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This is a morning briefing for all prospective mentors for CoderDojoBelfast. It is being held in the Gerald Moag Campus of Belfast Metropolitan College at 10 am on Saturday 22nd September. This briefing will include details on the 2012-2013 programme and the plans and expectations for each mentor and opportunities to get involved. http://digitalcircle.org/events/coderdojobelfast-mentor-briefing Related … Continue reading “CoderDojoBelfast kicks off for 2012-2013”
This is a morning briefing for all prospective mentors for CoderDojoBelfast. It is being held in the Gerald Moag Campus of Belfast Metropolitan College at 10 am on Saturday 22nd September.
This briefing will include details on the 2012-2013 programme and the plans and expectations for each mentor and opportunities to get involved.
http://digitalcircle.org/events/coderdojobelfast-mentor-briefing
“A Developed Country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation.” Via @Juan_Orj and @petrogustavo Related posts: Translink Annual Report – #freepublictransport Cars … Are Friends Electric Public Education was a challenge in the 19th Century. Public Transport is our challenge. The Transport Singularity Approaches
“A Developed Country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation.”
iPhone 5 was announced last night. It’s twice as fast for both CPU and graphic, shifts to a larger (4″) 16.9 screen ratio, has an even better camera, new WiFi chips for faster transfers, new 4G wireless with global support, better battery life and managing all of this while being lighter than ever and thinner … Continue reading “incremental”
iPhone 5 was announced last night.
It’s twice as fast for both CPU and graphic, shifts to a larger (4″) 16.9 screen ratio, has an even better camera, new WiFi chips for faster transfers, new 4G wireless with global support, better battery life and managing all of this while being lighter than ever and thinner than ever.
But, yes, incremental is how most jaded journalists are describing it. Of course, when MicroNokiaSungTC brings out a new phone “IN YELLOW”, it will be proclaimed that the cellphone wars are over. Yellow is in.
Such is the situation with tech journalists. When Apple was down, they hated Apple. Now Apple is on the up, guess what?
I suppose “incremental” is a step better than “beleaguered”.
I’ve tried to GoogleFu this but came up with nothing. There needs to be a political ‘purity test’ which can be applied to a local political manifesto. Some of the items I would suggest… Do they support raising the bar for education in schools (especially with regards to computing education)? I know this is a … Continue reading “What are the real issues in Northern Ireland politics?”
I’ve tried to GoogleFu this but came up with nothing.
There needs to be a political ‘purity test’ which can be applied to a local political manifesto. Some of the items I would suggest…
By answering these questions (for starters), it might be possible for a political party to thrive based on a simple theory. We’re here for the people, all of the people.
Some more added via Twitter:
From the BBC: People in deprived areas in Northern Ireland are three times more likely to take their lives, Health Minister Edwin Poots has said. … “In 2010 and 2011, over 600 people took their own lives – this is a startlingly high figure,” Mr Poots said. 300 people per year for a population of … Continue reading “Suicide: Northern Ireland worse than Foxconn”
People in deprived areas in Northern Ireland are three times more likely to take their lives, Health Minister Edwin Poots has said.
…
“In 2010 and 2011, over 600 people took their own lives – this is a startlingly high figure,” Mr Poots said.
300 people per year for a population of 1.8 Million.
Foxconn had 1.2 million employees in 2011. In 2010, when they had 930,000 employees, their worst year to date, 14 employees committed suicide. That’s 28 people per population of 1.8 million.
The national suicide rate in China is 20 deaths per 100,000 people. That’s 360 per 1.8 Million people. Pretty comparable to Northern Ireland.
What does it say about Northern Ireland when just living here means you’re ten times more likely to commit suicide than the harassed workers in a Chinese technology sweatshop?
Churchill on Private vs Public: Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon. Machiavelli on Stealth: No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the … Continue reading “Quote Overload”
Churchill on Private vs Public:
Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.
