommended for funds advised by NextWorld Capital. Certain portfolio companies may be kept confidential for various reasons, including contractual or subject to a non-disclosure agreement. The reader should not assume that an investment in the portfolio companies identified was or will be profitable.

Not all acquisitions or IPOs are profitable; the positions can be acquired at a price that is greater or less than the price at which NextWorld Capital purchased its interest for client accounts. The information is being shown to reflect the firm’s ability to select investments and not to reflect any positive investment experience.