Breaking Into the US Market: How This French Drone Company Built a Global Security Business
Building a security business is challenging enough in your home market. Expanding internationally – particularly in the highly regulated defense and security sector – can seem nearly impossible. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Guilhem de Marliave revealed how his French tethered drone company cracked the US market through an unconventional approach.
Starting with Digital Presence
Rather than following the traditional playbook of establishing a physical presence first, the company took a digital-first approach. “We builded all the marketing, the go to market strategy through the web, through internet. Even if at first it sounded a bit counterintuitive, especially in the defense sector, but actually it worked well,” Guilhem explains.
Understanding Market Dynamics
This strategy emerged from a clear-eyed assessment of their market position. “It’s kind of a long tail problem for us challenge because we are on a niche technology, so we had to export the system. We have a few targets per country, very precise,” Guilhem notes.
Building a US Team
The digital strategy’s success led to organic growth in North America, eventually justifying local presence. “With the pool from North America, we bought it a team two years ago. So now we have a team of five people based in North Carolina,” Guilhem shares. “And now we are very happy and very proud to serve this market. And our intent is to strengthen the team and the technical support there, because we see there is a lot of challenges, especially on the police side and public safety to solve.”
Landing Major US Contracts
The company’s US expansion has been validated through high-profile deployments. “We have systems on the Super Bowl, for instance, in Atlanta,” Guilhem notes. These implementations served multiple purposes. In Montana, “they used our tele drones for Pear Stadium and they were looking on the mountains around to see there were people lost at night. They were so checking money transfers between sales points of beverages and food. They were looking into restricted areas to see if no one was over trespassing.”
Growth Through Market Understanding
The company’s growth – achieving 50% year-over-year expansion – came from understanding how the US market was evolving. “The maturity of the drone market is now at a stage where for each application it will have a specific aircraft with different capabilities. So we are going away from the time where everyone thought that one drone would solve everything,” Guilhem explains.
Key Lessons for European Founders
- Digital presence can precede physical presence
- Market understanding should drive expansion timing
- High-profile deployments can accelerate market penetration
Navigating Regulatory Landscapes
Understanding local regulations proved crucial. As Guilhem notes, “France was quite early on this drone space and on the regulations because in 2012 there was a first draft. Currently there is a European rules that are being worked on that will be applied in the next two years.” This regulatory expertise helped them navigate US requirements.
Future Vision
The company’s US expansion continues to evolve. Their vision of “developing fully autonomous tele drone boxes that can be remotely deployed on sites borders and controlled through kind of a cloud system” shows their commitment to the market.
For European founders looking to expand into the US, the lesson is clear: success doesn’t always require following the traditional expansion playbook. Sometimes, a digital-first approach combined with deep market understanding can open doors more effectively than an immediate physical presence.