Fast Company  Why You Need To Go International As Fast As
Possible  If you don't clone yourself abroad, someone else will,
says Braintree CEO Bill Ready.  A little over three years ago, a
skyrocketing startup called Groupon was ready to enter the
European market. There was just one problem: while Groupon had
been building its American business, a trio of German brothers
named the Sawmers were building an analogous one in Germany
called CityDeal, hastening to copy Groupon's success. And so
Groupon had to pony up what was reported to be around $100
million (later reported to be in the form of a huge chunk of
Groupon stock) to acquire its German clone and competitor.
Setting aside the many woes of Groupon today, the lesson still
stands: if you're building a successful service or product in
America or in any country today, there will be someone ready to
copycat your service or product in other countries. Fortunately,
says Bill Ready, the CEO of payments company Braintree, there
are tools in place to enable you t