How did you come to work with Topline Strategy?
We learned about the firm from a very comprehensive report Topline did for our main investor. Our investor had tapped Topline for investor due diligence, in the form of industry and total addressable market analyses. Our investor took a stake in Inspect Point based on the strength of that analysis, and we were fortunate that they decided to share the report with us. Some of those findings informed my strategic thinking to go international earlier than I would have. Being short on resources we needed some deep-dive research to inform which market to choose first, and Topline was the natural choice.
What markets were you looking at initially?
We started looking at four markets but the research that Topline did helped us identify the low-hanging fruit and pare that number down to two – Latin America and the UK.
In Latam we already had a handful of customers, and we felt like we had a good understanding of the industry side of things, although it was a little bit of a black box in term of industry sizing. In the UK, we didn’t have a ton of background.
When did Inspect Point and Topline Strategy start working together?
Inspect Point and Topline Strategy started discussing the project together in the third quarter of last year, but we did not decide to start the project until January and then we went from kickoff to the final report in just six weeks. Topline delivered high quality deliverables on the set timeline. In fact, they finished a week ahead of schedule.
Did Topline need translation services to interview foreign-language executives?
We made the decision early on that, whichever firm we went with, they needed to have a fluent Spanish speaker on the team. Topline had that person on the team, which really added to the quality of the research output.
How was the quality of the research?
We were happy with the output. It opened our eyes. I was on the fence about whether UK was a viable market. It turned out that it was, which was a pleasant surprise.
How did you use the research?
We just got the info a few weeks ago, so it’s still early days. That said, we got some great contacts from the interviews and, on the strength of what we found, we have booked a UK trade show. As a result, we have prioritized a demoable UK product which is now coming together, and we’re also testing different marketing channels.
Is it a big deal to create a product for a new region?
Inspection regulations are different in each region, so making it work in different countries is a significant undertaking. We did have to change some of the verbiage but, most of the work is ensuring inspection codes are updated for the UK market
We’re small and we have scarce resources. It is still a significant investment for us to go down one of these routes. When we do a new development project it means there’s another that’s not getting done. The Topline report gave me the confidence to proceed. We trust the data enough to take some of our precious engineering time and put it towards a new project. I don’t think that I would have made a decision to pursue a UK product without the informed insight the Topline report gave us.
Would you work with Topline again?
There is a 100 percent chance that we would work with them again.