Startups

Some thoughts from Rosaleen Blair – entrepreneur, Dubliner and superwoman

Great female role model Rosaleen Blair speaking at an IIBN London event

As I’m sure the whole world is by now aware, I’m coming to the end of my first week living back in London. Everyone I’ve met this past week or asked for help has been extremely welcoming and I’ve been fortunate enough to have been invited to a few really useful networking events. Best of all, however, from the perspective of a newly arrived Irish entrepreneur in London has been the Irish International Business Network or IIBN as it’s known. The link is here for anyone that would like to know more or find out how to join http://www.iibn.com/london/

I’m lucky enough to have been introduced to the original Wild Irish Guy himself, Damon Oldcorn, and it seems that once you know Damon, you don’t really need to know anyone else. I’ve always found this to be a good strategy. Bryan Keating was the first business person I met in Northern Ireland, he’s the exact same and it’s never done me any harm.

Thursday night’s IIBN event started with drinks & chat and it was very easy to circulate and get talking to a few people as everyone’s very friendly and open. Everyone has an Irish connection even though many, like me, don’t have an Irish accent. Don’t let that fool you! – they all know their Leitrims from their Letterkennys and their Dungloes from their Dingles. Our diaspora is a beautiful thing. There were bankers, recruiters, reps from private equity houses, lawyers, entrepreneurs, investors and no doubt many more besides. If you’re Irish, in business and in London you need to join IIBN.

As part of the evening, our speaker was the charming and self-effacing Rosaleen Blair. Rosaleen is one of those women who have achieved a helluva lot but doesn’t go around shouting that from the rooftops. She just gets on with things. Most of all, I liked the way she described the values her company operates by and I liked her statement of the 3 things she demands from people in her team and recruits against. I’ve used these a few times already in conversation with others I’ve met this week but having chatted with Rosaleen on the evening, I don’t think she’ll mind. They are as follows:

· Trust – the members of a team have to really trust one another; of course this takes a bit of time

· Collaboration – people need to be able & willing to work on projects with each other and to work hard to make that collaboration work

· Sharing – Rosaleen hates it when people hold back knowledge & refuse to share it with other members of the team

I also loved what she said about encouraging a culture of “intrapreneurship” within your own organisation as a way of motivating and retaining the people in your team. If anyone’s unsure what that means, it’s about encouraging positive aspects of entrepreneurial behaviour but within a large organisation. It’s something we always tried to do at Learning Pool.

Rosaleen told us her story about how she arrived in London from Dublin in the 1990s, not knowing a soul but with a background in recruitment and having run a few small businesses in Ireland, believing herself to be fairly unemployable. She went to work at Alexander Mann and over the course of time, persuaded her employer to allow her to try something new to fill a gap in the market and co-create adjacent services with clients (the first one being ICL/Fujitsu). As it happened, she, working along with James Caan, became one of the early pioneers of what these days is known as RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) and the rest is history. In 2007, Rosaleen led her team through a £100m management buyout with the backing of private equity house Graphite Capital. These days her company Alexander Mann Solutions employs 2,000 people working in 70 geographies and 42 languages.

Rosaleen also gave us some priceless bits of advice which I hope she won’t mind me passing on here to others:

· When looking at which private equity house to go with, do some research and talk to some of the companies your main players have divested themselves of

· As CEO, always keep your bank manager close & don’t give them any surprises; don’t pass that bank relationship off to someone else in your team

· If your company is going to be working in some way with a private equity house, get yourself a CFO that has previously worked with a PE house, a CFO coming from a big corporate background won’t have the right sort of experience

· Trust your own instincts and that of your team every day of the week over the advice given to you by external “experts”

Thanks Rosaleen, thanks IIBN and hello London!

Forget Fight Club, what are the rules of Start-Up Club?

We all know the first rule of Fight Club – (shhh – don’t mention it) – but what are the rules of Start-Up Club? These are the 10 Rules I’d suggest to someone starting out with a new business:

Rule 1 – Just Do It – the time will never be right & there’s no point in procrastinating, obsessing over the fine detail (you’ll find out soon enough you can’t control things anyway) or delaying. Grasp the nettle & get going. Entrepreneurs have many sayings but one that I like a lot is “Leap and a net will form”. Well – it either does or it doesn’t but there’s only one way to find out.

