No two companies are the same, yet most of them will face very similar challenges over the course of their growth path. The Takeoff Success Factors framework summarizes the best practices we have discovered when internationalizing B2B software and service businesses.

Internationalizing businesses is a matter of team, timing, product-market fit, financial resources, and luck. All aspiring growth entrepreneurs will hear this many times over.

But it’s also a matter of systematic leadership and management work: Coping with the increasing complexity and evolving challenges that growth and internationalization will bring.

Based on our experience in taking B2B software and service businesses global, we have identified five key topic areas that successful growth entrepreneurs will need to put their efforts in: People, Solution, Scalability, Positioning, and Traction. We call these Takeoff Success Factors.

	People From entrepreneurs to an empowered organization
	Solution Filling a global need, step by step
	Scalability Delivering on the promise of scalable business
	Positioning Earning a thought leader’s position
	Traction Winning trust that translates into numbers

The 5 Stages in Internationalizing B2B Software and Services

What exactly leadership needs to spend their time on will depend on the stage of growth of the company. We have hence divided the growth path into five stages: 1) Getting started, 2) Getting ready, 3) International market entry, 4) International growth facilitation, and 5) Running a global business.

The Takeoff Success Factors Matrix

The resulting 5x5 Takeoff Success Factors framework will briefly describe what should happen with each success factor at each stage of growth. No two growth companies are identical of course, yet working with entrepreneurs we have concluded that the steps described in this framework generally apply as best practices.