Pure Play

Do you have a business angel who is above and beyond?

The main business angel network in Ireland is run by HALO and they have launched Ireland's first business angel award.

The Irish Venture Capital Association http://www.ivca.ie have published figures for 2009 which show that angel investors invested in the region of €45m euro last year representing a significant source of financing for business. 

This competition is run to highlight the strategic value a business angel can add to an early stage business.  Often the expertise a business angel can offer is more valuable than the financial contribution made by a business angel.

 HBAN wish to promote best practice in Angel Investing and seek to professionalise the Irish Angel Capital Industry.  With this aim HBAN would like to honour Ireland's Angel Investor of the Year and need your help in identifying Ireland's Best Angels. 

More here: http://www.hban.org/index.php/business-angel-of-the-year/

Business Angels are a crucial part of the start up scene in Ireland (especially for technology startups) and they are individuals who take high risks with their cash.

So go ahead and nominate someone who deserves this reward.

keith

Bizcamp Dublin, 29th May. (almost) Free

We have made a slight change to the model for No.3 with a 5 euro charge to cover lunch.

Reason is simple - we had over 500 people booked into No2 and had to make tough decisions on how many to cater for. That cost was the single biggest individual cost of the day and with 350'ish turning up we could have wasted precious cash on over catering.

With a small charge our asses are covered.

Hope that makes sense

Keih

IIA Congress 2010 - Thursday 20th May

This is happening next Thursday 20th in Dublin (Crown Plaza, Northwood) and for me the stand-outs in the day are:

• Bill Liao, Co-Founder, Xing
• Bill Thompson, Independent Journalist and regular commentator on the UK Digital Agenda
• Colm Grealy, CEO, Digital Reach Group

There are others though! You can check out the full line up here. I know Colm and have met Bill at an iGap event - really, really interesting guy.

The evening sees the Net Visionary Awards and if you are interested you can book for both at a special combined rate.

While those of you living outside Dublin (like me!) can get a further 20% off to acknowledge the cost of travelling up.

See you on the day?

keith

(I am a board member of the IIA)

The Creative Island - Your Country Your Call

This is the summary posted by Alec Taylor, a client of mine, on Your Country, Your Call. There are many ideas submitted around this area and a number that deserve consideration. Will be really interesting to see which 20 out of the 9,000 odd submissions are shortlisted.

THE CREATIVE ISLAND

Ireland’s creative talent has achieved greater visibility in the world than most other countries.  In Literature, Music, and the Arts especially.  We have a reputation to be proud of.  Less so, in products and services.

Hidden Below the Surface
Most of our creative talent is never used.  It lies hidden below the surface.  This is true of individuals, companies, organisations, and communities.  Raising it is not that difficult if we are given an opportunity, given a nudge.

Releasing our Creative Potential
There is now, as never before, an urgent need to take greater advantage of Ireland’s creative potential, to create jobs with it, to speed up our economic recovery with it, to build confidence in communities with it, to export it in the form of products and services.  To become the world’s ‘Creative Island’.

Creativity Centres as Catalysts
There is a way to do it.  An initiative to be started, a strategy to be implemented.  Based on the fact that we are all multi-talented, and waiting for the chance to discover these talents, express them, and apply them. 

We need Creativity Centres throughout the island of Ireland.

Link to his submission here.

keith

2 Bizcamps coming up

Bizcamp Limerick (the Authentic Edition) coming up on the 8th May - you can register here (http://www.bizcamp.ie/register-limerick/).

Bizcamp Dublin (the 3rd Edition) has also being pinned - it is coming up on the 29th 28th May - same venue (Guinness Hop Stores). No registration or stuff up yet - this week should see that done.

I may not get to Limerick but will absolutely be at the Dublin event and hoping to get to see some of the speakers this time ;-)

Keith

PS - there is also a rumour of a Bizcamp coming up in the South East - Waterford to be precise. Nothing confirmed on that

Build your own website - Wicklow Friday 16th April for 3 weeks

One of the training courses I do regularly in Wicklow is this one. Using a service called Sitekreator a group of 10 owner managers build a website from scratch - and learn a little about good website design and how to communicate key messages online. This really is a marketing and sales course wrapped around a site build!