Rule 2 – seek out a great name and then get a great strapline. It might not be the one you start out with but keep looking. All our companies (so far) have had great names including my very first company which was called Kicking Assets. Keep thinking – it doesn’t cost you anything to think but this is stuff that makes a high impact.

Rule 3 – network like mad both online & in real life. Not to the exclusion of all else of course but do work at it. I’ve written a previous blog about networking which you can read here https://kickingassets.co.uk/so-you-want-to-network

Rule 4 – be well informed, there’s no excuse these days not to be – we have the internet! Join the appropriate groups (online & real life, like Northern Ireland’s Digital Circle) & talk/listen to other entrepreneurs. You have to work at this too.

Rule 5 – ask for help if you need it. Most people are generous with their time & advice and everyone wants you to be a success. When people help you out, be gracious & don’t abuse their good nature.

Rule 6 – look for innovation in your product or service, your product delivery channel and also your business model. Innovation in your business model can be a real differentiator. Again – this doesn’t cost you anything, you just need to think about it.

Rule 7 – don’t go it alone. Find a business partner or a couple of non execs or perhaps seek out a mentor or join a collaborative network. Starting a business is too hard for a person to do by themselves and a problem shared is a problem halved. I have another blog about this specifically which you can read here if you want to know more https://kickingassets.co.uk/two-heads-are-better-than-one-10-pros-of-havi

Rule 8 – get good advice. Shop around for an understanding bank (we quickly moved away from our first bank when they wouldn’t support our growth strategy & these days bank with the fabulous Northern Bank) and once you find them, have an open and honest relationship with your bank manager. Talk to other entrepreneurs and start-ups about the accountants and legal firms they use. Look for modern professional advisers that understand online businesses and who use technology and social networking themselves. Cut a good deal by promising them they’ll get a decent payback when you exit. Agree all your fees up front. Never get any of these guys out of the Yellow Pages or equivalent.

Rule 9 – work hard and always be open and alert to opportunity. Usually it doesn’t come up & slap you in the face – you need to be watching out for it. I’m afraid working hard has to be a given. Without doing it you will fail and anyone that tells you anything different than that is a liar.

Rule 10 – have some fun. Running your own business or working in a start-up is the most fun you will ever have at work. Sure it’s hard work & the lows can be pretty awful – but the highs are AMAZING & you get to hang out with some great people in your own team.

Send me your own tips in the comments below – I can’t wait to read them.

Sales Language – what you should & really shouldn’t say

Words are important & when you work in sales, you should think carefully about the language you use.

Everyone will remember the damage caused to his family business when Gerald Ratner referred to the products sold by Ratner’s jewellers as “total crap” & rather famously announced at an Institute of Directors gathering that their “earrings were cheaper than an M & S prawn sandwich but probably wouldn’t last as long”. What was the outcome of this foolish outburst? £500m was wiped off the value of the firm, Ratner eventually resigned as CEO & the company rebranded itself in an attempt to sweep this incident under the carpet & away from the minds of British jewellery buyers.

Selling is a complex activity & there have been countless books written about the psychology of selling. This blog couldn’t be long enough to cover them all but I do want to draw your attention to the sales book we like and use at Learning Pool. It’s by a very practical man called Geoff King and it’s called “The Secrets of Selling; how to win in any sales situation”. We like it because it’s easy to read, it makes a lot of sense to us and it’s straightforward to act upon Geoff’s advice.

The book covers some cool stuff like how to deliver the ideal handshake (I know – in a book), how to tell if someone is lying (useful in all sorts of situations that one) and how to spot a false smile. It also deals with the 3 Twelves (I love this) – first impressions when you meet someone. Some of you have probably heard this before but they are:

the first 12 words you say (always give these some advance thought – don’t just blurt out the first thing that comes into your head when you meet someone for the first time – make sure you say something about them & not about you)
the first 12 footsteps you take (give the other person enough space, don’t crowd them)
the top 12 inches (your appearance from the shoulders up – the rest doesn’t really matter except for your shoes – they need to count. I think this is why some women wear those bright scarves around their necks – I can’t think of any other sane reason why).

