A checklist that pairs every market entry assumption with the evidence that would validate it, so enthusiasm for the market is tested before capital follows it.
Market entry cases tend to be long on market size and short on evidence that this company can win there. This checklist forces each assumption to name its proof. Use it without registering anything: the whole template is on this page.
Last reviewed 3 July 2026 · Free and ungated
Before committing budget, resources or reputation to a new market, put the entry case to selected senior operators who know it first-hand.
Get independent perspectivesThe typical entry case rests on a market-size figure from a purchased report, a pricing assumption borrowed from the home market, and a competitive analysis written by people who have never sold against the local incumbents. Each may be right. The checklist's job is to stop the organisation treating "plausible" and "validated" as the same word.
| Assumption area | Evidence that would actually validate it | Weak substitute that usually gets accepted |
|---|---|---|
| Demand exists at our price point | Conversations with prospective buyers in the target market who describe the problem unprompted | A top-down TAM figure divided by an assumed share |
| Willingness to pay | Local price benchmarks for genuinely comparable offerings, adjusted for local terms of trade | Home-market pricing with a currency conversion |
| Competitive response | A written pre-mortem of what each incumbent does in your first four quarters | A feature comparison grid that assumes incumbents stand still |
| Regulatory exposure | A local counsel opinion on licensing, data, employment and product rules for your model | A summary paragraph from a market entry report |
| Channel access | Signed letters of intent, or at minimum documented meetings, with the channel you will depend on | A list of channel partners the team intends to approach after approval |
| Local capability | A hiring plan tested against actual local salary and availability data for the roles you need | An org chart with names to be confirmed |
| Unit economics at entry scale | A bottom-up P&L for year one at realistic volumes, not at target share | Steady-state economics presented as if they apply from month one |
| Reference market comparability | A written account of why the market you succeeded in resembles this one, and where it does not | The phrase "we did this in market X" doing the work of analysis |
| Exit cost | A priced estimate of unwinding: leases, people, contracts, brand impact | Silence, because pricing the exit feels disloyal to the plan |
This checklist is a pre-approval instrument, run in the window after leadership signals interest but before a country manager is hired or a legal entity is formed, the two events that create unstoppable momentum. Strategy or corporate development completes it, but every row must cite its evidence source, and the rule is simple: a row without a source is scored as unvalidated, however confident the author feels.
The people validating an entry case are usually the people who proposed it, and every ambiguous data point bends towards the answer they want. Operators who have entered or exited the same region can read your completed checklist and tell you which validated rows would not survive contact with the local market. That conversation costs days; discovering the same thing operationally costs years. Digital Advisory arranges it as a confidential client brief to the Global Board.
There is no universal pass mark, but two rows are non-negotiable: willingness to pay and channel access. Entries survive weak regulatory preparation far more often than they survive a channel that never materialises at an economic cost.
A pilot is one form of evidence, not a substitute for the discipline. Pilots routinely validate demand while hiding unit economics, because pilot customers get attention and terms that do not scale. Use the pilot to fill rows, then score honestly.
Follow-the-client entries still need rows three, seven and ten: competitive response, unit economics and exit cost. The anchor client makes demand look validated while concentrating it. That is a different risk, not the absence of one.