1. Why internationalize – what were the drivers?

RevaHealth was “Born Global” a term used to describe small technology oriented firms, targeting niche global markets as opposed to wide international markets and many industries, with little or no domestic market.  The international experience of the founders weights heavily on the success of such companies. 

RevaHealth’s proposition from the start was to become a global player.  Its market opportunity in Ireland was always going to be small.  It has operated in the international space from the start.

Caelen King also fits the profile to lead a “Born Global” company.  He has previously worked with Baltimore Technologies, one of Ireland’s indigenous internationally successful technology companies.

A number of key market factors and drivers combined to create the opportunity for a new business offering to healthcare clinician providers:

• the productization of healthcare,
• a growth in medical tourism,
• a socialized healthcare environment,
• demands by the consumer for greater choice and information,
• a fragmented market place.

The global healthcare market size is greater than €6 trillion.

2. What markets did you focus on?

RevaHealth selects territories based on market research and assessment.  This is primarily desk research that it completes inhouse.  It has broken down its markets as follows:

• UK & Ireland
• USA
• Central Europe
• Mexico
• Thailand
• Singapore
• Costa Rico
• Medical tourism (which it defines as a geography)

It also looks at markets where it can add value.  Based on the outcome of its market research, it scrapes  data from the web on local clinics to post on its site. For example, take a look at their list of plastic surgery clinics in the UK or dentists in the UK. “Traffic comes to our site in unpredictable ways” according to Caelen King.  Understanding the value in a territory is a discovery process.  “Hot spots” emerge.  A market is formed when consumer traffic reaches a critical level.

3. What needed to be in place?

A good enough back-end system.
“A sound Business Plan that we returned to and iterated as our market knowledge grew”.
No sacred cows: the business model evolved and significantly changed in the first trading year.

4. What were the main challenges / obstacles?  How did you overcome them?

Human Resources: recruiting and attracting staff.  It was not about the money.  It was a challenge to attract seasoned and experienced staff on both the sales and technical side: to bring that mature level of expertise to jump-start the business.  Seasoned and experienced people were not interested in giving up job security and stability to join a start-up.  The entrepreneurial drive exhibited by early stage applicants was low.

Revahealth went to the universities and sought graduates hungry to learn in a short period of time, in an entrepreneurial environment.  Now, its growing public profile in the Irish market place, particularly in the technology community and the positioning of its founder, Caelen King, as an online technology guru, guarantees interest from prospective employees for the future.

Competition (lack thereof): “We didn’t have any real competitors in our space.  In fact we would have almost paid for serious competition.”  Competitors not only validate a business proposition and market - they also help build it.  “We were bringing something new to our niche. Our clients and prospects were unfamiliar and wary of the model. We didn’t have the actual business case to substantiate our proposition. It was theoretical”.

“We gave away stuff for free.  We clearly articulated this was another route to market for our clients – we would not be cannibalizing their existing business.  We provided compelling feedback and demonstrated measurable ROI (return on investment)”.

5. What activities were most successful in achieving success?

Building domain knowledge: RevaHealth differentiate itself from other information portals through focusing on a niche and really understanding that niche.  Its travel budget is spent almost entirely on building domain expertise about the territories in which it operates. 

Measuring everything.

Following up on leads.

Assessing the leads as prospects or not.

Learning how to identify a “hot” clinic.

Initially, it had to pay for traffic to the site through google ads.  SEO initiatives can take up to 18 months to build decent google ranking.  Now, it has almost no google ad campaigns.
 
6. What are your most effective routes to market and why?

The sales process is roughly 2 months with 4 – 6 phone calls and 4 – 6 emails.  Its sales staff are 3rd level graduates, young, smart and tech savvy.  They are Dublin based and they speak at least two languages.  

All sales activities are measured and visible.  Peer performance is a good motivator.  The key driver in the sales process is early completion.

RevaHealth is now looking at identifying Channel Partners as a route to market to support its sales and market growth objectives.

7. How did you win your first client?

RevaHealth’s first client came about from a Belgian customer query about weight loss.  The €500 spent on champaign celebrating that first and early win (after the site was up for just 3 months) far outweighed the €10 subscription fee.  The client is still with them, now on an annual subscription of €1,500. 

8. How influential was winning your first client in developing the market?

More than anything else, it gave the team a great confidence boost at that early stage.  It also validated the business model, provided the business case and reference site to attract new customers.  Winning early was enormously influential.

9. What marketing initiatives have you used to support your internationalization?

In the tradition of a pure internet play business, most of RevaHealth’s marketing is online: SEO and SEM with metrics underpinning all activities.  Google is the 2nd most trusted form of information for consumers.  Link building is also a key marketing task. 

It is now looking at Channel Partners as a route to market and is starting to create marketing material to support its positioning as online technology experts delivering niche business processes to business driven healthcare providers.  This will be a mix of offline and online marketing.

RevaHealth uses social networking platforms.  Follow @revahealth & @phil_revahealth
on twitter:  it uses its blog, http://blog.revahealth.com/ to comment on technical issues and build its profile as online business process experts.

It has not localized either its website or marketing materials.  However, all its sales staff speak at least two languages.

10. What were the key learnings? (legal, tax, language, culture)

Concentrate on what you need today rather than focus on building for tomorrow.
The earlier and more frequent you make those sales calls the earlier revenue flows: the earlier you have reference sites to leverage and the sooner you learn and adapt the business model to client and market needs the more successful you will be.

As an international online business relationships are different.  However, a lot can be done over the phone.  While a script can be an aid to the sales staff, calls are almost never the same.  Hire smart people, provide them with support and an environment to learn and be successful.

11. If you were doing it again, what would you do differently?

Stop worrying about the long-term and focus on what’s needed now.

12. What is the one piece of advice you would give companies starting out on internationalization?

Pick up the phone and make the sales calls – in volume and frequently.  Close the deal in the shortest time.