This is not a substitute for a good web designer - some of the businesses cannot/do not want to spend a couple of thousand on a site and others have had lousy experiences and want to take control back of their web presence.

Some will also use the course to put themselves in a more informed position when they do engage a designer in the future.

There are place available - you can book online here on the Wicklow CEB site: 

Or contact me if you have any questions - [email protected]

keith

One day practical social media workshop next Tuesday 13th - Kilkenny

While each component of social media is simple taken together they can bog down normal small business owners who have a lot of other stuff to cope with as well.

One of the training courses I run which I have fun with is a one day practical workshop where 10 small business owners are brought through setting up a presence using:

• Linkedin
• Twitter
• Facebook Page
• A blog on Wordpress

The day is almost entirely "lecture" free - it is about understanding and exploring each tool and the relationship between them so an entrepreneur can make a more informed judgment on which to use for their business communications.

Next one of these is Tuesday 13th April in Kilkenny - you can book online via the Enterprise Board here.

keith

Email Newsletters & Mailchimp - Training next Monday

10 years on and while websites and these social media sites are all the rage email newsletters continue to outperform most other internet tools (see this post on the great site etsy and their introduction of an email newsletter last year - it drives more traffic to their site than social media, blogs and communities!).

Next Monday in Kilkenny I am delivering a one day training course with Kilkenny CEB on the use of Mailchimp as a really useful and free tool for managing your email newsletter.

Over the course of a day you will learn how to use Mailchimp and compose a number of email newsletters - exploring how to write an effective subject line that entices people to open it and how to structure the content for maximum impact.

You can book online here: Kilkenny CEB site

keith

Facebook Connect - List of links & resources to help decision making

While I love using the internet and enjoy the rapidly changing dynamic of sites and social media I was reluctant in V1 of dbTwang to consider engineering Facebook Connect into it. Want to reconsider that now and starting by looking up resources to help us make an informed decision.

Here are some of the more useful posts I found.

Simple visual guide

This slide show answers some basic questions quickly.

http://vizedu.com/2008/12/facebook-connect-explained/

UPDATE: Good list of resources: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/facebook-connect/

Yike - no email address

These two posts address this explicitely - when a new user joins your site using FB Connect you do not get access to the email address they use on FB. This is a deliberate decision by FB and understandable - yet it removes an effective communications medium for the3rd party site owner. The getaround appears to be that you ask the new user for their email once the FB authentication is done.

http://www.sachinrekhi.com/blog/2009/01/19/does-facebook-connect-deliver

http://www.cmsmarket.com/forum/index.php?rb_v=viewtopic&f=38&t=110

Update - a reference here to the users real email address being made available to 3rd party site

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1999822/if-facebook-connect-user-changes-email-will-i-be-notified

This is the FB blog notice of this - from Feb 2010 they facilitate the 3rd Party request for a new users email address during the authentication process

http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=355

The Commercial/Business case examined - Does it work?

The conclusion appears to be yes - implementing Facebook Connect increases conversion rates (signups) and social interaction on a site.

http://www.businessinsider.com/six-months-in-facebook-connect-is-a-huge-success-2009-7

http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/09/60-million-people-a-month-use-facebook-connect/

http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/11/10/connect-brings-jibjab-1-5-million-facebook-users/

http://gigaom.com/2010/02/01/subtract-the-swearing-and-dave-mcclure-has-a-point/

Privacy issues explored

If you thought privacy and data ownership was a minefield try tracing the implications when FB Connect is used. My takeaway - there are issues here, somewhere with no clear picture of exactly where or when they will change given Facebooks preoccupation with tweaking those privacy terms and settings.

http://www.ddmcd.com/connect.html

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/interviews/blog/does-facebook-connect-result-in-shared-ownership-of-data/?cs=34735

http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/CommentView.aspx?guid=5332da5a-14a9-4ef0-87a7-5dabcbbf7b11

Beyond new user account signups

Integration using FB Connect means more than just the account set up - you can spread the FB virus throughout your site allowing a new user to find their FB friends who are users of the site or share their site activity back to their FB profile.

