Web 2 Ireland

Interview with Karen Hallez of Enterprise Ireland Paris @ #leweb

A good background to the EI presence at Le Web from Karen.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCcPwC7osXk

The Enterprise Ireland Stand at #leweb

A good buzz, productive networking and some very interesting visitors to the stand from at home and abroad; start-ups to multinationals.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHYVq4uIqJc

The EI team in Paris just told us about this YouTube video. Lots of Franco-Irish business going on.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRJA4TCRBkE

It’s less than a week to Le Web and we’ve all started smoking Gauloises and reading Sartre in preparation.

Karen Hallez has a great post over on the Enterprise Ireland Best Connected Blog with all the details of the Ireland Demozone. The startup-ups who’ll be there are:

• Cauwill Technologies (nominated for the Start Up Competition)
• Teamwork PM
• Feedhenry
• Gruupy.com
• Infacta (Miximo)
• LouderVoice
• Mxsweep
• Realex Payments
• Temetra
• Weedle
• Worky

You can follow all these Irish companies on Twitter at http://twitter.com/entirl/clients-at-leweb/

Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland will be hosting a networking reception on the Demozone.  At 17.30 on the 8th December, Ireland's Ambassador to France, Paul Kavanagh, will kick off the reception to enable Irish companies, VCs, the big names in the Internet world and journalists to come together and share news and views.

For more information, please contact:

Karen Hallez, Enterprise Ireland Paris, karen.hallez@enterprise-ireland.com

or

Ray Walsh, Enterprise Ireland Dublin, ray.walsh@enterprise-ireland.com

I recommend that everyone who is signed up for Tuesday’s DemoBar stop eating now. It’s gonna be jammed! The interest level has been incredible. The following fab startups will be demoing on the night:

• Gruupy
• Digital Mines
• OnePageCRM
• DataHug
• Tunepresto
• LocalSocial
• Feedhenry
• Plendi
• Haunted Planet

See you all on Tuesday from 6:30 PM 9:30 PM at the Ely Gastro Pub, Dublin. Don’t forget that the Guardian Tech Weekly team will be there too.

Thanks again to Enterprise Ireland who will be sponsoring the evening.

I’ve been finding it hard to keep this news under my hat since the idea was first floated a few months back. There will be an Ireland Pavilion at Le Web in Paris this year! This is just an absolutely brilliant idea and huge kudos goes to all of those in Enterprise Ireland who conceived the idea and then got full support for it both internally and from the IDA.

Le Web is the most important conference about the web in Europe every year. You will not see a more impressive collection of heavy hitters in one place anywhere else. It’s the kind of place where you can meet people like Marissa Meyer or Niklas Zennström or Fred Wilson. My trivial claim to fame is that I think I’m the only Irish person to attend every year since 2006 and I’ve watched it getting better and better.

This year some of the speakers on December 8th and 9th include Dennis Crowley, JP Rangaswami, Toni Schneider and Carlos Ghosn.

The importance of Ireland having its own stand at Le Web cannot be underestimated. The first country ever to have a pavilion like this at the show. One place where global businesses, VCs, other European/US start-ups and leading tech bloggers can see the best of Irish web start-ups. One place where you can point people to in the coming weeks and say “we’ll be there, pop on over for a coffee”.

A problem with giant events like Le Web is that co-ordinating meetings can be a nightmare. People are being pulled in every direction and we are all vying for our own little bit of attention. This stand solves that problem in one fell swoop.

I am convinced this genius move will get a ton of coverage from all the attending press. Who wouldn’t be intrigued by this? After all the relentless bad news about Ireland in the global press where we allowed a cabal of innumerate imbeciles to rape our country, this gives journos a totally new, positive growth story to tell. “Ireland may be screwed now but these start-ups are re-building it from the ground up”.

So, interested?

