Success story — Marine Electric Propulsion
How a small Austrian electric outboard motor company found a qualified US manufacturers representative for the Great Lakes and Midwest — without opening US operations.
Aquamot was founded in Vöcklamarkt, Austria in 2009 with a clear product thesis: pure electric outboard motors for boats and ships. By the time the company was ready to look at the US market, they had a working product, a small and focused team, and a view into a US electric marine market that was starting to move.
The problem was scale. At fewer than ten employees, Aquamot couldn't staff a US sales operation. They weren't going to open an office, hire salespeople, or navigate the US distribution landscape from scratch. What they needed was a partner who already had it: established relationships with OEM boat builders, marine aftermarket buyers, and the adjacent sectors that were starting to look seriously at electric propulsion.
The Austrian Chamber of Commerce Go-International programme brought Aquamot and Inmotion together. The engagement was scoped to answer one question: who are the right US partners for Aquamot, and how do we get in front of them?
Before any outreach, the engagement started with a market study. The US electric marine market had real momentum but its distribution structure wasn't the same as Europe's. Understanding which partner types had the right customer relationships — and which were structurally wrong for a product at Aquamot's price point and stage — required mapping the landscape first.
The market study fed a partner concept: a recommendation on what kind of US partner Aquamot should be looking for, which sectors they should cover, and what geographic footprint made sense for a first partner relationship. The Great Lakes and Midwest region emerged as the priority. It had the boat builder density, the freshwater recreational market, and the commercial inland waterway activity that matched Aquamot's product range.
From the partner concept came a candidate list. Sales documents were built for the US context: not translations of Austrian materials, but documents written for a US partner's perspective — how to position the product, what the commercial opportunity looked like, and what support Aquamot would provide. Telephone outreach began the qualification process. Then came the roadshow: direct meetings with selected candidates.
Aquamot signed a manufacturers representative group covering 18 states across the Great Lakes and Midwest region. The agency had an established track record across the sectors that mattered: OEM boat builders, marine aftermarket, RV, sporting goods, spa builders, and specialty vehicle channels.
That coverage breadth was not accidental. A US rep agency that only knows marine aftermarket buyers is useful but limited. An agency that also sells into OEM boat builders and adjacent recreational vehicle channels can open doors that a marine-only agency can't. The partner concept stage was where that criteria got defined — before anyone started making calls.
George, Aquamot's CEO, described the result simply: "With this Rep Agency we must have made a stroke of luck, things are going more than well."
It wasn't luck. It was knowing what to look for before looking.
"With this Rep Agency we must have made a stroke of luck, things are going more than well."
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