http://www.simplyzesty.com/facebook/5-services-facebook-connect-effectively/

http://mashable.com/2009/01/12/facebook-connect-implementations/

FB Connect - the Facebook guide for developers

http://developers.facebook.com/connect.php

FB Connect - Geek Q&A

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/facebook-connect

FB Connect - Rails integration

http://blog.yangtheman.com/2009/08/23/how-to-integrate-facebook-connect-with-a-rails-app/comment-page-1/

http://madebymany.co.uk/tutorial-for-restful_authentication-on-rails-with-facebook-connect-in-15-minutes-00523

Welcome additions to this - aware that there must be many more concise and useful resources out there.

My conclusion after a number of hours reading the above - once again Facebook is proving almost impossible to ignore with the scale of returns overwhelming concerns around abdication of core user data to the gorilla in the corner. Bugger.

keith

Free Bizspark event in Dublin next Monday

I cannot make this event (my dbTwang bootstrapping still requires me to do consultancy work) but it looks worth attending. Late sharing this with apologies:

Microsoft BizSparkCamp
Where and When?
·         Monday, March 8th – 9am to 7pm (including PitchSlam & Networking)
·         Radisson SAS Royal Hotel, Golden Lane in Dublin’s city centre.
Registration Details
·         If you would like to register for this event click here.
·         If you do not have a live ID please email us to register for this event by clicking here.

Event Overview
As part of the local BizSpark programme, Microsoft Ireland and Enterprise Ireland are delighted to announce BizSparkCamp 2010 featuring Innovate! PitchSlam – an event designed to help accelerate Irish Startups’ businesses and provide the opportunity to be identified as one of the world’s most promising technology start-ups. This day-long conference will run on Monday, March 8th (doors open 9am) in the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Dublin’s city centre. Entrance is free of charge.

BizSparkCamp Sessions/Speakers:
The agenda is still being finalised, but here is a selection of confirmed speakers covering key topics:
·         Through the new BizSpark EUGA program, Microsoft Ireland are providing support for BizSpark companies interested in accessing local and EU grants, providing a facilitated application process to make applying for these funds easier.  Grants covered by EGUA include ICT infrastructure, training, R&D and recruitment. Nicky Martin from Affect Network will be covering how BizSpark can help you access these grants.
·         Mike Sigal from early stage analyst firm Guidewire Group, organisers of Innovate!, will be giving an overview of the Guidewire Group’s G/Score Assessment Methodology, an analytical tool to help you understand your competitive strength and market position.
·         Brian Caulfield will be joining us once again to give some key insights into the local VC landscape with tips on how to maximise your chances of securing VC funding.
·         Caroline Egan and Nigel Turner from The Open Borders Group have worked with many Irish companies helping them to enter the UK market and partner successfully with the Microsoft UK channel. They will speaking on how to expand your business internationally and the best ways to build partner strategies.
·         In addition, there will be speakers from Enterprise Ireland and other BizSpark Network Partners to provide more advice for getting access to capital and new markets (UK, US and further abroad). More details to follow.

keith

More changes afoot for the City and County Enterprise Boards?

Received this today from a friend of mine:

_____________

From: dan.kenny AT enterprise-ireland . com
Sent: 01 March 2010
To: ******************
Subject: eTenders - Notice Cancelled

A notice that you have registered an interest in has been cancelled. The
notice details are shown below.

  Notice ID: JUN120916
      Title: Grant Management Information System
  Authority: Enterprise Ireland

Reason:
The tender process for procurement of a Grant Management Information System for the County Enterprise Boards has been cancelled. We delayed the procurement process in September 2009 in the expectation that it would proceed this year. We apologise to prospective suppliers, but unfortunately we are unable to proceed pending a decision on the future of the County
Enterprise Boards network.

_____________

This may reflect nothing more than the ongoing general uncertainty around a lot of Government programs but it would be useful to have that clarified - with many unemployed people turning to CEB's at present for support in moving towards self-employment that overhanging threat could be counter productive.

