Scaling Beyond the West: Going Global for the Next Billion
The default used to be simple: build in the US, scale in the US, maybe go global later. That's dead. The best companies today are built for global audiences from Day 1. The question isn't whether to go global. It's whether you're ready to monetise globally.
That's a harder problem than it sounds. Scaling beyond the West isn't just flipping a switch. Payments work differently. Customer behaviour is different. Trust is built differently. The GTM playbook that worked in the US doesn't translate.
That's what this conversation is about.
Joining us at the panel is
→ Jared Friedman, Managing Director, Software and General Partner at Y Combinator
→ Dev Khare, Partner at Lightspeed
→ Harshil Mathur, CEO & Co-founder at Razorpay
→Moderated by Vishnu Acharya, the Head of Strategy and Corporate Development at Razorpay
A freewheeling conversation on what it actually takes to scale globally: how to localise payments, build trust in unfamiliar markets, adapt your GTM, and turn global users into global revenue.
Who’s on the Panel
Jared Friedman is the Managing Director, and General Partner at YC, where he leads the software track. Jared has worked with YC companies worth a combined $103 billion, and he has advised more than 20 YC unicorns including Replit, Substack, Supabase, and Zepto. Before YC, he co-founded Scribd (YC '06), which grew to become one of the top 100 websites in the world with 80M+ users. He's seen thousands of companies go through YC and knows exactly which ones succeed at going global and why.
Dev Khare is a Partner at Lightspeed and has been an early-stage technology investor for more than twenty years across Silicon Valley and India. Lightspeed has backed 165+ AI-native companies globally including Anthropic, xAI, Databricks, and Mistral. At Lightspeed, Dev has been backing founders in India and Southeast Asia since 2011, focusing on AI, software, and digital media. His investments include companies like Darwinbox, Innovaccer, Razorpay, PocketFM, Zepto, and Sarvam.ai. Prior to investing, Dev co-founded Covigo, a platform for building and deploying mobile applications, which was acquired by Symbol Technologies in 2003.
Harshil Mathur is the CEO and Co-founder of Razorpay (YC W15), APAC's largest payments company. Harshil scaled Razorpay from a YC batch to a $7.5B company backed by Tiger Global, Sequoia, GIC, Lightspeed, Ribbit Capital, and Salesforce Ventures. Today, Razorpay powers payments for 5M+ businesses across India, Southeast Asia, and the US, including 85 of India's 115 unicorns and global companies like Google, Meta, and Shopify. He also invests in early-stage startups via marsshot.vc
The panel is moderated by Vishnu Acharya, the Head of Strategy and Corporate Development at Razorpay, where he leads global M&A. He also serves as a Partner at Razorpay Ventures and marsshot.vc. Vishnu has closed deals worth $200 million across 12+ acquisitions, expanding Razorpay into new areas and new markets including Southeast Asia. He launched Razorpay Ventures, backed by Peak XV and Lightspeed, to invest in B2B startups, and has managed investments in 50+ startups including Shiprocket and Toplyne.
Special thank you to our host Sawyer Levy, VP of Global Business Development at Silicon Valley Bank. SVB Global offers international technology companies and venture capital firms banking products and value-add services that unlock access to the global markets.
Who should attend
→ Founders and operators at US companies thinking about expanding beyond domestic markets
→ Growth, payments, and international leads evaluating where to scale next
→ Post-Demo Day founders figuring out whether to go global early or wait
→ Anyone who already has users outside the US and wants to turn them into revenue
Details
🗓 June 18 · 4 PM onwards
📍 SoMa, San Francisco (exact venue shared upon RSVP)
🍸 Drinks and bites on us
🔒 By approval only