Mountain Biking with Ironmen

Posted by Ronan on Aug 10, 2010 in Limerick, a bit of fun, comment, ireland | 0 comments

I did something daft this weekend. I headed off to the Ballyhoura mountain bike trails with a guy who just completed the ring of Kerry on a bicycle (Iano), a guy who also completed the ring of Kerry by bicycle and THEN proceeded to cycle home (which is Galway btw!) and another guy who does Ironmen competitions. My 16k (back and forth) commute pales in comparison to what these guys do! Needless to say they were all fitter than I and very used to cycling. The only other person who hadn’t done an ironman or a ring of Kerry was the ironman’s girlfriend but she was super fit nonetheless – she was to pass me out on several occasions

We arrived nice and early and got very cool rented Cube bikes from the centre for 40 yoyos. We were joined by another keen mountain biker who had done the Ballyhoura trails before so he was our lead and suggested we take the White trail – just 35km. The bikes were top class, very new, well serviced and well up to the task at hand – I therefore can’t blame the bike on nearly keeling over on some of the hills. I was wrecked after about 20km! Cycling up mountains is tougher than you’d think!

Apart from some steep climbs, the white trail is amazing! Some very fast parts, dark and spooky forests, long wooded boardwalks and fantastic views. The climbs might be tough but the downhill sections are just amazing and make up for the hard work getting up the hills. Speeding down a narrow track avoiding rocks really gets the adrenalin going

Because the scenery is so spectacular you might be lured into looking around but this is the biggest mistake you’ll make – it will only result in a crash – which will hurt! I came off a few times the worst when the pedal caught a rock and sent me flying! The other thing that will hurt like mad will be your ass! So here is my top-tip for mountain biking – wear shorts with (extra) padding!!

I’ll definitely be going back again – once my ass has recovered!

Iano brought his super-duper GPS watch which produces a map of of the trail.. (very cool). Note the steep climbs!

Cauwill is One

Posted by Ronan on Jul 29, 2010 in Limerick, Seedcorn, comment, ireland, startup | 0 comments

It’s July 2010. Cauwill Technologies is one this month.

12 months ago we had a nifty piece of mobile technology, no customers, no money (except our savings) and no real idea what the future held. Leaving the safe* employment as a researcher in a university was one of the scariest decisions we had to make but it’s been all worth since we spun out the company. That’s not to say there hasn’t been bad days since spinning out – of course there has been! Someone told me recently the longer you are in business and the highs get higher and lows get lower.

Looking back over the year we certainly had some really great days, first customer, getting more paying customers, hiring staff and of course let’s not forget about winning InterTradeIreland’s Seedcorn competition as ‘Best Emerging’ Company!

We have learnt so much over the past 12 months and sitting in UL researching & lecturing seems like a lifetime ago. I think I would find it very hard to go back. I spoke to a mate of mine last weekend (whom I spent countless hours in the UL WAR lab trying to get a testbed to work) about leaving and the challenges/changes it has brought. He was adamant that I needed to leave and it was the best thing to do as it’s open a entirely new world. I couldn’t agree more. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. The only downside to leaving is the lack of a salary! Startups don’t pay well at all

So over the past 12 months what have we learnt? Here is a list in no particular order of some of the learnings.

You have to be a little crazy.
You need to love what you are doing otherwise you will grow tired of it. You have to give up a lot of things to follow this dream. You will have to be able to make, what seems like, crazy decisions to try better the company. Finally, you need to be able to calculate risk and act on it (it helps here being a little crazy!)

You need a plan.
It doesn’t have to be much, but you need a plan! Who are the customers? How many customers? Why do they need your service product? Why would they buy from you and not Joe down the road? How much will they pay for it? How do you get to them? Where do you want the company to be in 3, 5 years? How are you going to get there? How much money do you need? Where will it come from?
I’m preparing a post about our Seedcorn business plan which may be of interest to people in Ireland.

Make sure you have a partner.
I was super lucky. Ian was in the same position/mindset. We worked together in UL for the past 10 years so we knew each very well. Cauwill wouldn’t be where it is right now if either did this alone. It probably wouldn’t have made it to one. Simple as that.

Don’t ram technology down customers throats!
We’ve learnt when talking to potential customers the secret is not to talk! Ask questions about their business, their needs, things that are hurting them in terms of time/money. If you have a solution for their pain they will be a lot happier to engage with you.

Build Relationships & Communicate
It’s important to go out and meet people. At times it’s hard but it has to be done. If you don’t do this how will be people be made aware of you and your product? Be active on the social networks, go to seminars, open coffees, trade shows, etc. the key is just to get involved. Some of this seems like it will go nowhere, and the majority of it will go nowhere, but on occasions some connections you make can lead to big things down the line. Some of these connections could lead to my next point.

Build a network of mentors.
Mentors = friends, colleagues, people in the shared office, maybe elite and trusted customers. You won’t be able to do everything and you’ll need people to talk to on a regular basis. You draw on their experience in business, marketing, PR, sales etc. to help you make better decisions. Note: you don’t want a bunch of yes ‘men’ either.