Keith

F**k The Recession - YourCountryYourCall and Gateway Ireland

We kinda fudged the F**k The Recession when we launched bizcamp.ie last year - but it is what we meant :-)

Your Country, Your Call

Over at www.yourcountryyourcall.com they do not use those kinda phrases - not with the president and her husband Martin involved. They do have a prize fund of 200k though - and a hint of up to 500k available for implementation thereafter.

What are they about?

The goal is to pick two truly transformational proposals so big that, when implemented, could secure prosperity and jobs for Ireland. Proposals that could help change the way we do things, allow businesses to grow, employment to be created and prosperity to flourish.

Interesting stuff - 8 categories involved so you should be able to find one you fit into.

Website is kinda disappointing mind you - a strong branding exercise takes up half the screen throughout the site leading to small fonts and tiny video clips in the active half. Also in Firefox on Mac the last of the 8 categories is not visible. Update - there is a subtle scroll bar to the left of the box - have just noticed it. Appears to be an unfortunate example of what would appear to be a print designer running amock on the web.

It is also not clear exactly what a Proposal could be - avoiding being prescriptive could result in possible ideas not being put forward. Closing date is 17th February - any money on academics who are experienced at quickly putting project proposals together being dominant? I hope not.

I met with Padraig McKeon before Christmas (at his request) as he wanted to give me a heads up on this. The call and meeting was appreciated and glad to help spread the work - however the site needs to be reworked a little IMHO.

More information in their pdf which you can download by clicking here: YCYC Brochure.

Gateway Ireland

A second approach to this revitalisation of Ireland is the one suggested at Farmleigh by John McColgan - an online connection with the diaspora from what I can remember.

They are looking for a web specialist to drive all technological and technical aspects of taking the project from concept to a fully-specified feasibility report to be submitted at the end of May.

More in the pdf which you can download by clicking here: Technical Spec for WebmasterWeb Lead.

Update - contact details for Gateway Ireland

[email protected]

Tel:  +353 1 889 4900

Gateway Ireland Project
13 Merrion Square
Dublin 2

No website yet that I can see

keith

Shanti MicroFinance - London Party on 9th March 2010

One of the few charities I support is Kiva - an organisation which takes small amounts of money and lends them onto entrepreneurs in the developing world, and more recently in the US too.

Sheetal Mehta is a London based entrepreneur who also works with Shanti Microfinance to support entrepreneurs in India and she is holding an event/party in London on the 9th March to promote the charity and raise funds for it.

You can see more here.

keith

If you are a Metal fan then this one is for you

If so head on over to the dbTwang blog and make sure your fav metal guitarist is on the list.

We will include every name left in the comments in our Feb monthly poll which opens next Tuesday.

The January one, which ended with Brian Setzer topping it as the Peoples Favorite Living Guitarist, attracted 2,898 votes from 1,182 people in 51 different countries.

keith

Bizcamp Dublin Sept 2009 - Full Income and Costs disclosure

UPDATE - the google doc was published by muppet here with no sharing, it has now!

Embarrassed by how late this is and thought I had better get it up before the date for the next bizcamp.ie is announced (which it will be very soon).

Bizcamp along with the majority of other **camps is a volunteer and not-for-profit or gain effort and in keeping with that we as a group agreed to share the full details of the budget, believing in the need for transparency around this as part of the ethos which make these days special.

This link is to a spreadsheet with all that information on it - it is deliberately spent down to the last euro or two because having no surplus is the easiest way to account for these one-off events.

It should be noted that all transactions (except for the Enterprise Ireland e400 which went directly on t-shirts and coffee/tea/sandwiches) went via the IIA bank account. As each camp is organised by an ad-hoc group there is no entity and therefore no bank account. It was great to have the use of the IIA one.

any questions on this happy to answer them. 

keith

(http://short.ie/bizcampdublinbudget)

Conversion and back to basics

from a venturebeat post by Bruce Judson entitled: The start-up chronicles: My Website’s not working: Now what?

In undertaking this effort, I made the decision to look hard at two different types of sites: BillShrink.com (which, from a broad perspective, offers a service similar to ours) and SlideRocket.com (which is in an unrelated industry).

