The conventional wisdom in consumer apps is "build globally, localize lightly." Went did the opposite: they built specifically for Spain, localized deeply, and used that local specificity as their competitive moat against better-funded global competitors.
The key insight was that Spanish users had a payment behavior that global competitors had not prioritized: Bizum, the Spanish instant payment system integrated directly into major bank apps, was the dominant payment method among 25-45 year old Spaniards. Splitwise and Tricount supported PayPal and international bank transfers — but not Bizum. Spanish users who tried to use these apps for real money settlement hit a friction wall at the most important moment: when they tried to actually pay each other.
Went built Bizum integration as their first priority, before polish, before marketing, before anything else. When users could split a restaurant bill and pay via Bizum inside the same app, the product felt native in a way no global competitor could replicate without significant investment.