Pure Play

Colm Lyons, Realex Payments @ IIA Congress

Started with some words on current situation and recent comments from Mary McAleese which showed rare leadership (rare from anyone in the political space). She said continue to grow, continue to scale and keep aiming to expand outside of Ireland.

From Colm, focus on the recovery. Have absolute belief that you will suceed. Realex have made fundamental changes in last 2 years to move into being an international business.

He then spoke about successful Irish Internet businesses who sell some of or a majority of their services overseas. Directski.com, avvio.com, cartrawlor.com, chainreactioncycles.com (who employ 270 people and who doubled t/o in the last 6 months'ish). Ezetop.com who do not operate in Ireland at all (phone topups for expat communities in other countries).

Realex continue to increase their monthly turnover and have record months.
He gave example of a new service they have just launched for Virgin Atlantic on Tuesday - a global opportunity for them.

Spoke about the Leadership For Growth program with EI, wasn't sure about it going in (he failed his Leaving and did not have faith on Academic learning).

Some of their internal building

Strategy Statement:
Goal, Scope, Competitive Diff, Logic

Values:
Behaviours (their 60 staff took part in the development of their values over a 2 day workshop). Why is this important - because the values dictate how the people behave, their approach, how they do their job. Colm reckons this is a key differentiator in a technical service space.

Some of their values: security, innovation, careers not jobs

He spoke about having people in place who are relevant for where you want to be in 2 years time. Hence Russion Lunches.

He finished off with Internet Growth Alliance where a number of entrepreneurs wanted to build something to support Irish Internet businesses who want to scale. www.alliance.ie

He thanked his colleagues and friends on Realex.

Great talk, grounded and inspiring.

Q. How to enter new countries
A. They serve a common business Market regardless of location. And service it with local presences.

Q on issue of getting merchant ID's
A Colm spoke about risk of CC's and the issues that causes. In other countries they have started to work with credit transfers used to pay and initiated by the account holder - push not pull. He hinted that such a product will happen in Ireland (this year?)

Q what in Ireland exists to support an early stage Internet business
A Colm said it is fragmented and there is a need to challenge businesses earlier in the growth cycle.

Keith

25k CEB Grant for backend/site development confirmed

This was great news and helps us a lot with our Angel Investment round (which BTW is going really well :-) ).

We received a grant of 25k (12.5k repayable) for use in the development of our website service and backend. Interestingly the 12.5k is repayable over 5 years whichcommences 6 months after final drawdown. It is conditional on us raising our 140k which will not be an issue.

Thanks to everyone in Kilkenny CEB who helped with the application - this one was tough for them to get their heads around and their support is really appreciated.

keith

The effect of headlines on conversion rates

From Marketing Sherpa comes this presentation on subject lines and landing page headlines to examine and quantify what works when it comes to converting customers.

http://www.marketingexperiments.com/images/multifiles/articulate/webclinic-09-10-08/player.html

keith

Obviously..

..if banks and financial institutions are going to have a Government cap on their exposure to losses then there will also be an upper cap on their profits.

Stands to reason. Blindly obvious. Goes without saying.

Although it applies here as much as anywhere else this is a general comment and not specifically aimed at the Irish situation.

keith

Gunmetal Grey

Having absorbed the influence of bands such as New Order when I was growing up I happily dress in 5 shades of black. And I never wear white.

It would be great if business decisions were as clearcut. Pricing an online service for one. Myself, Fintan and Gerry debating this at present. My take is to go for 10 dollars a month and use this affordable but not low price point as one of the validations elements of our marketplace.

Fintan and Gerry want to price it lower which is valid, it should increase subscriber numbers faster.

I reckon it undervalued us but can see the advantage of their approach.

Any thoughts?

Keith

Nice coverage in the Indo today - thanks to John Kennedy for the piece

The full article on dbTwang is linked here. UPDATE - John mentions that we have closed the Angel round. Not yet - it is going really well but not over :-)

Excerpts:

While Bohanna admits he can barely play a guitar chord, the other members of the team are united by their love and respect for vintage guitars, which has driven them to identify an emerging business niche that could propel the start-up into global play.

“We are setting up a trusted marketplace for people who buy and sell guitars. At the moment the only place you can do that is eBay, which unfortunately is full of forgeries. Discerning investors would be very reluctant to buy a guitar on eBay. Our business model is to establish a marketplace where paying subscribers know they are part of a community of serious collectors.

“We won’t have straightforward advertising on the site, but will have sponsorship and premium subscriptions for access to the trusted marketplace with a lot deeper content aimed at collectors.”

"This is a global play,” says Bohanna. “We’ll be looking initially at the US marketplace where they sell three million guitars a year. This is followed by Japan.

keith

From Amanda Webb in the Organic Hamper Co

Celebrate Organic Week With Us.

Feelgood Organic Hampers, in collaboration with Healthy Living Health Food Store and Wellness Centre, Vendemia Organic Wines and Moyleabbey Organic Kitchen would like to invite you to an evening of organic delight.

• Have you ever wanted to know more about organic wine?
• Have you ever been unsure of what to cook for a guest who is Vegan or has allergies?
• Do you want to taste some of the foods that Feelgood Organic Hampers has to offer?

Then join us at Healthy Living, 54 Leinster Street, Athy, Co. Kildare on Friday 19th of September at 7pm.

The evening will combine organic wine tasting, organic antipasti, organic, macrobiotic, vegan, wheat free and sugar free cookery demonstrations, a three course meal, entertainment and a chance to win a Feelgood Organic Hamper.

Tickets priced at E25 are available by calling Amanda at Feelgood Organic Hampers on 059 863 8999
or from
·    Healthy Living, 54 Leinster Street, Athy, Co. Kildare,
·    The Moyleabbey Organic Farm Stall at the Athy Farmers Market
·    Café del Vino, The Butterslip, Kilkenny
·    The Feelgood Organic Hampers Stall at the Naas Farmers Market

A great opportunity for any foodies in the Carlow, Kildare area.

keith

Who Are You in RL?

Looks like many inhabitants of the zone known as Second Life are not too happy with the introduction of (voluntary) identity verification measures by Linden Labs. The introduction of the idea on the Second Life blog - post linked here - prompted a spirited discussion in RL (real life) with 157 comments at the time of my post.

Why am I posting about this here? Because ID verification is key to one of the core services which will be offered by dbTwang - a trusted marketplace for high value guitars. How other online services approach this topic and the mechanisms they are using is all part of the mix which is informing our approach.

keith

Moving with the times - Snow Patrol

I saw Snow Patrol at the U2 concert in Croke Park in 2006 and really enjoyed them - have since bought 3 of their 4 albums.

The news today on their 5th album is a great example of the music industry working with emerging technologies instead of suing the ass off music lovers. From Music Week:

The application, which will be downloadable online, will enable fans to access a raft of extra content including artwork, behind-the-scenes images and lyrics via the touch screen of their handsets, marking the first time a music artist has made use of the iPhone’s extra capabilities.

Looking forward to this :-)

keith

Post like this make myself and Joe happy

From Om Malik comes a post which contains references to the state of the online backup market (healthy) and the willingness of consumers (and micro enterprises) to pay recurring monthly subscriptions for services which provide them with value (growing rapidly).

In the article The CEO of Carbonite is quoted as saying "We’ve enjoyed 26 consecutive months of double-digit month-over-month revenue growth".

Putplace (CEO Joe Drumgoole) is a consumer play, as is dbTwang and both of us will be helping to develop the market for online subscription services which are aimed at consumers and not corporates.

keith