Here’s what I learned from them:

1.     At both sites, visitors know exactly what each service does and how it works within the first 10 seconds of landing.  While these sites may offer complex services under the hood, they hide that. The user experience is straightforward.

2.     Both sites move the user forward with a growing sense of anticipation. Prospects grow curious about “what happens next”. This is unquestionably difficult, but it may be the key to success. Creating curiosity among today’s jaded consumers is a monumental feat.

I liked the post a lot - it is worth a read for anyone who grapples with the complexity of webservice design and build processes.

keith

If you like a blog - nominate it. 2010 Blog Awards

For this years Irish Blog Awards. Nominations (linked here) will close on the 5th of February at 3pm.

Get a move on. Have your say. Don't moan afterwards if not.

keith

Google Analytics session notes - Joanne Casey, Radical.ie

First blog post in quite a while. Sitting in on an Analytics session with Joanne (www.radical.ie) and we are touching on some of the advanced features. All relevant for dbtwang.com

Modifying the code - Joanne covered the need to change the embedded code if your visitors move across multiple domains - for example if your shopping cart is hosted by someone else (ie an external integrated service)

Discussion on bounce rates - blogs will usually/always have a higher bounce rate than "normal" sites. Joanne mentioned the benchmarking facility within analytics. Action - opt into benchmarking

Covered tracking of visitors across multiple sites (ie from blog to main site). If they are 2 separate pieces of code - ie two profiles and 2 different embed codes then it is not possible. However you could use same code and then use filters to separate out the 2 distinct areas if you want to analyse them separately. Action - we need to use a single piece of code across our sub-domains and then set up filters.

Goals - 3 types available now, expanded beyond just urls to pages per visit and time on site as well

Now covering filters - lost me a little here with regular expressions. Action - set up profiles with filters for each subdomain and leave the original profile to aggregate all visitor stats.

Moved onto reporting and looking at benchmarking (which I activated at the beginning of the session and it is now active). The categories are interesting.

Visitor loyalty section very useful. Action - have to implement an IP filter!

Going through various report areas (as a BTW user conversion rate over double for Windows users V Mac!).

Custom reports and advanced segmentation under our belts, now looking at amendments to the tracking code required for e-commerce transactions. Zoned out for the moment as not currently relevant - but I do know it is there when required.

keith

Micks Garage looking for full time developer

From their email:

Full time web designer / developer required for Irelands leading online car parts and accessories company

 

Location: Dublin 12

URL: http://www.micksgarage.ie

 

This is an excellent opportunity to work in an expanding dynamic Irish eCommerce company specialising in online sales of car parts and accessories. As the main web designer, you will be working on a variety of the elements associated with website design including user interface, landing pages, site redesign, marketing communication etc. This is a role for someone that can take an idea / concept and run with it to return with solid eTail orientated functional designs. You will also be involved in the online marketing element of the business. This is mainly a web design position and as such the successful candidate will have proven design skills.

 

Responsibilities:

 

• Website Build, Testing, Updating & publishing.

• Website Updates & Maintenance

 

Qualifications/Skills:

 

• Proven XHTML & CSS capabilities.

• Good Knowledge of Search Engine Optimisation, Google / Web Analytics

• E-Commerce Website Development Experience.

• Experience with web applications using ASP.NET, JavaScript, AJAX,.

 

• Must have experience of .net development environment

• Must have the ability to conform to web/development standards.

• Flash, Illustrator & other multimedia software experience would be beneficial.

• Be able to work on your own initiative.

• Excellent presentation & communication skills.

• Experience of eCommerce / eTail environments - from customer Acquisition to Fulfillment

 

Any SQL experience preferred but not essential.

Any car parts or motor industry industry experience a distinct advantage.

 

Education & Experience:

 

• 3+ years of commercial web design experience

 

Salary: Negotiable DOE

CVs & examples of your work to be forwarded to [email protected]

Reference WEBDEV1.

 

Note:

Only candidates who give examples of website work will be considered.

 

**Note**:

NO AGENCIES

_END

The guys would be great to work with :-)

keith

So long SOHO...

One of the great things about dbTwang is having a co-founder. I did solo founder before and it was a longer and lonelier path to follow.