My favourite chapter is the first one and it covers what to actually say in sales meetings. It contains the following table of words not to use & what to say instead:

Don’t say ‘cost’ say ‘amount’
Don’t say ‘contract’ say ‘agreement’
Don’t say ‘pitch’ say ‘presentation’
Don’t say ‘buy’ say ‘authorise’
Don’t say ‘cheap’ say ‘value for money’
Don’t say ‘change’ say ‘improve’

An additional hint from me. Remember that your prospect is usually considering buying something from you to either remove some sort of business pain or to gain competitive advantage over someone else. They may be in this situation because of something they themselves have done or failed to do & the psychology around this may be delicate. For this reason don’t ever mention “problem” to them about the place they are in. It has very negative connotations. Instead call it a “situation”.

Bags of advice in Geoff’s book. I recommend you read it if you want to improve how you interact with people in sales situations – either buying or selling. Look forward to your comments/experiences/stories/any howlers that you’ve witnessed as always.

What does the startup founder director want from team members?

Working in a small business is not for everyone. The working environment is transparent to a degree that many people find uncomfortable (your colleagues and manager, maybe even your directors are likely to be aware of your every move – which is great if you’re performing). New business is rarely turned away so the only way quality can be maintained and delivery deadlines met is by team members working longer hours; this happens a lot when your small business is growing. Your founder directors, although appreciative of everyone’s efforts, are always looking for “more”. Performance issues are likely to be addressed sooner rather than later and perhaps more bluntly than many people are used to or prepared for. The runway between joining as a newbie and being deemed to “fit in” may be viewed as too short by most. Also, the swift exit if your colleagues decide you aren’t going to work out is brutal.

Of course – there’s a lot of upside too. If there wasn’t, no-one would bother putting themselves through startup discomfort & pain. But that’s not the topic of today’s blog. Today is about what I as a founder director expect from team members as a minimum. Here’s my top 10:

1. Commitment to our customers, to the business and to our common goals. This covers everything from being on time for meetings, doing your prep, being reliable and a host of other stuff. Real life recent commitment examples from our own small business are being in the office on a bank holiday because a project review must take place, giving up a Sunday to travel to a company event – even though family plans had already been made, changing plans and flying to see a customer the next day because they needed you to.

2. Passion about our company, customers, products and mission – this has to be real, it can’t be fake or people can tell. See my accompanying blog photo of Eddie Ryce from Learning Pool’s sales team if you don’t believe me (photo credits to Paul Clarke & Ruth Cassidy).

3. Honesty – about where you are, what you’re doing, why something failed, what you think about something.

4. Hard work and an eye on the prize – yeah – long hours sometimes but an outcomes focused approach where you can easily prioritise what’s important and make sure that’s done first. Linked to this I expect you to travel in your own time and to make sure all your follow ups and admin are done without anyone having to check or nag you.

5. Self-sufficiency. Not everyone has this on Day 1 but everyone needs to strive towards this. Spending time managing team members’ performance is an overhead I’d rather do without. You should make it easy for your line manager to manage you.

6. Self confidence but with it the ability to know when you need help and the confidence to ask for it.

7. Self-awareness – required to be a good team player. It should be obvious to you before it is to anyone else when you’re verging on asshole behaviour.

8. Enjoyment of the here and now. Everyone wants to and will move up – but try and enjoy what you’re doing to the full when you’re doing it.

9. Responsiveness – if I’m trying to get hold of you out of hours it’ll be for a good reason. If I can’t reach you despite having provided you with every device known to mankind (at your request usually) that’s annoying. Please note – being available in this way isn’t for everyone.

10. A desire to improve. Everyone should have this although in truth, some need it more than others. That’s life!

They’re my top 10. I’m sure there are loads more. Keep your comments coming. I love to receive and read them and so does everyone else.

