EirePreneur

P2P lending for Angel Investing

While I was dreaming about a version of Fundable for Angel Investing Greg Yardley was wondering the same about Prosper, the latest person-to-person lending company.

"I expect we’ll see someone trying to use Prosper to raise seed money for their start-up - but this is debt financing, not equity financing. Will there ever be a Prosper-like service that allows entrepreneurs to sell slices of new ventures in an open auction? (Entrepreneurs with a track record might do quite well here.) Or - as I suspect - is the regulation involved with the sale of equity just too much of a hassle?"

Edward O'Connor says its a case of poor business regulation rearing its ugly head again and Julian Ellison has similar concerns but he's still going to ask his lawyers about it. It'll be interesting to hear back from him.

Fundable for Angel Investing

And speaking of Fergus Burns he continues the conversation opened by John Collins about the Irish investment market and M&A activities.

I wish there was a version of Fundable for investing in companies. I, for one, would love to invest a few hundred (or more) in some of the early stage Irish Web 2.0 ventures, like Nooked, Tablane and PXN8, whether they're BES approved or not. Surely there are a few thousand like minded individuals out there. Multiply a few hundred by a few thousand and suddenly you're talking seriously useful funding for a startup.

The investments may be on the risky side of the spectrum but an entrepreneur is nothing if not risk loving and these are the type of companies I understand. I don't personally invest in property or blue-chip shares. I want to put money into things I know something about, regardless of the risk.

Should I get a pension?

Lots of rhetorical questions today. Bernie Goldbach pointed to a Frank Fitzgibbon article in the Sunday Times entitled "The Pensions no-brainer". Hmm.... so I've no brain then. The first two (financial) things I did when setting up in business for myself were to cash in my pension and sell my car. A few years on and I still have neither, though I do have the use of a family car. Call me stupid but not having a pension is part of the plan - it puts extra pressure on me to build a successful business and I think that's a good thing. If necessity is the mother of invention then pressure is the mother of motivation.

Thank God that's done for another year

Remember the incredible sense of relief you used to feel walking out of an exam hall after completing the last test? Regardless of how you felt you'd got on it was so liberating to know that was the end of it all, for another while at least. Well that's exactly the way I feel now that I've finally filed my Form 11 tax return with Revenue Online. Phew...... and..... woooohooooooo!

Yes, I know..... last minute again as usual. ;-)

Boston based Irish VC behind $120m IPO

Rodrigo A. Sepúlveda Schulz reports on how "simple ideas well executed can produce wonders" and lead to $120m IPOs! He's also full of praise for one of the VCs behind the deal, Irish man Fergal Mullen, who now lives in Boston and, according to Rodrigo, understands Europe, likes Europe, and has a nose for great opportunities.

Irish start-ups account from 40% of VC funding

The Professional Ireland newsletter from Irish Emigrant comments on the Enterprise Ireland report "on its Seed and Venture Capital Programme for 2004. This shows that venture capitalists consolidated their positions in Irish firms during the year, with some €38.7m invested and 15 funds fully operational. Start-ups accounted for €15.1m, or almost 40% of the total."

A lesson in customer service from the Google Adsense team

I gave myself a fright yesterday when I absent mindedly re-registered for Google AdSense instead of just logging in. I'm not quite sure what I was dreaming about but that's what I effetively tried to do. Then when I logged in under the 'new' account my AdSense Reports console showed the grand 'Total Earnings' of...... $0.... Zero.... Nada.... Argh!!!!!

I'd been recently expecting a second cheque for about $100 so this was not good. Cue panicky email to Google and serious doubts that I'd even get a response. Boy was I wrong. Not only did I get a response but a very courteous and helpful one. They started off by thanking me for explaining my situation. The asked me to "please be assured" that everything was ok. They hoped this email addressed my concerns and encouraged me to reply directly if not and even suggest how they might improve their customer service!

Now think about that for a while. The whole tone of the email was apologetic even though I was the one who had f**ked up! Not only that but it was extremely polite and informal. And even then they were concerned that their customer service wasn't good enough.

I've read plenty complaints about Google before but I would have to say that this was the most impressive customer service email I have ever received. And the icing on the cake? My second $100 cheque is currently winging its way across the pond :)

Anyone can afford to be a microbusiness entrepreneur

Richard Rodger pointed to a great post by serial entrepreneur Joe Kraus who says it's a great time to be an entrepreneur because -

• hardware is 100X cheaper
• Infrastructure software is free
• Access to Global Labor Markets
• SEM changes everything

Having come to an agreement with a software developer last weekend to jointly work on a new business idea I have a new found appreciation for the above points. We're going to be building upon a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MSQL and PHP/Perl/Python) architecture for which the hosting plans available have a negligible cost. And my new business partner only moved to Ireland a few years ago from Pakistan so in that sense I have also availed of 'access to global labour markets'. While he's working on the nitty gritty of the coding I'll be drawing up a marketing plan in which highly targetted Search Engine Marketing will obviously play a role.

The point is that it's extremely affordable nowadays to be an internet entrepreneur. The cost is your time, the tools are practically free.

Reaching business investors through the web

Via [ t e c h n o \ c u l t u r e ] - "Entrepreneurs can inexpensively match their ideas with investors through vFinance.com, and the process is relatively simple"

Enterprise Ireland reviews startup support

Irish Emigrant passes on the news that -

Last year, Enterprise Ireland supported 65 start-up companies. A total of 357 client firms are still trading, amassing sales worth close to €1bn during 2003 and employing some 7,500 people at the last count. Over the past 15 years, a total of €166.9m has been invested in 470 new start-ups, with an average spend of €384k for surviving companies. The study, entitled "A review of Enterprise Ireland-supported high-potential start-ups 1989-2004", recommends greater focus on client support during the crucial early years, more seed capital funding, enhanced involvement in business planning and efforts to encourage Irish firms to achieve greater scale rather than selling out.

Having been labeled a High Potential Startup while participating in the Enterprise Platform Program in Galway I guess we're part of that statistic. I for one am extremely grateful to Enterprise Ireland for the support given.