Virtual working has diluted some of the benefits - even with us spending more time in Fintan's place we still have not reaped the benefits of being able to brainstorm and work through stuff with each other.

So we went looking for cheap reasonably priced accommodation and found it. We are moving into 2 rooms of an existing office building in the first week in January. Nothing posh, quite the opposite and a downgrade for me from a 20Mb BT line to the Eircom 7.8Mb service.

Some shifting stuff around will be needed - getting a lend of a Mac Mini for home to have some kind of computer for myself here but with a single 17' monitor I will be less tempted to spend hours on it.

Also moving a large whiteboard from behind me into the new place and taking my (Web1.0 Aeron) chair as well.

It will be great to have a common working space as we prepare for attending NAMM in Anaheim in January :-).

keith

The Sword In The Stone

Starting Wednesday for 4 nights nights the blockbusting Sword in the Stone.

Watergate Theatre, Dreamstuff

Keith

Got a subscription/freemium business? Free webinar 14th Dec

I spent about 180 euros on a report last week -

 

and having digested about 2/3's of its pages it was worth the price.

The business behind it are holding a free webinar on this topic next week - more details of the report and the webinar: Subscription & Membership Site Benchmark Report

From their site blurb on the report:

Top 10 Subscription & Membership Site Questions Answered:

Created as a *practical* resource for online content publishers, this Report features exclusive, new research answering your most pressing business questions, such as:

#1. How profitable are typical subscription sites, and how long does it take the average site to reach profitability after launching?

#2. What percent of total site visitors should take my paid subscription offer? How about my free registration or email offer? What are conversion rates for trial offers?

#3. Should I be publishing as a "hybrid model" with several revenue streams aside from subscriptions? What specific types of non-subscription products and offerings -- such as advertising -- are worth our time and effort, and which are not?

#4. Which are the most effective Internet marketing tactics for subscription sites right now? How about social marketing tactics? How about offline marketing such as TV, telemarketing, and direct postal mail? What's NOT working?

#5. Is my site's search marketing up to par compared with other sites in my niche? Should I invest more in PPC and/or SEO?

#6. How many months do average month-to-month subscribers last for? If I offer both annual and monthly subscriptions, what percent of buyers normally take each?

#7. Are double-digit credit card decline rates normal for subscription site transactions these days? How do B2B subscription site card declines compare to B2C offer declines?

#8. What sort of renewal rate is normal for annual subscriptions? What about group subscriptions? How about B2B vs consumer sites?

#9. What's normal for pricing in each major topical niche? What's normal for trial offers -- how long are trials and should they require a credit card?

#10. What are the brand names of 550 typical subscription sites -- and what sorts of challenges do their own executives say they're battling to succeed?

Wish they had an affiliate model :-). UPDATE - they do, I joined. So the links above are to an affiliate link.

Keith

Discussing embedded video's

The virtues of YouTube content being discussed by an engaged and informed group.

Keith

Toyota IQ - the important (Christmas Tree) question answered.

At this time of year this is the question on the minds of every aspiring IQ purchaser - will it hold a normal sized Christmas tree?

The answer is yes - a 6 foot tree, a 6 foot driver and his daughter fit nicely.

Here is the tree without the people in view:

 

and unwrapped.

keith

Disclaimer - I (and 3 others) won the IQ for 6 months to drive and blog about, I pay for the petrol. No limitations on what I can write.

Toyota IQ, the money trail

I have had the IQ for just over 4 months now and more than anything aware of just how much money it saves on petrol.

I have done just over 8,000km in 4 months and so annualised that would be approx 24,000km.

At 4.3 litres per 100 km that is 1,032 litres and at e1.18 that is e1,217 spent on petrol. The old Volvo I have would be double that.

So annual saving is approx:

Petrol        1,200

M.Tax          442 (diff between Volvo e614 and iq at e172)

Insurance    100 (approx)

TOTAL      1,742

My challenge? That saving would give me a repayment capacity of e8,700 (5 year loan and no interest allowed for). That does not purchase a new car, even an IQ. So to be better in terms of Co2 emissions would cost me around 2k per annum. Which I cannot afford.

But if I was in the market for a new car it would be a great incentive to go for something this economical!

