Vendor Sessions: Customer Risks Higher in Australia than the US, says Heidi Badgery

Alteryx’s former local Managing Director, Heidi Badgery, says there’s one thing that she could have done better during her tenure: internally championing how Australia is a different market from the US.

Badgery, who has just stepped into the role of Senior VP, International Markets at Formstack, notes that tech multinationals, particularly those led out of the US, often view Australia as an easy expansion point into the Asia-Pacific region.

But the reality is different. Badgery says it’s harder to scale sales in Australia at the same pace as other countries like the US.

Currently, Australia’s tech sector is valued at A$167 billion (US$111 billion). In contrast, the US tech sector contributed almost US$2 trillion to the country’s GDP in 2023.

“Selling to individual and customer needs is important in every market but when the market is smaller, it does impact your efficiency model,” Badgery tells ADAPT.

“I needed to…