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Beyond Bridge
A Chinese export company team in conversation with a Western buyer across a meeting table, product samples between them, natural light

Who we are

Operators on both sides of the bridge.

We grow Chinese companies overseas. We build the brand, the website, the LinkedIn presence, the search and the ads. Then we put named people on the ground in your buyer's market to pick up the phone.

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Why we exist

The leads are not coming because the website was built for Chinese buyers.

Most Chinese companies going overseas do the same things. They translate the homepage. They open an Alibaba store. They send the founder to one trade show a year. Then they wait for a buyer in Berlin or Chicago to call.

Most of the time, no one calls.

The website reads like it was made for Chinese eyes. The LinkedIn page sits empty. The inquiry from Germany waits two days for a reply. By then the buyer has talked to someone else.

We have sat in those rooms. The factory owner asks the same question every time, usually with a printout of his nice new website on the table.

Why are the leads not coming?

It is almost never the product. The product is good. The problem is that the right buyer does not know the company exists, does not trust it yet, and never gets a fast reply.

Most agencies fix one piece. A brand here. A website there. A few ads. The pieces never connect, and the pipeline never fills.

We built BeyondBridge to run the whole chain. Brand, LinkedIn, website, SEO, Google Ads, and a sales team outside China that answers fast and meets the buyer face to face.

Cyril Drouin's handwritten signature

Cyril Drouin, CEO & Chief Strategy Officer, BeyondBridge.

What makes us different

We have done this on both sides.

Most agencies that sell overseas growth have only ever worked inside China. They know how to build for a Chinese audience. They have never sold to a buyer in Munich or New York.

We have. Our leaders spent two decades building global brands inside China, and about that long selling to Western buyers. We have made most of the mistakes already, so you do not pay to make them again. That work runs through companies like Zeinley, EXEED, SohoMD, Honor, and Orange Connex. You can read how a few of them went on our case studies.

Alibaba does its job. Its job has a ceiling.

A lot of companies treat an Alibaba listing as their whole plan for going overseas. Alibaba is good at what it does. What it does is bring you OEM orders from middlemen. It will not build a brand, and it will not put you in front of the person who actually decides. The customer who pays a premium and stays for years never sees you there.

That customer is on Google. On LinkedIn. At the trade show. On the phone with whoever called back first. That is where we work.

We put named people in your market.

Knowing where the buyer is matters only if someone is there to meet them. Most competitors stop at marketing. They hand you leads and walk away. We do not.

We have real people on the ground in your buyer's country. Stéphane in France. James and Scott in the UK. Klaus and Eike in Germany. Michael and Jenny in the US. They speak the local language. They answer fast. When the deal is worth it, they meet the buyer face to face. We add markets as clients need them, and we will be straight about which countries we cover today and which we do not.

Respond within five minutes and you are 100 times more likely to reach a lead than if you wait 30.

Source: MIT Lead Response Management Study

The average exporter takes two days to reply to an overseas inquiry. Our reps reply in minutes. Most deals are won or lost right there, before the buyer has read your second email.

We tell you when something is not working.

We will not dress up a weak number to make a report look good. If a market is not paying off, you hear it from us first. Clear scope. Clear reporting. Every lead tracked. Every dollar accounted for.

How we are built

Three teams. One pipeline.

The BeyondBridge account team at work in the Shanghai office, large windows onto the street, marketing calendar on the wall
Our account team, in the Shanghai office.
Editorial photo: a Chinese account manager on a video call, headset on, notes open

In China

Your account team sits in China. They own the relationship, work close to you, and speak your language. Every brief and every decision runs through them.

Editorial photo: a production team member reviewing a website layout on a monitor

Around the world

The production team works around the world. Brand, design, development, content, SEO, GEO, paid media. They keep the work on schedule and report every number in plain words.

Editorial photo: a Western sales rep shaking hands with a buyer in an office

In your market

Your sales reps sit in the market you are selling into. They answer the first call, qualify the lead, and more often than not they are the ones who close it.

No handoff. No lost context. The brief you give in China is the brief your buyer hears, in their language, with nothing lost in the middle.

Leadership

Two people run this. Both have spent their whole careers working between China and the West.

The BeyondBridge team together in the office, coffee in hand, mid-conversation
Cyril Drouin, CEO and Chief Strategy Officer

Cyril Drouin

CEO & Chief Strategy Officer

Cyril has spent more than twenty years building marketing and commerce operations across China, Europe, and global markets.

As CEO of Publicis Commerce China, he ran a 250-person team that generated $35M in revenue with more than 25% year-on-year growth. The agency was named eCommerce Agency of the Year, Greater China. His client work has included Apple, L'Oréal, Nike, Nestlé, Heineken, and Kering.

He chaired the Communication and Marketing Forum at the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China for seven years. He teaches digital and commerce to executive MBA students at HEC, ESSEC, and Shanghai Jiaotong University.

