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Reading a market report only gets a founder so far. At some point you have to show up, sit across the table from someone who might buy from you or invest in you, and feel out how the room actually works. That's the premise behind every one of Techscaler's international programmes, and it's why our cohort of Scottish founders and senior operators spent three weeks in New York this summer, from 30 May to 20 June 2026, timed to land right in the middle of a16z Tech Week.
For most of this cohort, the US wasn't new ground. They'd already had the early customer calls, run a first pilot, maybe flown over once for a conference and come home with a notebook full of nascent conversations. This trip was the next stage of that journey, the point where a founder stops testing the water and starts building something that can actually hold weight in the market.
Eight companies made the trip, and between them they covered a lot of ground. Different products, different customers, different stages of growth, but every participant in that cohort had already started building in the US and wanted the kind of access that only comes from being there in person.
None of that access happens by chance. Behind the scenes, Techscaler and CodeBase design the shape of these weeks with operators who've made this exact move themselves and know what a founder actually needs when they land somewhere like New York. But the structure only goes so far. Inside it, the schedule still belongs to the participant, and every person in this cohort had real room to build their own week around it, chasing the meetings and the rooms that mattered most to them.
Here's how that week broke down for some of the cohort participants:
- Weeks of pre-departure prep before anyone flew out: a session with mentors, an introductory call with the Entrepreneur in Residence, an open Q&A drop-in, and a cohort mixer to get the group talking before New York, plus a dedicated pre-departure call with the Techscaler team running the NYC programme, so every founder had a clear line back to Techscaler once they landed
- A cohort dinner on arrival, to bring everyone together before the on-ground work started
- An arrival workshop at WeWork, where founders practised their two-sentence hook for US networking settings and mapped out which events each of them would hit that week
- One to five events a day during #NYTechWeek, from Monday 1st to Sunday 7th June: panels on transatlantic expansion, evenings with law firms and YC alumni, breakfast sessions, and a steady stream of follow-up LinkedIn messages, emails, and meetings, each founder building their own version of the week around it
- A Techscaler-hosted evening at Wilson Sonsini's offices, Spotlight on Scotland, opening with a panel on scaling from Scotland to the world
- A breakfast session with TABS on setting up US operations, covering the practical groundwork of hiring and trading properly in the country
The timing around New York was intentionally tied to a16z Tech Week, which has become one of the loudest weeks on the US startup calendar: thousands of investors, operators, and founders converge on the city for a dense run of panels, dinners, and elevator conversations. Landing a Scottish cohort inside that window meant walking into rooms that were already switched on, already full of people actively looking for the next company worth backing or working with. That's a different kind of energy to build inside of, and it showed in how quickly conversations moved.
Techscaler's own event, called Spotlight on Scotland, sat right in the middle of that week, hosted at Wilson Sonsini's offices. The evening opened with a panel on scaling from Scotland to the world, where founders talked through the actual mechanics of building in the UK and winning in the US: how to translate a pitch that lands in Edinburgh into one that lands in New York, and how to use a UK base as a credibility signal instead of something to explain away. The panel gave way to an evening of valuable networking and reception on the terrace.
Techscaler New York delivered strong founder engagement outcomes across the cohort. 86% met potential new customers while they were in the city, and the same share, 86%, met with investors directly. 71% generated six or more leads over the three weeks. On the questions that matter most, the impact was unambiguous: 100% rated the programme's effect on them and their business a 4 or 5 out of 5, and every founder said their mindset had shifted, and their ambitions had grown while they were there.
The Cohort in action
Graeme Kerr set the pace early:
"When we joined the Techscaler cohort heading to New York, Tethered had a product we believed in and an unproven theory about whether our place-grounded sleep content could land in the US. Three weeks later we had a much clearer answer, and a pipeline to go with it. In a fortnight on the ground, I had 19 meetings with hotels and investors that would have taken the best part of a year to line up cold from Scotland” - Graeme, Tethered
Several of those conversations are still running, and Tethered has come away with real momentum in the hospitality sector it's building for. He reflected on the full trip on LinkedIn, and the numbers back him up: 6 potential clients now in deeper conversations, 3 investors keen to keep talking.
Nagu Gopalakrishnan of VidAI described the shift in more electric terms, calling the programme a catalyst that stripped away the usual friction of entering a new market and delivered an immediate injection of commercial traction. Ten days in, he had several customer leads moving and investor conversations going further and faster than he'd expected.
“Techscaler didn't just open doors; they built the rooms behind them. Our 10 days in NYC completely transformed our approach to growth across three critical pillars: Customers & Distribution, Capital & Investor Readiness, and Access to Experts & Peer Leverage. We’ve come away with 6+ deeper investor tracks with US VCs and an instant evolution in our messaging.” - Nagu, VidAi
For Nikita Bezotosnyi at Lexidesk, the value came down to proximity more than any single meeting. Being in New York meant real, in-person conversations with potential customers and genuine progress on a pilot the team had been chipping away at for a while. It also gave him something harder to get from a distance: a clearer read on how East Coast investors actually think, useful even with no raise currently planned.
Barry Leaper's LiberEat found value in a slightly different place: the people they already knew. Being on the ground let Barry progress conversations with existing customers as well as new ones, the kind of deals that the cost and time of transatlantic travel would otherwise have made hard to pursue. This was Barry's second trip to Silicon Valley. He also was a strong participant of our third cohort to Silicon Valley. You can read more about how LiberEat found its product here.
Connor Douglas found the same kind of value with Fanbase, though his trip leaned into what already existed rather than chasing something new. His time in New York went into partners the business already had in college sports, working through the pressure those organisations are under right now and where Fanbase actually fits.
"We would recommend the Techscaler New York Programme to anyone that is looking at expansion to the United States. For us, it really helped us build on connections with our current partners with opportunities to spend time together, looking at how Fanbase is solving their problems currently and what more they can do to get the most out of the platform." - Connor, Fanbase
Natalie Garry's danceSing left with one of the strongest wins of the week. She spoke at Techscaler's own Spotlight on Scotland event, and it opened a live pilot conversation with a major US insurer within days. Natalie's made this kind of impact before. She was part of Techscaler's third cohort to Silicon Valley back in May 2025, and if anything, New York outdid it. You can read more about her earlier work here.
“The programme accelerated our growth in every sense. We are now progressing opportunities with senior living providers, have opened discussions with a major US insurer about a potential pilot, have ongoing conversations with a major US investment bank, and have identified experienced advisors to support our expansion into the US.” - Natalie, danceSing
Behind the scenes
None of this happens on its own. It takes pre-departure mentorship, a cohort willing to trade notes over dinner, and a programme built around how deals actually get made in New York. It also takes learning to speak the market's language. Nagu found that out fast, pitching Vidai as a "governance control plane" and watching it land instantly with US buyers, when the same idea back home needed a much longer explanation. Moray came home with something similar stuck in his head. "In NYC they just think bigger," he said. "My take-home is: be more NYC."
The cohort is back in Scotland now, but most of the conversations they started are still running, in inboxes and calendars rather than a hotel lobby in Manhattan. For founders thinking about the next international cohort, this is what a genuine US presence looks like when you're actually in the room to build it.
Thinking about joining a Techscaler International Programme? Nagu has some advice:
“I would recommend this programme to any ambitious Scottish leader without hesitation. It strips away the friction of international expansion, forces you to play at a faster execution speed, and provides a definitive blueprint for global scale. If you are serious about breaking into the US market, this is your launchpad for any new market.” - Nagu, VidAi
Become a Techscaler member today. Join here.
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