10 Annoying Behaviours of the prima donna CEO

We’ve all seen it – the nightmare behaviours of the prima donna MD/CEO. These are my personal favourites & I can’t wait to hear yours – so please add them in at the comments section below:

1. Travelling in a different class to everyone else & expecting special treatment everywhere they go. I used to work for a CEO that travelled business class when our start up could hardly make payroll some months. Even worse – his PA was sworn to secrecy & if any team members happened to bump into him at the airport or getting on or off a plane, he used to pretend he’d been upgraded. Pathetic.

2. Being unable to as much as fart without the involvement of a long suffering PA. I followed up with a Northern Ireland executive that I’d met in Washington DC about a mutual opportunity we’d discussed when we were in the USA. He referred me to his PA to book a meeting with him. I’ve never been back to him since.

3. Going on & on about how brilliant they are & being the big “I am”. Linked to this is telling everyone constantly that they are the CEO. I used to work for a CEO in Belfast (some of you may know him, dear readers…) who at least once a day we would hear shouting from his office “But I am the CEO”…Boy how we used to roll around laughing at that.

4. Hideous uncalled for temper tantrums. One CEO I used to work for threw a chair at me one day – and I mean a proper typing chair with a solid metal base. Had I physically attacked him. No – I’d caught him in a bad moment & made some comment that he didn’t like & that was the result. I managed to dodge the chair for anyone who’s wondering.

5. Spending their investor/shareholder/VC money recklessly – how many times have we seen that? $50k on a domain name, $150k on a booth used twice a year at conferences, flashy company car, unused apartment in Palo Alto that no-one in the team but the CEO is allowed to use and so on…complete waste of money & no-one dare say anything.

6. Getting team members to do non job-related stuff for them. One MD I worked for used to come in late to work & ring in for someone in the office to come out & first of all wait in the car park queue & then park her car. If I ever get even slightly uppity, Paul says to me – “you’re getting more & more like X” – that puts me straight back into my reality box. Same MD used to take a taxi from central London to Heathrow airport because she “didn’t like using the tube”. Other examples of this might be asking members of your team to book personal travel for you or take your cleaning to the dry cleaners. CEOs – do it yourselves!

7. Dominating team brainstorming meetings with their own brilliance so that no-one else gets a look-in.

8. Always hogging the limelight instead of encouraging others to have a go & try taking a lead every now & then.

9. Leaving meetings when they’ve had their say – their time is clearly so valuable!

10. Having ridiculous amounts of the latest technology gadgetry – half of which they don’t even know how to use.

I’m sure there are loads & loads more so let’s get them all out there. This was an easy blog for me to write as I seem to have worked for more than my fair share of CEO assholes over the years (if you’re reading this John Thornton, you are not included in that pile!). Having said that, it was one of my main drivers for starting my own business as I thought to myself, this really can’t be too hard if that asshole can do it!

Sherry Coutu – entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist, mentor & role model

It’s been a while since I’ve told you about someone interesting I’ve encountered in my travels so this blog is all about Sherry Coutu, award winning entrepreneur and a successful angel investor. She has the smarts (MSc with Distinction in Economics from the London School of Economics & an MBA from Harvard), the track record as a practising CEO (her first start up was acquired by Euromoney plc and her second was floated via an IPO in 2000 when Sherry was five months pregnant and it was later valued at $1 billion), a successful investment track record (she’s invested so far in over 35 companies, one of the most recent being Artfinder) and the network (she sits on the boards of LinkedIn and Zoopla.com as well as being an investor in two VC firms). Are you impressed yet? There’s a lot more. Sherry also has 3 young children and aims to spend one day per week putting something back via philanthropic pursuits (she’s on the board of Cancer Research UK, a trustee at NESTA, a non exec at Cambridge & Harvard universities and she works with NSPCC on a programme for disadvantaged teenagers). I suspect on the philanthropic front there’s probably a lot more. I know for a fact on the professional front there’s an awful lot more. Wired Magazine voted Sherry one of the 25 most influential people in the wired world in May 2011.

I hate to tell you this but Sherry Coutu is also very understated, very cool and very nice. I met her first a couple of months ago when Learning Pool was selected as one of the 9 SME finalists in the Cabinet Office’s Innovation Launchpad competition. Sherry has been the driving force behind this initiative which seeks to improve in a practical way government engagement with SMEs. I snapped the pic accompanying this blog when Sherry was delivering her presentation last Tuesday to the 120+ civil servants gathered at BIS. We’ve been lucky to have her input and insight into our Big Society School idea as part of the Launchpad process.

