EnterpriseStart (Week 6)
Posted by Ronan | Filed under innovation, ireland, startup, technology
Alas the Enterprise Start program has come to an end. I’m amazed how quickly the six weeks, 36 hours in total, went! This weekend finished with a summary by Graham of the past weeks he also gave tips and recommendations on presenting.
AIB came in and talked to us about the various banking tools/loans/facilities- which was great because if you want to manage your cash then you need to be able to access and view it in realtime. I personally use the personal online banking and I know I couldn’t go with out it - from what I see the commercial tool will be vital going forward. They also offer free SFA Membership and currently running a Business Current Account Fee Offer.
On Saturday most of the participants did a presentation. The quality and standard was fantastic. It’s amazing how the group dynamic changed from the first evening we went in - some people were like fresh clams, closed and not giving anything away. By the end of the course they have opened up and presenting the idea with passion. Amazing - I think that’s a lot to do with interacting with the group and the encouragement from Graham and Donncha.
I have a much better idea of the products and services from the presentations and rest assured a couple will go on to big things.
Was the course worth it ? In a word, yes.
Should you do it ? If you have an idea and want to find out what you can do with it.. then it could be the best 36 hours you’ll ever spend in a room.
With that, a big thanks to Graham Royce and Donncha Hughes for their sterling effort, organising all the speakers, staying way after 10pm on Friday evening, getting up early on Saturday morning, connecting us with people that inspire and others that can help us on our journey.
Tags: AIB, EnterpriseStart, Final, Presentation
EnterpriseStart program (week 5)
Posted by Ronan | Filed under Uncategorized, innovation, ireland, startup
Well week 5 of EnterpriseSTART was about money. We had an accountant, Brian Meehan, in to talk to us about cash and the importance of it. This may seem like a no-brainer but it seems people overlook it. I’m a stickler when it comes to money and I generally always keep track of it to the last cent - be it my own or project budget I’ve been in charge of. I didn’t intentionally set out this way it’s just something I’ve become aware of, so it wasn’t alien to me when Brian insisted we keep on top of the books and cash flow.
Cash flow - the balance of the amounts of cash being received and paid by a business during a defined period of time
The second presenter of the night, Eoin Kierse from www.youbookin.com came in to share his story on how they got their software company up and running (2006). What was key for them starting out was EI’s feasibility grant. During the feasibility they realised their business idea would struggle in their target market, but their feasibility uncovered one aspect of their initial ideal to be their way forward as a business. So at the end of the feasibility they changed direction and focussed on a different market - appointment booking. In 2007 they developed youbookonline.com, released it in beta form, got invaluable feedback and are currently incorporating the feedback into the product. I like the idea and I think there is a market - I do feel the barrier to entry is low so it would be important to gain a good customer base and grow from there. I wish them all the best.
The money theme continued Saturday morning with Pat Clune from Enterprise Ireland coming in and talking about funding and support - needless to say EI have a lot of support for potential companies and even more for those that are trying to achieve HPSU status. Hopefully we’ll be seeing Pat again sometime soon…
Week #6 is the last week (the 6 weeks have flown by!) and we get to present our ideas.. should be fun.
Tags: brian meehan, Enterprise Ireland, EnterpriseStart, eoin kierse, Vision Plus Finance, youbookin.com
EnterpriseStart program (week 4)
Posted by Ronan | Filed under ireland, startup
This weekend was a change from the other weekends - more focused on IP and management. Michael Weldon, a patent agent, came to talk to us about protecting our ideas. He comprehensively covered the pros and cons of patents. He has a really good slide explaining the timeline of the patent process; from priority dates, to pct, to final submission.
Stephen Hughes from Enterprise Ireland came in and spoke about preparing for the European market. He dealt with preparation need in meeting potential customers (home and abroad) and described some very simple steps to ensure a successful meeting:
o Research to know your customer’s business and industry issues
o Bring appropriately tailored presentation and materials – minimise Power-point
o Know who you are meeting – and what they do
o Check time and location of the meeting
o Clarify expectations ahead of the meeting
o Demonstrate client references and domain expertise
o Send an agenda
Most of which is common sense, but still you could overlook these
For the meeting itself
o Understand what your expectations are from the meeting
o Agree with your own colleagues objectives and structure
o Listen before you ask questions
o Offer solutions
o Don’t leave without agreeing next steps/action points for both parties
o Agree time scales (and keep to them)
The other thing he stressed is “Do research!” I couldn’t agree with him more on this. If we look at the mobile sector it’s clear where you should target first and where you should leave alone. For example, Italy has one of the highest mobile penetration, whereas France is one of the lowest!
Naomi Birdthistle from UL came to talk about Managing a Start Up and Ethics - it was interesting but I didn’t take too much away from it - this partly my fault - I was suffering from a bit of flu and not feeling the best. The UL theme continued with Tara Dalton from Stokes Bio came in to tell the story of how Stokes Bio was conceived and spun out of the University. What a story and so close to home.. Well done to all involved. We can only hope for similar success.
