For years, founders from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Southeast Asia (SEA) have been culturally conditioned to believe that “going global” means going to the United States. But the conversation at this year’s Shift Conference in Kuala Lumpur painted a very different picture of how startups actually scale across continents.
With insights from Božidar Pavlović, Partner at AYMO Ventures, Lennise Ng, CEO & Co-Founder of Borong and Najla Zamri, Scouting Director at Antler, the panel made one thing clear: the U.S. is not startup’s Holy Grail, at least not anymore.
And for many founders, turning East may be the smarter, cheaper and more realistic move. But first things first, all three panelists insisted that startup should dominate their own market before attempting anything else.
Although some startups have global ambitions from the very beginning, Pavlović, partner at the Croatian early-stage VC fund AYMO Ventures, suggested that founders should first validate their product in their home market before expanding abroad, if that market is mature enough. Only then it makes sense to raise money, expand regionally and later globally, he added.
Without strong local traction, scaling becomes guesswork, and that is expensive, said Zamri from Antler, a global early-stage VC firm and startup platform headquartered in Singapore. To reconcile local and global ambitions, she advised this:
Scaling too early is like shooting in the dark. Start local, but design globally from day one.
On the panel, an unexpected conclusion emerged: despite being half a world apart, both regions CEE and SEA share a surprising similarity. They are emerging ecosystems, still building the infrastructure that Silicon Valley takes for granted, and they face many of the same struggles.
Pavlović said:
I’m surprised how similar the ecosystems are here and in Croatia. Most of the problems we have, you have too.
And some of them are building global products from tiny markets, fragmentation, funding gaps, talent shortages and over-romanticizing the U.S..
He highlighted that Southeast Asia has an advantage when it comes to scaling, as just ten markets can represent tens of millions of customers. In contrast, twenty-seven markets across the EU may barely total half a million. He added that scaling across Europe is far more complex due to differences in regulation, currencies, and languages.
But Ng corrected him, pointing out that Southeast Asia’s large populations come with their own challenges, most notably fragmentation. As CEO of Borong, one of the fastest-growing companies in the Asia-Pacific region, she spoke from personal experience.
Borong is a Malaysian B2B marketplace platform that helps large enterprises, local retailers, and small businesses access suppliers, manage inventory, and place orders more efficiently. The platform addresses a major pain point in Southeast Asia, and those are traditional supply chains and wholesale distribution for small retailers which are often fragmented, informal, and inefficient.
Ng explained it succinctly:
Indonesia looks huge on paper, but it’s 17,000 islands with different networks of trust. If you don’t know how to build local relationships, it becomes brutally expensive.
She briefly analyzed the surrounding markets. According to her, Indonesia is chaotic, relationship-driven, and operationally heavy. She called Singapore the “rich fancy cousin you want to impress,” which acts more as a showroom for investors than a market to validate product-market fit. Malaysia, she concluded, provides a scalable home base, with pain points similar to those in Central and Eastern Europe.
When it comes to scaling, founders must not only decide where to expand, but also with whom. “Expansion starts with the right partners,” Ng emphasized.
Investors also felt the need to clarify that they are partners, not puppet-masters, as they are sometimes perceived.
“Founders often fear that investors will dictate strategy, but after investing, we sit on the same side of the table,” said Pavlović and continued: “You share your network and insights, but you don’t push anything unless something is clearly not being delivered.”
Najla from Antler explained that their role is to help founders avoid mistakes, not to make decisions for them.
They were all on the same page that it’s easier to succeed in the East, and that maybe now is the right time to stop treating U.S. as the Holy Grail.
Panelists agreed that founders from both CEE and SEA often chase American funding and prestige only to bleed dry on CAC, regulation, legal costs and a brutally competitive talent market.
The idea that the U.S. is the only way to “be global” is outdated. With APAC, MENA and even Eastern Europe opening up, global now means any large interconnected region especially those where talent is affordable, markets are underserved, English is widely spoken, investors are actively seeking emerging-market upside and last but not least, founders can build trust faster.
These regions give founders something the U.S. rarely does: breathing room.
There were several powerful thoughts I would like to share from that panel, and they all function great as a conclusion, so listen to them carefully:
