as a founder, i struggled to convince western partners that our ru-rooted product could fit their audience. joining a bilingual hub changed the dynamic: i found translators for UX copy, a US marketer who vetted our pitch, and a creator who ran a small pilot. the hub shortcutted trust and gave us a testbed to show real performance. the lesson: use the hub to build a tiny, measurable proof rather than a long powerpoint — a 2-week pilot with clear KPIs was enough to get the first contract. i’m wondering what specific documentation or pilot structure helped others move from hub introductions to signed cross-border deals?
i’ve seen the quickest conversions happen when founders bring a ready-to-run pilot (audience, simple creative, measurement plan). i’ll often help schedule a 30-min intro between a creator and a brand to accelerate alignment.
if you share a one-page pilot brief in advance, partners come to the intro with concrete asks instead of questions — that speeds up decisions.
include baseline metrics and a short forecast for the pilot (expected CTR, conversion rate). even conservative estimates increase a buyer’s confidence.
we added a short legal checklist (data handling, fulfillment) to the pilot docs — it removed surprises when negotiating terms with european partners.
agencies value speed: provide an asset bundle (3 creatives, 1 landing copy, tracking guide). the more plug-and-play, the faster we can pitch it to clients.
also, invite a marketing contact from the target market into the pilot overview — local accountability helps close deals.
if your hub connection can provide a small case study from a similar market, that usually seals the first paid pilot.
as a creator, i saved my cross-border pitches by pre-recording two variants of the same ad: ru and en. it reduced back-and-forth and let brands visualize the outcome.
i also offered to run the first week as a paid boost so the brand could see early signals — that lowered their perceived risk.
one more thing: document learnings in a short post-mortem and share it in the hub. it builds your credibility for the next deal.