My favourite Sherry Coutu quotes that I’ve come across so far are “I think the most important question for any startup is “Is what they’re aiming for going to change the world somehow? Is it going to make it a better place?”” and about working in the technology space “it’s a great industry that we’re a part of … being able to peer into the future and to invest in things that are likely to change our world. … It’s a huge privilege”. In one video interview she tells how her father waved a bunch of fibre optic cable at her when she was 5 years old & told her it was going to change the world. Life is all about those moments, isn’t it?

I’ve always thought I was a decent enough plate spinner and until I met Sherry, I’d never been envious of another person’s career. I now realise I can surely do more. Sherry’s tutor at the LSE talked to her about considering becoming an entrepreneur…I turned down my place at the LSE when I was 17 because I didn’t feel ready to move to London. I wasn’t brave enough. I’ve wondered over the past few days about how different my life may have been if I’d grasped that particular nettle – but then I also got to thinking about all the good things I might have missed and I’ve concluded that life really is too short for regrets. It’s only in Kurt Vonnegut novels that we should visit those forks in the road & examine different outcomes.

I’ll leave you today with another great Sherry Coutu quote “As entrepreneurs you’re either seeking to disrupt something, or as a dominant market player, you’re seeking to retain your position. You know, you have to ask yourself, “Where’s the puck going to be in 25 years?” Yep – the gal’s still a Canadian! Sherry – it’s been a privilege to get to know you.

10 ways to punch well above your weight as a small business…

We all agree it’s great to be a small business but sometimes, especially if you’re just starting out, you might want people to think you’re bigger than you are.

Below are 10 ways you can do that. I’m sure there are many more – so I’ll be glad to see your comments. Also interested to hear if people think some of this is “wrong” to do as a small business…as in do you think it’s deceitful or just resourceful?

1. Be professional from Day 1 of trading. By that I mean have a logo & a brand, get business cards, have a decent website (not one of those dreadful one page affairs that tells you there’s more coming later), get collateral printed if that’s part of your sell…and always behave in a professional manner.

2. Work hard to keep your website content fresh and changing; write newsy articles and blogs and aim to have new “stuff” on your home page every day or every other day at least – if your website isn’t refreshed, people will stop coming back & you’ll lose momentum from your launch.

3. Use freelance resource if you don’t yet have a team in place, but present those people as part of your team & give them business cards, company email addresses etc. Don’t lie about this if you’re asked outright…most people will be sympathetic to what you’re trying to achieve.

4. Speak at conferences and events and be visible – a lot of people do this very well. You have to hustle a bit to get onto the event organisers’ radar but it’s no doubt worth the effort it takes.

5. Gather up a small advisory board & feature them on your website. Most people will be prepared to help you get started & won’t demand 30% of your company or £1,000 a day in return. A lot of luminaries like to dabble in interesting projects so make yours so & find an innovative way to reward them.

6. Get yourself some testimonials. Ideally from early adopters or your first customers. If you don’t have any customers yet, offer some of your prospects a free trial or a discount in exchange for a written or video testimonial.

7. Use a proper landline number. When Learning Pool was starting out, we obtained a London phone number to give the impression that we had a London office, even though we were based in Northern Ireland. We never lied about this to anyone & always told the truth when asked – but the truth is that no-one asked. They recognised it as a London number & assumed the rest. Along the same lines have a co-working space or concierge service to use as your company address – don’t use your residential address.

8. Register for VAT from Day 1 – even if you won’t get anywhere near the turnover registration hurdle in Year 1. It makes your company appear bigger from the get-go and therefore more credible.

9. Partner with a larger organisation if you want to pitch for a big contract or piggy-back onto a bigger company so that you can use their government framework if they’re on one – you will usually pay them a percentage of any contract you win in order to avail yourself of this but it might be well worth it.

