Pure Play

Seedups - beta of new Irish crowdsourcing seed finance startup

via Linkedin:

SEEDUPS Goes Live

Seedups, the new crowd-funding site for entrepreneurs, launched its Beta website in Ireland last week. Seedups uses “wisdom of crowd” applications to match great business ideas and start-ups with a pool of sophisticated high net worth investors. The aim is to enable entrepreneurs to secure funding for start-up businesses faster, as well as offering angel investors access to a wide range of early stage projects to review, follow and invest together in collaboration. The idea is similar to other crowd funding initiatives in the US such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, which fund creative and lifestyle ideas except it funds start-ups.

Seedups is aimed at improving the chances for early stage entrepreneurs match up with potential investors by providing a free platform to pitch their ideas in a secure environment. The Opportunity SnapShot system allows entrepreneurs to build an easily viewed, rich-media profile which is accessible only to the pre-qualified high net worth individuals and angel investors who are interested in that sector or project type and registered with Seedups. Entrepreneurs can be looking for seed money in order to develop a brand new idea or for larger amounts as they develop and grow their start up businesses.

Seedups is Irelands first crowd-funding website, aims to fulfill a role for entrepreneurs looking to raise small amounts of equity capital and provides the social networking tools to pitch ideas securely to qualified investors.

We are now calling on all enterprise development partners to leverage their networks and refer active start-ups seeking seed or start-up capital to Seedups.com

Any links via twitter and linkedin would be much appreciated.

For further information contact Michael Faulkner at:

Michael AT seedups DOT com
www.seedups.com
www.twitter.com/seedups
http://www.linkedin.com/company/seedups

All activity in this space is good and a variety of approaches and models can only help.

Keith

 

Training in Co Wicklow - Exporting and Pricing

via email from Wicklow CEB:

1)  'How to Start Exporting'

2)  'Figuring out your Pricing Strategy'
 
Course details:
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1) 'How to Start Exporting'
Location: Ramada Woodland Court Hotel, Bray
Dates: Friday 19th & 26th November 2010
Duration: 2 days
Time: 9.30am - 5pm
Cost: €100
Trainer: Peadar Tóibín, CEO of realt* Consulting
This course aims to inform and prepare participants for exporting, including: how to approach market research in a new country, assessing the costs of exporting, freight and logistics, getting paid, contracts and state aid available from embassies and trade missions.

 2) 'Figuring out your Pricing Strategy'
Location: Wicklow County Campus, Rathnew
Dates: Thursday 25th November 2010
Duration: 1 day
Time: 9.30am - 5pm
Cost: €50
Trainers: Tessa O'Connell (marketing consultant) & Sean Fleming (accountant)
A fresh approach to determining your pricing strategy, this course uniquely offers two perspectives on pricing - the financial calculation based on costs, and the marketing angle - figuring out what price your target market are willing to pay.

Book both at www.wicklowceb.ie/training

Keith

Email Newsletters - still really effective. Practical workshop in Kilkenny tomorrow

I am looking forward to the training workshop I am doing tomorrow in Kilkenny - working with a variety of small business owner/managers to both explore the theory of email newsletters and then work for the afternoon to write and send a number of email newsletters to each other so they explore the practical aspects of how they work.

As can be seen from the Etsy example email can be highly effective when used correctly to drive traffic to your site with existing customers and people who have given permission for you to send to them.

There are still places left on that and you can book them on the Kilkenny CEB site here. Any questions email me - keithbohanna AT me.com

keith