Tags: Enterprise Ireland, EnterpriseStart, IP
EnterpriseStart program (week 2)
Posted by Ronan | Filed under Uncategorized, startup
Eamon Ryan from Practical Business Solutions (PBS) came in to talk to us on Friday Night. His presentation was really good and highlighted some of the key things that makes a successful business plan (and ultimately a successful business) . What’s been hammered home is the number 1 asset in the company is YOU! What I took away from his presentation were
Distinguish your product, do the market research, see what’s out there and identify their strengths and weaknesses.
Understand your Value Proposition - What do you offer, what is the real benefit and what pain does it address for your customer. What is your competitive advantage?
When trying to sell something to a customer - do your homework, research the company, understand their product and try understand where their pain comes from. You’ll probably have to look beyond their technology/services to find their real pain. Understand and the customer is Key.
The second half of his presentation was on the business plan. The business plan is not just for the bank manager/EI/VC it’s for you.. A business plan that will help you get to where you end up (not necessarily where you intend to go). It should be based around your Value proposition.
Austin Ryan from AMCS came in at 9ish to talk about his company - wow - what a story. Established in 2003, now employees 45 and with a turnover of 5.1M euros. I liked his presentation on a couple of levels.
- Technology. They use loads of different technology, RFID, GPS, GSM, GIS, SQL etc etc. I understood exactly what they used, how it works and how it connects together. The technologist side of my brain was satisfied however I was here for business so my business (small but growing) part of the brain was curious.
- Business. They looked past all the technology and placed themselves as the one-stop-shop solution provider. Whatever the customer wanted - they got. AMCS heal pain for their customers and their customers make more money in a monitored efficient way. Win-Win.
Saturday - Alan Carey from Carey and Associates (business consultants) came in and talked to us on the legal aspects of setting up a business. Basically there are 100 and 1 legal aspects to consider when running a business, if you handled them all at the one time your brain will fry and you’ll lose the will to get out of bed in the morning. But different legal things kick in at different times: pre-startup, startup and when your up and running (contracts, t&c’s payments etc.) If you prioritise, but yet keep the other 100 things in mind, and systematically go through them they won’t seem so daunting.
Shane McAllister from Mobanode came to talk about his experience for the past year of being a business. The presentation was slick and he communicated his product/idea very clearly. He knows what Mobanode is able to offer and to whom. I think the presentation wrapped up the weekends other set of presentations (even though it was a last minute thing for him). Shane has done tremendously in the past year - he is generating revenue, he had some of the sales with events last year and is looking to get more. It’s something to aspire to.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to make next weeks presentation - as I am attending the Irish Software Association Awards where there will loads of companies to meet. So the next round up will be from sides.
Tags: AMCS, Carey and Associates, EnterpriseStart, Mobanode, PBS, Practical Business Solutions
EnterpriseStart program (week 1)
Posted by Ronan | Filed under startup, technology
Over the next 6 weeks I’m going to blog my experience of the EnterpriseSTART programme run in LIT. Well week one is over and here is a brief summary.
Donncha Hughes introduced the program, the EAC and what we should expect to have at the end of the course. After the introduction we did a short exercise - explain your idea to your neighbour and get them to share it with the group. This really makes you focus on what you have and how to communicate it effectively .. i.e. it ensures you have a good pitch that other people can understand in 30 seconds.
Jerry Moloney from Enterprise Ireland gave a talk about EI in the Shannon area and how it funds entrepreneurs - ok - so I’ve seen/heard this presentation in various forms and with having quite a bit of interaction with EI in the past year there wasn’t much new material here (for me anyway). For others I’d say it was a valuable presentation.
Our TTO kept asking us - who is your team? who would you like to have onboard? At first we thought we could do this by ourselves and dismissed the question on occasions. Over time it became clear we couldn’t do it alone and so we started to identify our weakness and find someone to fix it. Graham Royce gave a good presentation on the entrepreneur and re-iterated this sentiment with a really good example. Sir Fredrick Henry Royce. Royce was an engineer with an idea to make cars (better). He teamed up with Rolls, a guy with loads of money, and Claremont who was the business brains behind what became the luxury car manufacturer Rolls-Royce. Royce couldn’t have done it alone - he needed people around him to make his idea into a commercial one. It made me think - does the combination of money, business and engineers make a winning team ? I hope so.
The presentations from Gramham on the competitive advantage and opportunity really struck a chord, especially after a conversation I had with Shane from Mobanode (a cool company based in the Enterprise Acceleration Center) this week (more on that conversation at a later stage). Opportunity is everywhere and comes in many different guises - you just have to look and grasp it. If you take an opportunity and your fortunate to get your company up and running - maintaining advantage is a never ending process - one of many processes that entrepreneurs must do concurrently.
The day was wrapped up with an interesting case study presented by Brian Kelly from Calibration Technology.
To be honest, I was a little unsure what to expect, who I’d meet and what I’d take away from the EnterpriseStart program and yes it’s only week one but I’m looking forward to week2. The program has even turned up a couple of interesting people that could utilise/complement our technology.
Tags: EnterpriseStart