10. My last & favourite one – hold all your early days business meetings in the poshest hotel you can find. We used to use The Goring Hotel as our “London office” in the early days of Learning Pool (it was the hotel the Middletons stayed in the night before this year’s Royal Wedding – that’s how posh it is). We would stay in there for days on end ordering tea but never any food as we couldn’t afford that. You’d be amazed at the number of people that have since told us they were convinced we used to stay there. Ha – I won’t tell you where we did used to stay…but it will be in the book when we eventually get round to writing it!

That’s my top 10 folks – can’t wait to see your additions. Keep ‘em coming.

Going for business awards – is it worth all the hassle?

Over the 5 years Learning Pool has been trading we’ve entered a few – won some & lost some – but is it worth the time & effort that it takes?

Like most things in life, the answer is probably “it depends”…which I know isn’t a great deal of help to you if you’re reading this blog to find out. The thing is that awards cover a huge spectrum. At one end are the “straightforward” awards – for example, the Deloitte Fast 50 technology awards. It costs nothing to enter, you don’t have to write an essay or deliver a presentation, you don’t have to be a Deloitte customer, it’s up to you if you want to buy a few more places at the Awards dinner but there’s no pressure. All you have to do is make your published financial information available and a calculation is performed of your revenue growth over a defined period of time. The 50 companies with the highest growth are then ranked with the winner being the company whose revenue has grown by the biggest percentage. It’s black & white and the numbers don’t lie. We like this one & have been the Rising Star winners in Ireland for the past two years.

At the other end of the spectrum are the much less clear & transparent “industry” awards such as those run by e-Learning Age magazine. I don’t know this is the case but from our perspective winning appears to be all about who you know in the industry and how much money you’ve spent with the magazine in sponsorship and advertising – as I say – only my own opinion from Learning Pool’s experience. We’ve entered twice and although shortlisted each time have won nothing. The winners are judged behind closed doors by a panel of industry “experts” – most of whom have their own e-learning companies and are therefore in direct competition with many of the entrants. A more cynical person may conclude that everyone who enters gets shortlisted so as they’ll fork out for a very expensive table at the Awards dinner. I shouldn’t scoff so – at least our last experience of this farce served to remind us that Learning Pool’s industry is very much the public sector and not e-learning.

Somewhere in the mix lies the business “competitions” – usually for seedcorn monies aimed at new or fast growing start-ups. These require a detailed business plan, a significant time commitment and a number of presentations over a period of time. The one & only time Learning Pool entered the Intertrade Ireland seedcorn competition (in 2008) we did well and won the Northern Ireland heat (we’re very proud of our trophy and that’s it in the photograph). We were pipped to the post by resellers of 3D printers…I’ll say no more but c’est la vie. This competition is definitely worthwhile for new start-ups, we learned a lot in the process and I would recommend it for any Irish companies thinking about entering.

In the future Learning Pool will continue to enter the Deloitte Fast 50 but we’ll probably be a bit more discerning about other awards and only enter in partnership with our customers to showcase their projects and achievements.

In summary, I don’t know whether entering awards is worth it or not – and I’ll be interested to hear your views on this. Awards dinners are a fun night out for your team, especially if you win, but weigh up how much time and energy entering will take up and think about whether or not you would be better off, certainly as a start-up business, investing that resource into making sales.

Top 5 qualities the start-up CEO wants from team members

You have to be a certain sort of person to get on well in a start-up and there’s no doubt it isn’t a suitable career choice for everyone. I thought a quick “top 5 qualities” may be useful for any of you out there that are wondering if this sort of adventure is for you.

My original list was much longer but I’ve whittled it down to the 5 that matter most to me – I realise that this is personal to me and many of you will have some of your own that you wish to add in the comments section.

Read on if you’ve been bitten by the start-up bug or are thinking you might jump in to the technology bubble that’s rapidly exploding right now.

1. POSITIVITY No-one wants to listen to or work alongside a whinger or sniper. Yeah – things generally aren’t even close to perfect in a start-up environment but get over it & get over yourself & you’ll make a far better team member.

2. HARD WORK No getting away from this one folks. You cannot cover off everything you need to by working 9-5 for 5 days a week. If that’s all you can give, stay well away from start-up land.

