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
