Title: Why Walla Team Is Relocating to Canada: A Comprehensive Explanation

Q1. Why are you moving abroad?

We operate a data collection and analysis SaaS for businesses. The advantages of SaaS include securing ARR through subscriptions and flexible market expansion compared to services like apps. Like many SaaS companies, Walla was originally designed with international expansion in mind. Moving abroad is a natural step for us.

Q2. Why not the United States?

Initially, we considered the United States due to Silicon Valley, the startup mecca, and it being an English-speaking country. However, when we visited the U.S. in February this year, we were confronted with some practical realities:

1) High cost of living: Can we afford the cost of living in the U.S.?

2) Extremely high rent: Finding a house that can accommodate all five of us was financially challenging.

3) The Silicon Valley dream vs. reality: What do we really want to achieve there, and does it even exist?

4) The U.S. itself: The U.S. is a highly competitive capitalist society, and we can't expect the same support and policies we received in Korea. The visa issue alone is substantial.

While there was some romanticism associated with the U.S., we realized that finding a place where we could achieve explosive growth with our budget was more important.

Q3. Why Canada?

Just as there were four reasons for not choosing the U.S., there are four reasons for choosing Canada:

1) Affordable cost of living: While there are areas where Canada is more expensive than Korea, it's still manageable compared to the U.S.

2) Manageable rent: Finding a house for all five of us is comparable or even cheaper than securing an office in Gangnam, Seoul.

3) Canada itself: Canada, with its lower population density, actively welcomes newcomers and provides excellent support and policies. They even support hiring Canadian university students, covering half of their wages. Visa processes are relatively straightforward, and they have a friendly approach to citizenship.

4) Opportunities and connections: Our interactions with Canadian officials during their visit to our office, which ultimately led to our decision to establish a company in Canada, played a pivotal role. Without this opportunity, we might have continued to hesitate about overseas expansion. We were fortunate to have such opportunities and connections that led us to choose Canada.

Q4. Why now? Isn't it too early?

Many companies consider overseas expansion after achieving success in their home country or after securing significant investments. However, we believe we should do it a bit earlier.

[Having success in your home country = Having many domestic customers = The service is tailored to domestic customers]

Most SaaS companies can add overseas customers to their existing service even in this situation. While setting up an overseas subsidiary for overseas payments is necessary, this is manageable. However, Walla has a few additional considerations. The reasons we are going abroad "now" are as follows:

1) Mindset of the makers: We could create a service that overseas users can use even in Korea. However, can we truly create a service that seamlessly integrates into the lives of overseas users without experiencing their environment firsthand? We believe that actually living in the environment we want to cater to is essential.

2) Differences in data and personal data protection policies between Korea and overseas: Global privacy laws (GDPR, CCPA, etc.) introduce more considerations. Not accounting for these differences and developing solely for the Korean market could result in future liabilities.

3) Differences in response rewards between Korea and overseas: While gift certificates are prevalent in Korea, overseas rewards vary widely by country. We need to develop a system that allows for response rewards without relying on phone numbers. Developing this in Korea, where Google Wallet is not yet available, would be challenging.

4) Team composition and size: Our team currently consists of five members, all of whom are engineers. While we could hire non-technical personnel in Korea and expand the team, this would require additional resources to build a separate team for going abroad. Additionally, our team culture is developer-centric, and we believe that expanding our team with non-technical staff would introduce unnecessary risks. Rather than taking on that risk and resource allocation, it makes more sense to go abroad with our existing team members.

Q5. What mindset do your team members have about going abroad, and how did you convince them?

This question is often asked, but if you understand our team culture, it may be challenging to think this way. Rather than convincing one another, we encourage everyone to voice their opinions and take ownership.

We believe that this is a crucial aspect of being a small, exceptional team that can achieve explosive growth. For example, when we were pivoting from the previous item to Walla, I suggested to the team that we should quickly complete Walla and participate in SLUSH in Finland. This was a significant motivator, and it allowed us to rapidly create an excellent product. We all went to Finland together, enjoyed our time, and even saw the Northern Lights and roasted marshmallows. This positive experience served as a motivating factor for going abroad. When I asked the team members about their dreams going forward, many of them aspired to be international developers and believed that Walla could help them achieve that dream. We collectively built the plan for going abroad based on this vision. Our approach is about pursuing a shared vision rather than one person convincing another. It's about creating ongoing motivation for everyone.

We have established a subsidiary in Canada

And it's named Paprika Data Lab Canada Inc.

We will board two flights to Ontario, Canada. Some of what I mentioned earlier may be correct, while some may be incorrect. We plan to live, learn, and grow through our experiences.

We are Paprika Data Lab.