I have been in enough conversations with overseas founders and CEOs to recognize a familiar moment.
It’s when excitement about the U.S. market quietly turns into uncertainty.
The product is solid.
The intent is serious.
The investment appetite is real.
And yet, something feels harder than expected.
That is the context in which SelectUSA Investment Summit keeps coming up in conversations I have with leadership teams. Not as a conference. Not as a box to check. But as a reset point, where assumptions meet reality earlier than they otherwise would.
I am attending SelectUSA for the first time this May. I’ll be there as a panel moderator on branding and as a workshop speaker and facilitator for a session focused on what it actually takes to be successful in the U.S. market.
What led me there wasn’t curiosity. It was pattern recognition.
When I talk with people who have attended SelectUSA in the past (including overseas-based owners and founders, as well as Economic Development entities here in the U.S. focusing on investment projects) and ask what the event is “like,” they often reply by explaining what it isn’t.
It’s not a place where you show up with a pitch and leave with deals. Companies that arrive with that expectation tend to recalibrate quickly, based on what others who have attended tell me.
What SelectUSA is described as instead is a room full of people trying to understand consequences before committing to them.
State representatives speak candidly about workforce shortages rather than overselling incentives. Companies ask questions they didn’t realize they should be asking. Hesitation shows up alongside ambition.
That tone matters. It shifts the conversation from aspiration to feasibility and practical first (or next) steps.
In debriefs with founders after SelectUSA, one theme comes up repeatedly.
They expected the event to be structured.
They expected it to be large.
They did not expect it to feel so human.
Despite drawing thousands of attendees from around the world, the moments that stick are often quiet ones. A conversation with a company that already made a decision you’re still debating. An economic development officer explaining the expectations that come attached to an attractive incentive. A peer admitting something didn’t go as planned.
Those exchanges are uncomfortable in the right way. They force clarity.
Leaders from most overseas-headquartered companies approach U.S. expansion looking for answers.
Which state?
How much will it cost?
How fast will we grow?
What structure do we need?
What I consistently hear is that SelectUSA flips that orientation. Leaders leave with better questions instead.
Questions like:
Those questions don’t slow companies down. They prevent misalignment that becomes expensive later.
It’s easy to quote headline numbers about SelectUSA. Billions in investment. Thousands of jobs. Record attendance.
What matters more is what those numbers represent.
Volume of intent.
Competition for attention.
The sheer number of companies trying to solve similar problems at the same time.
That perspective is grounding. Leaders stop assuming their challenges are unique. They also stop assuming they’re simple.
One of the most consistent patterns I hear about SelectUSA is how quickly certainty softens.
A leadership team arrives convinced about a specific state or approach. After a few conversations, the picture becomes more nuanced. Not because the original idea was wrong, but because the trade-offs become clearer.
Labor availability.
Timeline realism.
Operational complexity behind apparent cost advantages.
Product-market fit.
Those realizations rarely feel good in the moment. They tend to age very well.
I often wish more companies attended SelectUSA earlier in their process.
Once leases are signed, hires are made or structures are set, conversations become a little more constrained. Before those commitments, conversations stay open.
It’s a little easier to say:
“We hadn’t thought about that.”
“We need to rethink our sequence.”
“This might not be phase one after all.”
That kind of honesty is rare once capital is already deployed.
U.S. expansion carries pressure. Internal expectations. Board scrutiny. Personal credibility.
What I hear is that SelectUSA doesn’t remove that pressure, but it reframes it. Leaders realize uncertainty isn’t a personal failure. It’s part of the terrain.
Seeing other serious companies wrestle with the same questions replaces isolation with context.
I don’t see SelectUSA as a place to get answers. I see it as a place to reduce blind spots. For companies serious about U.S. market entry, blind spots are far more dangerous than known challenges.
That’s why I’m attending. Not because it guarantees success, but because it lowers the cost of misunderstanding what success actually requires in the U.S.
If you are looking for validation, SelectUSA may feel uncomfortable. If you are looking for clarity, it tends to deliver quickly. U.S. market entry is rarely undone by lack of ambition. It is undone by assumptions that go untested for too long.
From everything I’ve seen and heard, SelectUSA has a way of testing those assumptions early. That alone can change the trajectory of a company’s U.S. journey.
