The Watertight Kit serves as a portfolio and media kit with linked analytics, enabling creatives everywhere to get paid for their content. The growing market to connect brands with desired content creators drew the attention of Andrew English, founder and CEO of Watertight. He knew a successful market launch for Watertight relied on meeting both end users’ needs: the brands in finding creators, and the creators in finding funding. Kettering International walked Watertight through articulating and validating an engagement model for a dual-marketplace launch with confidence and results.
Opportunities and Challenges of Launching In the U.S. Market
Drawing on his background as a former director and producer in Berlin, English’s expertise in creative production and its lifecycles informed his start-up vision and inspired him to look towards international expansion. With its status as the birthplace of the influencer culture and well-noted receptivity to innovation, the U.S. appealed to English as the next logical point of growth.
In 2022 the Australian-born entrepreneur opted to launch Watertight in the larger U.S. market, but the question of where specifically to launch created some turbulence. “It is a bit of a scary journey to come over here and not know anyone,” English disclosed candidly.
In fact, Watertight’s search for the right connections to build a select team and network for their launch landed them first in California, then took them to Austin,Texas before they ultimately anchored their U.S. home base in New York City, NY.
Tech Firm Launch Solutions with Kettering
While in NYC, English met with John Crozier-Durham, CEO and Founder of Kettering International. Crozier-Durham understood the necessity and the potentiality in product market fit before a launch – especially for international expansion. This is an assessment many tech firms skimp on, assuming what worked in one market will work in another. Skipping this step can undermine a secondary market launch, costing time and resources. Kettering’s acumen in validating an effective engagement model helped Watertight navigate the tech enterprise waters of a new market and a new product, offering them strategy but also cultural currency for their U.S. launch.
“Kettering helped us to structurally organise our team, and provided introductions and people to help us get started in a really lean way — which is what every startup needs,” says English. With Kettering’s well nurtured relationships and nuanced understanding of personnel fits as a niche advantage, Watertight was able to align a team and a structure to carry them from concept to launch-ready.
Validate Your Launch Concept with Kettering International
Kettering also provided pre-launch Watertight with vetted prospects to assist in A/B testing. Mixed or unclear messaging can cost companies profitable opportunities and connections; since Watertight’s media kit serves two distinct audiences within the content creation lifecycle, fine-tuning the messaging for each customer was essential.
Understanding specific end-user touchpoints was paramount in gaining buy-in and developing the brand voice for an effective launch. Kettering worked with English to deploy and analyze extensive market outreach, sifting through the questions and real-time feedback on brand issues to ensure alignment between Watertight’s projections and local market realities. Kettering also saved Wateright time and resources by identifying early on which messaging was not hitting the mark.
Partnering with Kettering International
As a next step, Kettering is helping Watertight implement a process to easily receive feedback from client businesses on process improvements and growth opportunities. Watertight expects to evolve with their end users to improve experiences for both brands and the content creators they are paying.
