Export mode: How to go global without going broke

When Vancouver entrepreneur Sarah Goodman launched her snack brand Chiwis, she wasn’t thinking about global markets.

“I came from tech, where I first met Keith [Ippel, co-founder and co-CEO of Spring Activator],” she told a recent panel hosted by the Vancouver-based impact accelerator and advisory firm. “I just thought, how do I get this product onto a store shelf?”

A few years later, Chiwis fruit chips are sold across Canada and in parts of the U.S. But breaking into international markets hasn’t been easy — or cheap. From misjudging consumer behaviour to navigating cross-border regulations and costs, Goodman has had to learn quickly, and sometimes the hard way.

“We assumed that a Costco customer in L.A. or Hawaii would be like a Costco Canada customer,” she said. “We were wrong.”

Goodman joined two other Vancouver leaders — Felix Böck of ChopValue and Stephanie Sang of Granted Consulting — for a candid conversation moderated by Ippel. Together, they shared lessons from the front lines of expansion, digging into what it really takes to scale internationally — and what founders often get wrong.

Built for scale — or not (yet)

Unlike Goodman, Böck built ChopValue for global expansion from day one. His company turns discarded chopsticks into engineered home goods and furniture, using a network of local “microfactories.”

“In week three, I maybe said it out loud for the first time: ‘I think I’m going to franchise the concept,’” he recalls. “To me, it was the only way where I could stay true to myself that I want to scale our technology to the actual problem case.”

That vision now extends across nine countries, with more than 80 microfactories open or in development. It’s a model designed to localize both input and output — turning local waste into local products.

Goodman’s journey was different. “It wasn’t until maybe year three that I thought, ‘Oh —could this be a thing?’” she said. “We still haven’t tackled all of Canada, but it was more like, do we go east coast, or do we go west into the States?”

What goes on the expansion checklist

For founders eyeing new markets, Böck said it starts with one question: “Is there a demand for your solution or your product?”

In his case, the answer is yes. “I would argue in every urban environment in every city around the world […] there is a demand to turn an unutilized waste stream into a resource stream,” he said.

Goodman emphasized the importance of understanding your customer. “Even when we were thinking about going into the States, we were like, ‘Yes, we think in California we have a similar type of customer demographic as we do in B.C.’ And then actually going there […] I realized this is a very different customer.”

She also flagged regulatory prep as essential for consumer brands. “We work with a regulation consultant before we launch any product, and we do a full package review,” she said. “Even barcoding can be different.”

And it’s not just about getting on shelves. “How are you going to get this product off the shelves?” Goodman asked. “Are you going to be doing it digitally and getting brand awareness? Are you going to do demos consistently?”

Sang added another cautionary item to the checklist: intellectual property. “Even trademarking your brand,” she said. “I did come across a client […] there was a trademark on their product name in the U.S., and they were already selling. And then they got this cease and desist letter, and they had to unwind everything they did.”

Team capacity is another often-overlooked factor. “There’s customers that are here that need to be managed and things to be packed, and there’s only two of you,” she said. “To really consider whether or not you have the capacity before you actually go out there.”

Paying for growth

Goodman raised investment with a U.S. expansion in mind, but underestimated how much it would cost.

“I was naive on that part of it,” she said. “The use of funds to get to the U.S. expansion was definitely not enough, especially for that marketing piece of getting it off the shelf.”

Even Costco demos, she said, cost $500 per location. “And maybe that would have done better if we were doing a lot more of those demos,” she added. “But you still have to make money.”

Böck took a different approach: “Franchising was our tool to actually fund our expansion,” he said. “We were able to reinvest that into building the right team as a support resource, upgrading machinery, and upgrading our operating procedures.”

He emphasized the importance of having systems in place. “That gave us this scale to raise capital where we were able to tell the story with an existing track record,” he said.

Tariffs and the push to localize

The elephant in the room was tariffs — and how the threat (or reality) of rising trade barriers is reshaping business decisions.

“It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions since all of this was set into place,” Goodman said. “We’re trying to focus on building a business, [while] also focusing on strategy that’s changing every, like, ten days.”

Although Chiwis’ U.S. manufacturing shields it from some export risks, the brand still imports materials for its Canadian operations — and rising costs could squeeze already-thin margins. “It’s taken up a lot of mental space and time that would have been spent on other things,” Goodman said.

Böck said the moment has only strengthened ChopValue’s hyperlocal model. “Our phones are ringing off the hook since the uncertainty began,” he said. “People that already work with us […] are just happy and thankful that there's no impact to the pricing or delivery times.”

He traced the strategy back to the company’s early days. “We committed to decentralization,” he said. “We wanted to have distributed manufacturing. We did not want to ship raw material or end-product. That was the goal.”

What would actually help?

Goodman said the best support would come in the form of funding to help find domestic alternatives for materials and packaging.

“There’s all of these little bits that are going to increase or decrease the margin slowly,” she said. “Government funding to explore domestic solutions is something that would be immediately helpful.”

Sang said that funding may be coming — but companies will need to act fast. “This year, we’ve noticed a big boost in both B.C. and Alberta […] where they’re putting billions of dollars in what we call contingency funds,” she said. “If you miss it, you miss it.”

She also flagged new Exsport Development Canada and CanExport rules that could change how companies approach international growth. “It’s interesting,” she said. “They said, if you go to the U.S., you can only go to the U.S. If you go outside of the U.S., you can only go outside of the U.S. You can’t have a blended application.”

Böck stressed that while grants are useful, they’re not a foundation. “It's not all about the grants,” he said. “It's about how sustainable is the business model in itself, past a short-term intervention.”

Staying grounded

As the conversation wound down, Ippel asked the panelists how they were staying sane through the uncertainty.

“For me, my mental health — my ability to run a company that is growing — it’s being able to disconnect and go outside,” said Goodman. “We could be worrying about all this stuff all day, every day, but it’s not everything.”

Sang turns to Mahjong, as well as her community. “They’re all female entrepreneurs. We’ll talk a little bit of shop, a little bit of family, a little bit of partners and spouses and kids,” she said. “Business is important. It’s not all of what it is that we do.”

Böck shared the simplest answer of all. “I have a pretty good team, and I think the dog is the only one that still laughs at my dad jokes,” he said. “That’s all I need right now.”

Even in the midst of trade tensions, rising costs, and shifting regulations, Vancouver’s entrepreneurs are continuing to build. And they’re doing it the way they always have — by starting local, scaling smart, and leaning on the community to carry the weight.

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