And the reward for making it this far - an IQ meets 6 adults!

keith

Disclaimer - I (and 3 others) won the IQ for 6 months to drive and blog about, I pay for the petrol. No limitations on what I can write.

Head of Technology required for London based startup

Ed Bussey was figleaves.com and was associated with Zyb. I ran into him on the iGAP program and this came this evening via Linkedin messages.

I’m looking for a head of technology to join the founding team of my next start up - Trigga News.

Trigga News is a next generation online consumer news network, which we hope, with a new approach, will demonstrate that it’s possible to build a profitable online news business – at a time when the traditional news industry is struggling to do so. It’s a great opportunity for the right person to get in on the ground floor of an exciting new internet start up, secure some equity and lead its tech development.

I can provide more details of what I’m looking for to any potential candidates, but the key requirements are:

• experience of building a consumer internet business from the start up phase – hands on and willing to roll up their sleeves in a fast paced, early stage business environment
• ideally able to work on a part- or fulltime basis for equity in the 1-2 month pre-funding phase and going fulltime on completion of the fund-raise
• London based
• fast, iterative, agile development experience, coupled with good commercial awareness
• experience of search (Lucene/SOLR), API integration, development of new business logic would be helpfulavailable as soon as possible but no later than Mar 2010
• and with the hunger, passion and energy to build a start up

Please feel free to pass this email on. I’m contactable via ed AT ebussey.com

Could just suit someone reading this, or someone you know?

keith

New CEB grant types from 1st January - much more flexible

This is the first information I have seen on the new City and County Enterprise board grants:

Priming Grant

Maximum -50% of investment below €160,000, or below €300,000 if projects clearly demonstrate potential to graduate to Enterprise Ireland and/or to export internationally.  Where part of the investment comprises employment, a maximum of €15,000 based on €40,000 salary per full time job created shall apply, or scaled back grants for lower paid positions, with €7,500 for jobs at minimum wage.

Business Expansion/Development Grant

Maximum – 50% of investment below €160,000 or below €300,000 if projects clearly demonstrate potential to graduate to Enterprise Ireland and/or to export internationally.  Where part of the investment comprises employment, a maximum of €15,000 based on €40,000 salary per full time job created shall apply, or scaled back grants for lower paid positions, with €7,500 for jobs at minimum wage.

Feasibility/Innovation Grant

Maximum-€20,000 or 60% of investment below €33,333.

These are a lot less restrictive than the old Capital and Employment grants and the feasibility grant is now 4 times the old maximum level.

It will be interesting to see how the flood of grant applications will be managed by the boards - these new ones will mean a lot more potentially eligible businesses out there.

Contact your local CEB for details - but be warned that there will be areas of uncertainty for them until a couple of months in when they see how their evaluation committees assess applications using these grant heads.

keith

Great blog post series on customer validation/conversion/metrics

Via recommendations on Google Reader I signed up to ash maurya who is a founder of CloudFire (dead simple photo/video sharing for busy parents).

He is working through the build and validation of a paid-only service for media sharing and he has started a series of posts to share his experience in detail. Amongst the people he references is Sean Ellis who is leading day 4 of iGAP, I am really looking forward to that session.

There are some really great details and learning in there - thanks ash.

keith

Free 81 page book: guide to software pricing

From Startupcfo (a ning based community started by Mark MacLeod) came this - "Don't Just Roll the Dice" by Neil Davidson.

It is wide ranging and covers everything from psychology to competitors and fairness with an advanced section with stuff like site licences, bundling and free trials.

While it does apply to good old fashioned software it also covers SAAS (software as a service). 81 page pdf download from his site.

keith

Contrast - party, party, party

I may have to temporarily get over my dislike of being around talented young people if I get to the Contrast 1 year old party on Friday evening.

Either that or just stay grumpy and quote shitmydadsays for the evening :-)

"I'm having a Makers Mark, you want one? What? 7up? I ain't mixing fucking makers with 7up. Might as well put a lil' fucking umbrella in it"

"You're being fucking dramatic. You own a TV and an air mattress. That's not exactly what I'd call "a lot to lose."

keith