Triple-certified by LinkedIn Marketing Labs:

Marketing Strategy Marketing Solutions Fundamentals Content and Creative Design

Native French. Fluent English. Good Chinese.

LiYan Ye, General Manager

LiYan Ye

General Manager

LiYan brings two decades of marketing with Fortune 500 brands, including Beiersdorf, Reckitt Benckiser, Yum!, and Valio.

As Digital Marketing Director at Yum! China, she delivered the brand's first positive quarterly same-store sales growth in Q1 2017, reversing eleven straight quarters of decline. She was also a founding team member of Valio APAC, where she built the dairy brand's China B2B digital presence from scratch.

At BeyondBridge, LiYan is the bridge between Chinese clients and Western-facing teams. She runs day-to-day operations and owns content quality, campaign performance, and client delivery across every account.

MBA, Manchester Business School. Fluent in Mandarin and English.

What we will not change

Four things we hold to.

We do the work, we do not just advise on it.

The person who plans your market entry is the person running your campaigns. We do not separate the thinking from the doing. That gap is where most agencies fall apart.

We tell you the truth, even when it costs us.

If a market is not paying off, you hear it from us first. We will not inflate a number to make a report look better than the quarter was.

We only take work we can win.

If we cannot move the needle for you overseas, we say so before you sign, not after.

We have sat in your chair.

We have run global brands from inside China and sold to buyers in the West. We know what the founder is worried about at 11pm, because we have been the ones worrying.

Your buyers are overseas. Let's make sure they find you.

Book a call. We will look at where your company stands today and tell you where the real opportunity is. Pricing depends on which markets you want and how long the work runs, so we hold that conversation for the call.

Book a call

Thirty minutes. No pitch. Straight answers.

Team and credentials current as of 2026.

Questions about the team

The questions founders ask us most.

Who actually runs BeyondBridge?

A senior leadership team that has spent their whole careers working between China and the West. They are involved in the work, not just the titles.

What does it mean that you are operators on both sides?

Most agencies that sell overseas growth have only ever worked inside China. Our leaders spent two decades building global brands inside China, and about that long selling to Western buyers. We have stood on both sides of the deal, so we know how each one thinks.

Has Cyril really worked at this level, or is this a small shop?

Cyril ran Publicis Commerce China, a 250-person team that generated $35M in revenue. His client work has included Apple, L'Oréal, Nike, Nestlé, Heineken, and Kering. He chaired the Communication and Marketing Forum at the EU Chamber of Commerce in China for seven years. The experience is real and senior.

Is the team senior enough to handle a real expansion?

Our leadership has run global brands at scale and sold to Western buyers for two decades. The people on your account have done this work before, for companies far larger than a first-time exporter. You are not paying for someone to learn on your account.

Will I work with the senior people, or get handed to juniors?

The people you brief are the people doing the work. Your account team in China owns your relationship from the first call onward. Leadership stays close to the work. You will know the people on your account by name.

Do the people on my team speak my language?

Your account team in China speaks Mandarin. Every brief and every decision runs through them, in your language. Your sales reps overseas speak the buyer's language. Nothing gets lost in the middle.

Where is the team based?

Three places. Your account team sits in China, close to you. The production team works around the world. Your sales reps sit in the market you are selling into. Each part of the team is where it needs to be.

Are the overseas sales reps real, named people?

Yes. Stéphane in France. James and Scott in the UK. Klaus and Eike in Germany. Michael and Jenny in the US. They live in the market and answer the phone. You are not getting a faceless call center.

What if I want to sell into a country your team does not cover?

We will tell you straight. We add reps as clients need new markets, but we do not pretend to have someone on the ground where we do not. If we cannot serve a market well today, you will hear that before you sign.

Are the sales reps experts on my product?

No, and we are honest about that. They are not technical specialists. They stay in the bridge role: they qualify the buyer, take the first calls, and bring your team in when the buyer needs deep product detail. That is the right division of work.

How big is the team behind my account?

Bigger than the leadership. Account management in China, a production team around the world covering brand, design, development, content, SEO, GEO, and paid media, plus your named reps in market. One pipeline, no gaps between the parts.

Can I talk to the leadership directly?

Yes. They are not hidden behind layers. For senior decisions and the calls that matter, you can reach the people at the top. The day-to-day runs through your account team so things keep moving, but leadership stays reachable.

Why should I trust a team led by a foreigner to understand China?

Cyril is French, with a good command of Chinese, and has spent more than twenty years working inside China. The team around him is Chinese, close to you, and speaks your language. The bridge is built on both sides, not one. That is the whole point.

Does your team use AI, and does a person still check the work?

We use AI to draft and translate faster. Every piece is reviewed and reshaped by a person on the team before it goes out. The technology keeps the cost down. The people keep the quality up.

How do I meet the team before I commit?

Book a call. Thirty minutes. You meet the people who would run your account and hear where they see the real opportunity. No pitch, no pressure. If we are not the right fit, we will tell you that too.

Book a call