Thomas S. Riebs
An operator, not a consultant — an American raised in Denmark who has spent his career helping European companies win their first U.S. customer. He founded Traksjon to do the thing most advisors only talk about: the hands-on work of turning a company’s U.S. ambition into revenue on the ground.
How Thomas works with clients
Operators, not consultants. The measure of success is your first U.S. customer — not a deck.
Thomas built Traksjon around a single conviction: European companies rarely fail in the U.S. for lack of strategy — they fail in execution. So the work is hands-on. It means sitting inside the market, making the introductions that matter, and pursuing the first customer rather than mapping the whole market from a distance.
In practice that looks like sharper questions than clients expect, deep local engagement over broad market surveys, and an honest answer about whether Traksjon is the right fit before any work begins.
Background
A California attorney and former BNP Paribas vice president, raised between Denmark and the United States.
Thomas grew up helping his American parents run a hand-knit sweater company between Denmark and the United States — an early, practical education in selling across the Atlantic. He earned a B.A. in European Studies & History and a J.D. in Business Law, both from UCLA, and served as a Vice President in the International Clientèle department at Bank of the West – BNP Paribas.
He has since supported the U.S. expansion of more than 300 companies from 14 countries, serves as Executive Board Chair of AXEL, and is active in the Danish-American Business Council of Los Angeles, the British-American Business Council LA, and the Los Angeles economic-development community.
How he thinks about U.S. market entry
In the U.S. they speak American — not English. The gap between the two is where most European entrants stumble.
Thomas’s approach is captured in the frameworks he uses with clients and audiences: the Top 3 Obstacles to Commercial Success in the U.S., Win the First Customer, and the conviction that it comes down to people — you are not doing business with the United States, but with the industry clusters and individuals who decide whether to buy.
Each targets the same blind spot: the assumption that a strong European business will translate directly to the American market. It is also the subject of his forthcoming book on connection in an era of AI and social media.
