EirePreneur

Report from the Private Equity Conference 2006

Joe Drumgoole has an excellent, indepth report from the IntertradeIreland Private Equity Conference 2006, on in the Waterfront Hall in Belfast today.

[David McWilliams] went on to note that one of the problems for both sides of the border is the final resting home for all free cash on the Island is inevitably property. If we could redirect some of this into Entrepreneurial activity we could build much larger companies faster and cover the dead ground between an idea and a fully fledged startup via the business Angel.

Make sure to read it all.

Business Angels can hear your call

I'm intrigued by the hints Dermod Moore is dropping about his stealth business idea. He seems to be doing alot of tinkering with social bookmarking and aggregation services and cites Protopage and PXN8 as role models. These are interests I share so I'll be keeping a close eye on what he's cooking up.

He also offers great advice on why, if you have a business idea, you simply must blog -

This project is going especially well at this early stage because my general invitation of a month ago, when I announced to the open space that is the blogo'sphere that I was about to start down the business road, resulted in an angel (there isn't a better word, really) getting in touch. He's been offering me exactly the practical financial/managerial advice and support I need, because he thinks it's going to work.

So, folks, blogging works as a means of connecting people, in a way that I'm really impressed with. If you find yourself needing something, just put it out there and ask. You never know who might answer.

Irish Internet Association seminar on Blogging

Fellow nominee for Best Tech Blogger at the Irish Blog Awards - Michele Neylon - is presenting a half day seminar entitled Everything you ever wanted to know about Blogging next Wednesday March 8th at the Hilton Hotel, Charlemont Place, Dublin. More details here...

9 must reads before you launch a startup

Dot Tactics has the details. I think I've read most of them before but this is a good bookmark for anyone who hasn't.

What it sometimes takes to win business

Sometimes the 'whatever is necessary' actions of quick thinking entrepreneurs are borderline unethical. But its difficult not to admire the 'can do' attitude.The story in yesterday's Sunday Times of how Strencom's Tim Murphy won an early large contract is a case in point and a rather amusing annecdote -

"When the client asked to visit Strencom’s premises, Murphy, who had just two employees, called in family and friends to sit in the office and pretend they worked there."

Read on to see how the devious plan nearly backfired....

Here's a Reading List for budding entrepreneurs

BlogBridge has launched version 2.12 which now supports Reading List publication. In addition to the earlier support for Reading List subscription this makes BlogBridge a pioneering RSS aggregator. In celebration of this powerful new capability I've used it to publish a Reading List for Entrepreneurs composed entirely of feeds from Irish bloggers. In future when someone asks me for the best blog resources for entrepreneurship I'll just advise them to subcribe to this Reading List.

Now, I'm currently subscribed to 71 Irish blogs each of which I value (I've become ruthless about deleting feeds) so this Reading List isn't necessarily a reflection of my favourite feeds - its just a list of the ones I think are most relevant to other entrepreneurs. And remember the whole point of a Reading List is that its a dynamic entity so I'll be revising it regularly, adding new 'must subscribe' feeds and dropping ones that loose the 'quality mark'. As the editor of this Reading List its my duty to ensure it represents value to its subscribers.

So here's the initial list of feeds (in no particular order) with a short explanation of why they've been included -

• Brian O'Neill - an entrepreneur who will this year celebrate 10 years of working for himself. Brian has too many achievements to his name to list here - go check his blog.
• Damien Mulley - an all rounder who seems to be involved in everything on the Irish internet scene, from Techcamps to Digital Rights to Broadband advocacy to the Irish Blog Awards and much more.
• ITNorthWest - Fergus Burns and Julian Ellison are building two of the most exciting Web2.0 companies in Ireland right now. And their group blog is also a great source of general business news from the north west.
• John Breslin - Founder of Boards.ie. Enough said! I wish he'd blog more but I'm sure he's up to his eyes.
• David O'Neill - has just started a new niche blog which I think has huge potential to make him Ireland's first 'pro-blogger'. It'll be very interesting to learn from his experiences.
• Piaras Kelly - ostensibly a PR blogger but a prolific writer on a wide range of business subjects.
• Michele Neylon - provides great information on hosting, hardware and software issues.
• Alan O'Rourke - budding serial entrepreneur with serious design expertise.
• Keith Bohana - working in semi- stealth mode on a very interesting new 'content play'. Also blogs on usability.
• Ken McGuire - working with Keith on the project mentioned above and an all round great source of information.
• Richard Rodger - this is a new blog for me but already one of my favourites. An insiders view of life in a micro-ISV.
• Tom Raftery - producing a fascinating series of podcasts with an incredible interational cast of entrepreneurs.
• Bernie Goldbach - one of the original Irish podcasters with an extraordinary breadth of knowledge, including expertise in wireless technologies, GPS, digital rights, photography, education and entrepreneurship.

Remember, the above is not necessarily a list of my favourite blogs (though it does contain some). But it is a list of the blogs I'd most recommend to those interested in entrepreneurship. Its not for the benefit of blogosphere veterans but for the newbies.To subscribe, just import this OPML file to your Readling List aware aggregator (like BlogBridge). As I upate the list your subscriptions will automatically update too. Reading Lists are the new Blogrolls.

UPDATE: Oops, I linked to the wrong Reading List there by mistake. That was my Irish MSM one. Sorry. Here's a link to the correct one.

Eurpopean SME forum

Today's Enterprise Ireland eBusiness Live newsletter points to the European SME Forum website. According to the newsletter -

The European SME Forum is an independent organisation whose aim is to provide SMEs with access to simplified technology solutions. The forum brings together IT and business leaders dedicated to creating simple and complete business products that meet the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises. The forum's website contains a highly informative business knowledge section, which includes articles on subjects such as mobility, security, marketing and wireless technology. In addition, the site includes a large number of case studies and provides advice on how to retain a competitive edge.

That's all well and good but upon a quick scan the site seems to be dominated by platform vendor advertorial :(

Offering online education courses

It'll be interesting to see what Irish educators like Bernie Goldbach think of Nuvvo - a new web-based Learning Management System. TechCrunch points to Nuvvo's flash demo which demonstrates how truly easy it looks to use. I believe that Bernie has been using Moodle and judging by the comments Nuvvo will be no match for it in large institutions, though it might do better in the independent educator community.

And that's what interests me because more and more friends and family have lately been asking me to show them how to setup their digital cameras, use photo editing software, order prints (through the likes of Spectra), share them online with friends, etc, etc. Unfortunately its very difficult to give them all the time they'd need but if I built a course with Nuvvo they could all tap into my 'expertise' for free. And I could even make them sit exams ;-)

In business if micro is too big, go pico

Here on EirePreneur we talk about MicroBusiness. If that's too 'big' for you then you might be interested in PicoBusiness, because "In the future, everyone will be CEO for 15 minutes". Great tagline!

"The goal of this site is to share and build knowledge around starting and maintaining small- and side- businesses. We’ve noticed over the last few years that everyone seems to be getting into the side business game, either for money, fun, knowledge building or to explore new opportunities.

And frankly, there’s never been a better time than now to start a small- or side- business. They’re cheaper to set up than ever, there’s more and better ways to advertise and keep in touch with customers, and there’s huge amounts of knowledge out there."

€7m for new Enterprise Ireland Community Enterprise centre scheme

QuickLink: RTE Business - €7m for new enterprise centres