The EI package is as follows:

• A full LE WEB pass, giving you access to all the seminars, networking events and competitions over the two days
• Use of a dedicated 18m² meeting place/demo area which your company can use to meet with key contacts and demo your solution.
• A drinks reception on the Irish pavilion on the evening of 8th December for EI clients and your guests.
• In the run up to LE WEB, EI overseas offices will endeavour to link your company in with influential people from overseas markets that will be coming to LE WEB.
• Your company's profile and contact details in Enterprise Ireland's Internet marketing materials designed specifically for the event

EI is providing this at a totally knock-down price.

There is really only one limitation which is that you must be an EI client to apply to be on the stand. There are only 14 slots so not everyone is going to get through. To apply, simply contact Karen Hallez in the EI Paris office at Karen.Hallez@enterprise-ireland.com and she will send you an application form and details on the cost etc. They really need to get this wrapped up in the next few days so apply now.

Also don’t forget that this is the last weekend where you can enter the Le Web Startup Competition.

I know I’ve been lauding Enterprise Ireland a lot recently, but with good reason. Of all the state and semi-state bodies I’ve dealt with since the country went to hell, EI and all its staff are the ones that more than rose to the challenge and they are impressing me with every single encounter. Right now, the way EI operates shows the best of what the public sector and private sector working together should be about.

Guest Post: Paul Browne is a Development Advisor at Enterprise Ireland (EI), working with  Irish Software companies to increase exports, and export led jobs. A key area is Cloud and Software as a Service)

You may have already seen the posts on Enterprise Ireland’s BestConnected blog about the work that Enterprise Ireland and Microsoft are doing to help the Entrepreneur Community in Ireland. One of the companies benefitting from this approach is HR Locker

HR Locker is a  web 2.0 provider of HR Solutions to Business. That's HR as in Employee Records, TimeSheets and  compliance (making sure everybody has a suitable contract). Today, at the Microsoft Bizspark European Conference, John Dennehy from HR Locker got shortlisted into the Top 18 Startups in Europe.

As part of the prize, John got the chance to pitch the HR Locker Business to a panel including Brent Hoberman (founder LastMinute.com), Loic LeMeur (Seesmic), Stefan Glaenzer (former chairman Last.FM) , and 8 other seasoned VC’s and investors. On offer for the best business model / pitch from the 18 companies is a €10,000 cash prize.

Prior to founding HR Locker, John John has worked in the Internet sector for the past 14 years. He co-founded Upstart Games, a global developer and publisher of mobile phone games, which was acquired in Nov 2006. The company had offices in Tokyo, Beijing, New York, LA, Dublin and Cork.

Microsoft’s view on HR Locker and Enterprise Ireland

BizSpark Network Partner Enterprise Ireland is an excellent example of an organisation that is helping to nurture next-generation start-ups.  Microsoft and Enterprise Ireland collaborate to help entrepreneurs in Ireland to maximise the opportunities available to them. Outside the USA, Ireland is host to the largest BizSpark community.

One example is HR Locker, one of the finalists at this year's European Investor Summit.  HR Locker has benefited from being part of BizSpark and has received business and financial support from Enterprise Ireland (see separate profile).   Other BizSpark members that work with both Microsoft and Enterprise Ireland include TradeFacilitate and InishTech.

Gary Fallon, Country Manager, Enterprise Ireland France:

Microsoft have played a key part with Enterprise Ireland’s software clients, encouraging them to innovate and helping them to access new markets. Microsoft has consistently supported many of our software companies throughout their development and is a key platform for supporting them in developing new business opportunities in the French market.

Apply to Innovate!2010 to be named as one of The World's 100 Most Promising Startups and win a share of nearly $250,000 in prizes.

The Irish leg of the Pitch Slam takes place on March 8 after the BizSparkCamp program. Judges for the Dublin Pitch Slam include Brian Caufield, Martin Kelly, Cliff Reeves (MD of MSFT Emerging Business Team)

Readers of web2ireland can attend the Pitch Slam for FREE (thanks Microsoft & Enterprise Ireland!!) using the registration code: BZS2010 here

And startups can apply to the competition here – DEADLINE MARCH 1st

Innovate!2010 is a global competition to identify and promote the Innovate!100: a prestigious list of the world's 100 most promising technology, media and communications startups..