3. COMMITMENT I want to know you’re gonna stick around long enough for me to recoup my investment in you – and there will be one. The flip side to that is the minute you’re gone, you’re gone – don’t expect a leaving party & sad farewells in a start-up; no-one has time for that.

4. ENTHUSIASM AND ENERGY Enthusiasm for what we’re all trying to achieve, hunger for success and energy which manifests itself as urgency in all that you do. Don’t come sloping in to work at 9am telling me you are tired. I don’t want to hear it.

5. A SOLUTIONS FOCUSED OUTLOOK Don’t bring me problems. We have millions of those already. Push yourself a bit, work it out & bring me a solution. I like that a lot better.

You’ll note nothing on the list has anything to do with your skills. I guess they’re a given & a secondary consideration.

As always your comments are welcome – keep them coming & I look forward to reading them.

A blog about pride…

Last night I attended the awards evening for SeedComp 2011 – a Digital Derry initiative to uncover the North West of Ireland’s most promising digital business ideas. The process has been ongoing since late March & has resulted in 30 or so new business ideas emerging. This type of competition is a fabulous way for any town to encourage & promote some innovation & entrepreneurialism. The overall prize kitty last night was £10,000 and included a £1,000 prize for the most promising student idea – so it’s a very cost effective way to get some ideas moving in your community & get especially your young people thinking about starting their own businesses. Most brand new ideas only need a tiny amount of money to get started. We’re lucky to have our own Digital Champion, Mark Nagurski, in Derry to come up with competitions like this and then put in the hard graft to make them a success. Definitely worthwhile if your town doesn’t already do something like this.

12 fledgling ideas were shortlisted at the start of May and the new promoters presented yesterday. The judging panel included some tech industry veterans, one of Facebook’s senior executives, a couple of local entrepreneurs and a (friendly) VC. A terrifying prospect and indeed one of the competitors shared with me at last night’s event that although he’s presented to both Steven Spielberg and James Cameron in his career so far, he was more nervous going into the room yesterday.

It was therefore with great pride that Paul & I witnessed our very own Breda Doherty pick up a prize as part of her new venture with her business partner Catherine Morris. An all girl geek team. What could ever be nicer? Breda & Catherine met on the Invest NI/Digital Circle funded mission to this year’s SXSW event in Austin, Texas (thanks Matt!) and they’ve wasted no time in coming up with a new business idea & putting together a plan. Their new idea has elements of the passion of the original Craigslist (Breda interviewed Craig Newmark at SXSW) and it uses Bill Liao’s homespun advice on marketing messages (Breda interviewed Bill in Washington DC); I’m hoping their relentless execution against plan will show that Breda has maybe even learned something from Paul & me along the way (good stuff only Breda!). She’s certainly a different person today than the one who walked into the Learning Pool office in April 2008 to bring order to the chaos that existed at that time – more self confident, more informed about technology and investment, more assertive, more aware of how to get things done, more experienced, more of an all rounder…but still as sweet, still as stylish and still universally loved by her school chums, the whole of team lovely, our entire customer base and basically anyone who ever meets her.

Go Breda & Catherine – we’re all rooting for you & we can’t wait to see where this takes you.

Addendum to this blog (11 June 2011)

A few people have asked me why Paul & I are so supportive of one of our own star team members thinking about starting her own business…hmm…being a small business owner isn’t just about finding people & extracting your pound of flesh from them over the time they work for you. It’s also about adding to your local community & giving back where you can, providing careers & challenge for your people and equipping them with the skills they need to go on & do something else. Learning Pool is 5 years old this summer and we are lucky to have a high performing star team that’s the envy of many other companies. But after 3 years in a job, people are entitled to try their hand at something else and if they go on to take a stab at being an entrepreneur themselves, Paul & I see that as a perfect 10 scored for ourselves – our work is done & we’ve achieved one of the things we set out to.

The other day a local entrepreneur I met at a lunch told me how he’d had someone come in to arrange the desks in his company so that everyone could see each others screens – his reason for doing that – so that no-one would be on Facebook during the hours of 9-5. What did I do – I just sighed a bit to be honest. He wasn’t interested in what I had to say anyway. Old fashioned companies with old fashioned opinions – think on. Your days are probably numbered.

Mary McKenna's Blog

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