#127: Transatlantic Trade with Circus Street’s Richard Townsend - a podcast by Alex Chisnall

"America has the bones of many British businesses, strewn across it, failed British businesses...because at that stage when he was doing business, it was a massive logistical challenge but obviously these days with technology it's been made a lot easier.

We were talking to people and they were saying "well, it's going to start with a four", as in, four-hundred thousand dollars, it'll be 50% bonus on that number and what we worked out was you weren't guaranteed to get someone very good for that amount of money.

It's not very difficult for a company to get rid of someone after working for them for 15 years, with two weeks notice, that's the type of thing that will happen. Sometimes, you'll hear people that have been in the US, they'll say things like "it was kind of different because we'd have lots of meetings and everyone smiled and said lots of positive things and then nothing happened" and he decided that he would Air BnB when he first got there, so, he Air BnB'd for a couple of months and he chose Harlem and he didn't leave his apartment at night for 3 months because it was too terrifying.

Then in the first year, we did $2million of sales, that was pretty clear then that it was a big opportunity."

We all know that the transatlantic trading relationship is one of the most successful on Earth and everyday goods services worth millions of pounds are exported and imported across the Atlantic. Thousands of British and US firms have already invested in, or are finding their way towards, successful transatlantic growth. So British American Business have put together a series of events titled 'Accelerate' which showcases a business and invites other businesses with similar growth aspirations to listen, to ask questions and to learn, to enable them to accelerate their own growth. 

In the first of these events, I chatted to Richard Townsend, Co-Founder and CEO of Circus Street, an online school which teaches companies how to do business in a digital world and upskills teams at scale.

Richard believes we're just at the very start with what is possible when combining technology and education. I spoke to him about the realities and pitfalls of expanding and transforming businesses across the Atlantic.

In this episode, we talk about:

• talent, and how to obtain it
• facetime, meeting people 121
• product, and ensuring yours in the best in its class
• and referrals, making sure that you're maximising every opportunity

You'll also briefly hear from Emanuel Adam, he's Executive Director and Director of Policy & Trade at British American Business, who are the leading authority in the UK for transatlantic trade.  

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