Keep on top of things.
This includes; market research (know what has happened, happening now, might/will happen in the future). Keep all your financial accounts in order from day one. Keep a track of every correspondence with {potential} customers – get a CRM package (onepagecrm, zoho, capsulecrm etc.) in place.

Don’t spend all your time on development
Can’t stress this point enough. Don’t spend all your time developing the mother-of-all-products. No-one will use it. You might get lucky but chances are you won’t. Listen to what your customers want and develop to their requirements. Release often and release early. Provide good great customer service and you’ll be on to a winner.

Out source
Know your weak areas and out source these tasks to people how can do it better than you.

*Safe; once you have a contract you get paid every month! Getting the contract is another matter altogether!

LEAP Training – Sales

Posted by Ronan on Feb 23, 2010 in LEAP, Limerick, startup | 2 comments

So we are approaching the end of our LEAP training  - how time has flown by!

We had Dermot McConkey in a few weeks back (it’s been busy at Cauwill – so I didn’t get to blog for a while!)

To use Dermot’s phrase

People Don’t Buy Similarity, They Buy Difference

This is true – so true.

The sales training was absolutely top notch. Dermot pitched/sold some of the companies ideas/products and in some cases did a far better job than the promoter. When you hear a couple of completely different products but sold using the same  formulae you begin to understand why some people are (good to) excellent salesmen and others are just not made for it at all. It’s all about finding out the difference you & your product can make for your customer. Most of the time you need to listen – not sell. When you listen to your customer listen carefully for their ‘pain’ then give them the solution to meet their needs.

The two days were immense and I am not going to blog everything about those because it would be impossible for me to convey all the information, advice and great tips Dermot shared with us.

The first day covered the dreaded cold call – he gave the group a script for the cold call – but to be honest it can be used any time you talk to a customer.

If you need some sales training .. head over to his site to get an idea of where he can help and find out where he is giving the next training session.

Marketing and Business Communications

Posted by Ronan on Oct 30, 2009 in LEAP, Limerick, startup | 0 comments

Bryan Marshall (SMS) came in to talk to us on Marketing and Business Communications.

I couldn’t make all of the business communications, but I kinda reckon that both could have been combined together into one day instead of two .

Bryan obviously is very well experienced in the marketing and PR area  - some of his clients are the biggest in the world. He is surprisingly very modest too – which is refreshing & a great attribute.  He dispensed loads of great tips and underlined common sense.

I’ve found that the LEAP training seems to come at the wrong time i.e. you are mad busy with stuff – but what I find with the training is that it gets you to focus for a short while on a single topic (try and push everything else away)  and you come away

One of the exercises was to do a 30 sec pitch – it’s actually very difficult! It takes a while to get your head around the idea. The way I think about it is as follows - You say just enough, in plain and simple English,  to get the person curious enough to ask the next question. It’s all about knowing your audience too. The pitch will therefore change depending on the person you are talking to. It’s a hard one to call – go with your gut!

Another valuable tool in the marketing world is the Press Release.. every one should consist of a Short (7 words) Headline followed by

• What (is happening)
• Who (is involved)
• Where (is it happening)
• When
• Why

and then Notes for editor.

Of course when you are releasing the PR you need to ensure is the timing right?, is it newsworthy?,  will it interest the reader?, is your PR clashing with anything major? .. and is it topical?

on that topical note.. It’s Halloween tomorrow! Take it easy this weekend –  avoid zombies (and squirrels).

LEAP Showcase 2009

Posted by Ronan on Oct 3, 2009 in LEAP, Limerick, startup, technology | 0 comments

The Enterprise Acceleration Centre (EAC) at Limerick Institute of Technology is delighted to host the 3rd Annual Mid-West Entrepreneur Showcase at Thomond Park Stadium Conference Centre on Thursday, the 8th of October as part of Mid-West Business Week.

You can find Thomand Park by clicking www.pinpoints.at/35

Cauwill along with all the LEAP gang will be there – see you there!

More info …

Bin it!

Posted by Ronan on Sep 11, 2009 in Limerick, comment | 1 comment

I switched to Clean Ireland a couple of months ago and their service has been pretty good. but they’ve just gone and got complicated..

I received 2 more bins this week – so that makes 4 in total. The 2 new brown ones, a recycling and general waste one.

The brown bins are interesting.. a little tiny one stays in the house and is lined with a brown paper bag  for organic. When the brown bag is full – you transfer the bag in to the bigger brown bin and put it out with the regular waste bin.

According to Clean Ireland

That up to 40% of what’s in your waste bin (by weight) is actually organic waste?

With a separate collection, it has been proven that householders actually reduce the amount of food waste created, helping to save on waste disposal and SAVE on shopping bills.

• Food waste collected separately is not subject to landfill tax, so you will save money.
• Food waste can be composted into a very useful fertiliser for soil conditioning and land reclamation.
• Food waste can also be processed into a bio-gas – this can be used to generate electricity. See our video below.

Using Clean Ireland Recycling’s brown bin service reduces your Carbon Footprint and saves you money.

ohh I forgot about the box for glass recycling.. so that’s five.. I just need one more for grass and garden waste and then I’ll have 6…