Produced by market intelligence firm Guidewire Group, developers of the G/Score proprietary assessment methodology for evaluating startups, Innovate!2010 will offer participating companies valuable training and promotion along with a chance to win a share of nearly $250,000 in sponsored prizes.

Partners and sponsors of the competition include market-leading companies like Best Buy, HP, Motorola, O2 Litmus, RIM, SAP, Sun, SWIFT and Verizon, dozens of early-stage investors, and marquee media partners.

Here's how the program works:
* Startups apply online to compete for expert feedback & validation, promotion and nearly $250,000 in prizes.
* Finalists are invited to pitch at one of over 20 networking events called Pitch Slams where they will deliver rapid-fire pitches to a panel of expert judges and an audience of local investors, entrepreneurs, executives and members of the media.
* After the Pitch Slam tour, the top-ranking startups will be named to the Innovate!100 list and will receive extensive promotion.
* A follow-on program called the Innovate! Connection Program offers the Innovate!100 finalists pre-qualified introductions to potential partners, investors and customers for a fee.

Following on from our piece on Patrick Collison’s IrishTimes piece, we had some great activity in the comments

Joe Drumgoole outlines his “Grand Plan” in the comments and its very worthwhile to get them published here.

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I've answered my own questions below.

1. A dire lack of capital at every level

For startups entry to a incubator with a business plan focused on exports and employment automatically entitles you to a CORD grant, no questions asked.

Once you leave the incubator you get a 50k grant straight away which is focused on completion a delivery of the first production version of your software. No production version, no more money.

Once you have a production version you start into the matching money game. But instead of 50/50 its 2/3 EI cash, 1/3 matching. This grant is capped at 250k from EI. You can raise more from externals but EI will still cap its contribution.

Force VCs that have capital from EI to focus on the year 1-3 startups. Use a reduced carry model to get this kind of deal over the line with the VCs.

Get UK VCs over here en mass to show cases of Irish companies. Never saw a UK VC yet at an EI event here in Dublin.

This should be enough to get all but the most capital intensive enterprises off the ground.

2. A tiny indigenous market which means you have to run (export) before you can walk (sell locally)

EI has a raft of export focused training programs but the dissemination of the the information is abysmal. They need a better website a more structured training plan and a better mentoring network. They are also focused on person to person selling whereas what Irish web companies need is a crash course in global online selling including email campaign management, web analytics, user experience, usability etc. etc.

3. A shrinking skillbase (this is the first year we have seen intake in the sciences rise)

Lots of people working on this, and science graduates are up for the first time . Finally people don't want to be solicitors or lawyers anymore – hurray!!. We need computer programming and abstract problem solving into the primary and secondary curriculum. DeBono covers these requirements well in his writing. See Teaching your Child to Think.

4. Uncompetitive costs at every level

Recession is fixing this, but we need to stamp out percentage of pricing in the professional sector (that’s you solicitors).

5. A failure to invest in grass roots startups

Web 2.0 Seed Fund would help here. Better social network integration between the incubators. Proper metrics for success and failure that cover a 10 year period.

Refocusing EI efforts on year 1 to 3 rather than year 3-10.

Teaching startups to focus on customer growth rather than capital growth.

Siliconrepublic has details on a new Industry led organization – Irish Internet Growth Alliance (IGA) which is “a new initiative aimed at helping Irish internet start-ups to navigate the unfortunate red-tape of Irish business and go global fast.”

This group has the support of Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Software Association, the Irish Internet Association and the Institute of International and European Affairs.

Colm Lyon, the founder and CEO of Realex Payments – and founder of the IGA will unveil IGA during his address at next week's IIA Congress in Dublin. Other notable people involved include Ray Nolan, founder of Hostelworld and Dylan Collins of Jolt Gaming