Helping Those Who Help Others Take The Big Leap

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Halve Maen Case Study

To create content (a book, survey, and motion graphics video) around the work that Halve

Maen has been doing by showcasing real-life stories of entrepreneurs that successfully

expanded to NYC and Boston using their resources.

The Challenge

The book:

The video:

An approximately two hundred paged book, fully illustrated and designed, with interviews of

30 startups and scale-ups about their expansion from the Netherlands to the United States

with the help of Halve Maen’s resources. The book is titled Taking The Big Leap: How Dutch

Startups and Scale-Ups Are Successfully Expanding to New York and Boston.

The Outcome

You founded a startup or scale-up in the Netherlands, you’ve been doing well locally,

maybe even continentally and you’re starting to feel prepared for the next big step. As you

attend networking events with fellow entrepreneurs, with similar business propositions,

you can’t help notice the opportunity that is waiting for you over in the United States. You

see your colleagues do it, so you wonder if you should too. Maybe this is your chance to

take the big leap.

Who is Halve Maen?

This popular move amongst

Dutch organizations was noticed

and therefore facilitated by an

organization called Halve Maen.

Yo u r q u e s t i o n s a r e t h e i r

commands. In short, Halve Maen

is a powerful centre in New York

for Dutch startups in the IT and

Creative Industries sectors.

So basically the Halve Maen initiative supports Dutch startups in making the move in

expanding to the United States, via New York. These efforts are to help Dutch companies

going abroad with securing their local footing and getting to scale as quickly, as easily, and

as cost-efficient as possible. The truth is that Dutch companies moving into the American

ecosystem will always benefit from soft-landing services such as those provided by Halve

Maen. 

How did it start?

Halve Maen responded to the

increased globalization and

expansion of Dutch startups and

scale-ups with the resources

and support needed to facilitate

the big leap. PRLab then turned

t h e s e e f fo r t s i n to a b o o k

documenting 26 of the different

journeys involved.

Content Creation

Graphic

Design

PRLab Strategy

Motion

Graphics

PR

The PRLab team took on this challenge with the outcome clear as day: make a book that

will serve as an example and as an additional resource that Halve Maen can provide Dutch

startups or scale-ups looking to expand to the US. This was, of course, a joint effort with

Halve Maen, the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York, TechLeap, and the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The PRLab Strategy

The book encompassed a lot of

research and complementary

features such as a motion

graphics video, written articles

of the 26 interviews conducted,

a s w e l l a s a s u r v e y f o r

quantitative data and a research

report with the findings. This is

all in addition to the book both

in digital and in print.

Firstly, establishing the purpose of the outcome; the purpose of creating a book is to

provide future Dutch companies with interests of expanding with relatable information,

do’s and don’t’s, of the whole expansion process. This of course, from people who took the

big leap themselves.

Then, PRLab assigned one of its American writers to conduct interviews with

representatives of Dutch organizations who have previously expanded their operations to

the US-- a total of 26 different companies.

What did this strategy consist of? 

Each interview consisted of questions relating to the whole process and experience of

expanding of that individual company. So you can imagine that each interview consisted of

different questions relating to different experiences. However, the questions were mostly

along the lines of:

1. How was the transition?

2. What is there to know when you’re thinking about expanding to the US?

3. What were the biggest challenges and/or successes?

4. What were the key cultural differences you experienced between doing

business in the US versus in the EU?

5. How did you grow your US market initially?

6. Did the expansion cause your company a change or adjustments?

7. Did you have to offer new and/or different services?

8. What are your words of advice for someone looking to do the

same as your organization?

What did this strategy consist of? 

Once the interviews were conducted, the interviewer wrote the interviews into articles that

were later used as chapters to the Halve Maen book. To complement the chapters, are

pullouts disseminated throughout the book made of the statistics gathered from the

research PRLab conducted. By adding useful statistics to the words of advice provided by

the founders and CEOs of the organizations mentioned, PRLab added another layer of

useful information.

What did this strategy consist of? 

To complement the book even further, the PRLab team designed a motion graphics video

as another medium to display findings found during research. The video is 3 minutes in

length, includes testimonials from the interviews, as well as graphs and pie charts to

display the survey findings. The design was made to match that of the book as well.

Lastly, PRLab committed to making the book both digital and print. This meant being in

charge of finding the best prices and quality for the book and providing it to Halve Maen.

What did this strategy consist of? 

Storyboard

Behind the scenes of the

motion graphics video:

1

32

After 8 months and counting of hard work, you can find yourself a copy of Taking The Big

Leap: How Dutch Startups and Scale-Ups Are Successfully Expanding to New York and

Boston. This was an incredibly thrilling project to be a part of as PRLab got to be a part of it

start to finish. Similar to the structure of the book, the key takeaways of PRLab

participating in this project are:

1. Conducted quantitative research through surveys

2. Creatively directed motion graphics video & book

3. Provided all writing efforts for the book

4. Sourced 30 interviews & articles

5. Facilitated communication between

all different collaborating organizations

6. Administered book printing

information (prices and publishing houses)

What did this strategy consist of? 

Design Process

Design Process

Survey for

quantitative

data

PRLab Results

Motion graphics

video

Interviews

and articles

A research report

titled Halve Maen’s

Best Practices Report,

‘How to Make it in the

Big Apple’

26Digital and

print book

Julia Knoeff Senior Economic Officer:

Consulate of the Netherlands

in New York

“PRLab was an exceptional ally throughout this whole

project, from start to finish. We especially appreciate their

strategic approach to content creation and the top-notch

quality of the content and design work they’ve created for

this project. Their research efforts added an immense

amount of value to all that we do here at Halve Maen. We

are very excited about the book as it serves as a new

resource for those startups or scale-ups looking to expand

to NY or Boston. We are proud to offer it to those

businesses because we know how priceless this first-hand

advice is! Thank you PRLab for helping us put this

together.”

Halve Maen is a happy client

Phone number +31 6 577 216 12

Email Address hello@prlab.co

Website page prlab.co

Get in touch with us:

Thank you!