Company Context

NovaShelf is a mid-market B2B SaaS company that provides inventory planning and demand forecasting software for consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands selling through retail chains and e-commerce marketplaces. The company has reached $28M ARR, serves 420 customers in North America, and is profitable at the EBITDA level. After building a strong position with emerging and mid-sized brands in the U.S., NovaShelf is considering expansion into the U.K. market, where management believes fragmented retail distribution and rising stockout costs create a timely opportunity.

Strategic Situation

You are interviewing for the role of General Manager, U.K. Expansion. The CEO asks: "How do your past experiences uniquely position you to solve the challenges we face in this specific market?" Rather than giving a purely personal answer, you are expected to respond like an operator: identify the market's core challenges, connect relevant prior experiences to those challenges, and recommend a practical market-entry strategy for the first 12 months.

The company wants to know whether a candidate can translate prior experience into a credible plan. Your answer should show structured thinking across market attractiveness, competitive dynamics, go-to-market design, and execution priorities.

Data Points

Additional market facts:

• Estimated U.K. SAM: 4,800 CPG brands with annual revenue of $10M-$250M
• Expected first-year win rate on qualified opportunities: 18%-22%
• Average U.K. sales cycle: 4 months, versus 3 months in the U.S.
• Two largest competitors hold a combined 37% share of the U.K. mid-market segment
• Initial expansion budget: $3.2M for 12 months

Deliverables

1. Define the key challenges NovaShelf will face entering the U.K. market, including customer, competitor, and operational factors.
2. Explain how a candidate's prior experience should map to those challenges, and what types of experience would be most relevant.
3. Size the Year 1 opportunity and assess whether the $2.5M ARR target is realistic under the given assumptions.
4. Recommend a go-to-market approach covering target segment, sales motion, partnerships, and early positioning.
5. Prioritize the first 3-5 actions the GM should take in the first 90 days.

Constraints

• NovaShelf cannot hire more than 8 U.K.-dedicated employees in Year 1.
• Product localization must be limited to $500K in engineering spend.
• The board expects evidence of traction within 9 months.
• Management does not want to compete initially in the enterprise segment above $250M customer revenue.
• Any recommendation must preserve NovaShelf's overall company EBITDA margin above 8%.