LICENSEWARE @ Rubik Hub Espresso☕️ @ ITW 🇮🇹

Torino had a special energy during Italian Tech Week, and this year it started early. Rubik Hub, together with Sellalab, opened the week with Rubik Hub Espresso – Thinking Global: Startups Beyond Borders, a side event built exactly for founders who are scaling outside their home markets. I had the pleasure of joining the panel and sharing Licenseware’s journey in building a global customer footprint, including the challenges, the mistakes we owned, and the strategies that actually worked.

Held on October 1st at the Sella Open Innovation Center, the morning brought together founders, operators, and ecosystem builders who genuinely care about helping startups grow across markets. The agenda mixed insightful talks, practical founder stories, and conversations about Rubik Hub’s next big bet: Rubik Garage HealthTech 2025, their first accelerator edition fully dedicated to healthtech.

Thinking Global: My Takeaways from the Panel

The discussion, moderated by Simone Martinelli, the force behind Hi! Founders and one of Italy’s most active community builders, focused on what it really takes to scale a startup beyond borders. For Licenseware, expanding internationally was never optional. The software asset management challenges we solve are universal, so going global early was the only logical move.

1. Building a Customer Footprint Requires Intentionality

Our first wave of global users didn’t come from chance. We were deliberate about entering ecosystems where SAM complexity is high and compliance risk is real. That meant prioritizing markets like the UK, EU, the US, and APAC. The key was creating modular, on-demand products that fit into existing processes, rather than forcing companies to adopt a monolithic SAM tool. That flexibility became our competitive advantage.

2. Mistakes Happen — What Matters Is How Fast You Correct Course

I shared some of the toughest lessons we learned, including the early days when we tried to do too much, too fast. At one point, we took on custom work that diluted focus, stretched the team, and slowed our product velocity. The fix was simple in hindsight: refocus on our core platform, reinforce our pay-as-you-go model, and build only what scales. The moment we made that shift, global traction skyrocketed.

3. What Actually Worked for Us

Some of the practical strategies discussed at the event:

• Partner-first expansion: Working with consultancies and IT advisory firms gave us immediate credibility in new markets.
• Clear value narrative: “SAM made simple, modular, and affordable” resonates everywhere.
• Deep integrations: Being able to plug into existing ecosystems (Lansweeper, Flexera, ServiceNow, Red Hat, Oracle, Microsoft-specific tooling etc.) lowered adoption friction for enterprises.
• Community engagement and building trust: Speaking at events like this one, joining accelerator programs, and contributing to industry groups kept us visible in the right circles.

Scaling globally isn’t just about having a good product. It’s about being easy to adopt, easy to try, and easy to trust.

A Morning Built on Insights and Momentum

The event kicked off with Welcome Coffee, followed by a keynote from Rubik Hub’s CEO and the ROStartup Board President. The fireside chat on scaling (where I joined other founders) set the tone for candid conversation — what worked, what didn’t, and how to stay grounded while building across borders.

Rubik Hub also introduced the 2025 edition of Rubik Garage HealthTech, their accelerator program now focusing fully on healthtech startups. It’s open to European teams in both pre-MVP (TRL 3–5) and MVP/growth (TRL 6–8) stages, spanning medtech, digital health, longevity, mental health, consumer health, and more. With more than 230 founders supported, alumni like Rayscape, Synaptiq, Apollo AI, and Beesers, and recognition as one of Europe’s top accelerators by the Financial Times, Sifted, and Statista, Rubik Garage continues to be a powerful launchpad.

Looking Ahead

Events like Rubik Hub Espresso remind me how important community is in the founder journey. Scaling Licenseware globally has been equal parts vision, execution, and the willingness to learn publicly. Sharing our story in Torino felt like closing a loop , from being an early-stage startup in Eastern Europe to helping enterprises worldwide make sense of software licensing.

If you’re a founder looking to push beyond your home market, my advice from the panel still stands:
think modular, stay focused, build trust fast, and always keep your customers’ reality at the center.