Machiavelli on Stealth:
No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
Hastings (of Netflix) on Labour:
Hard work, like long hours at the office, doesn’t matter as much to us. We care about great work.
Owens on Wealth:
Government can’t create wealth, but it can create the conditions for private enterprise to flourish.
Jobs on the Future:
Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
There are 1,810,900 people in Northern Ireland. Or so. County Population Antrim 566,000 Down 492,840 Derry/Londonderry 233,500 Tyrone 166,516 Armagh 141,000 Fermanagh 55,000 Source, Wikipedia: Counties of Northern Ireland Related posts: From the Archives… Wherein I ridicule silly people 2015 Elections Rules of Norn Iron
There are 1,810,900 people in Northern Ireland. Or so.
| County | Population |
|---|---|
| Antrim | 566,000 |
| Down | 492,840 |
| Derry/Londonderry | 233,500 |
| Tyrone | 166,516 |
| Armagh | 141,000 |
| Fermanagh | 55,000 |
| Source, Wikipedia: Counties of Northern Ireland |
Back in 2010, when we were running StartVI, we piloted the idea of Convertible Equity. VentureBeat has an article about this right now, and a sample term sheet. “Convertible debt, the old convertible notes once used as bridge loans for more mature companies, became popular with angel investors in the years after the financial crisis. … Continue reading “Convertible Equity”
Back in 2010, when we were running StartVI, we piloted the idea of Convertible Equity. VentureBeat has an article about this right now, and a sample term sheet.
“Convertible debt, the old convertible notes once used as bridge loans for more mature companies, became popular with angel investors in the years after the financial crisis. According to Ressi, by 2011, over 50 percent of angel deals were done through convertible debt.
…
Ressi told me that there are benefits for founders beyond being able to call it equity instead of debt. ”If you are loaning a new company money, it makes startups insolvent from a balance sheet perspective,” he said.
Last week, I spent 4 days at the CultureTECH Festival in Derry/Londonderry. I spent the majority of the days helping local game companies showcase their work. Special thanks to Black Market Games, ZombieSaurus Games, Troll Inc, Cube Noir and BatCat Games for putting together their demos and attending the event. I didn’t get to many … Continue reading “cultureTECH: What I did…”
Last week, I spent 4 days at the CultureTECH Festival in Derry/Londonderry. I spent the majority of the days helping local game companies showcase their work.
Special thanks to Black Market Games, ZombieSaurus Games, Troll Inc, Cube Noir and BatCat Games for putting together their demos and attending the event.
I didn’t get to many of the events which were on all day and every day (just due to working on the stand). I did manage to get to (and thoroughly enjoyed)
I’ll write a little about Bright Club another time.
I’m kicking myself for missing Tim’s talk but my friend @mmarymckenna covered it well in her blog post “10 things crowdfunding investors want most from digital media investments“.
As I wasn’t there, I can’t verify but this seems to be a lit of things “investors” want out of a digital investment. It doesn’t seem to be specific to “crowdfunding investors” (especially because, at the moment, when you participate in a crowdfund, it’s not investment, it’s pre-purchase or donation – but I digress).
I think every quality mentioned in the blog post describes investments in every tech-related company but it leaves us with some difficult issues. I had a brief conversation with Tim just after the SeedComp judging and touched on some of these.
Many media companies in the “hit” business are going to find this difficult to describe. Recent darlings in the media include:
The point being that all of these companies toiled for years before having their overnight success. Many of our hit-driven companies tend to focus on one property and then attempt to court investors on the strength of that one property. But an equity investment is not about the strength of the property, it’s an investment in the company and therefore you may have to detail how you will defeat risk by iterating on titles and making multiple products. Explain to them you are not looking for a one-hit wonder.
And good luck explaining this to our local Regional Development Agency.
If location is a big deal, then you’re fucked if you stay in Northern Ireland. Our local investment funds are conservative, ignorant and, for the most part, tapped out. There’s no way you could get a $42M Series A here. OMGPOP managed a $1.5M Series A after Angel funding, followed by a $5M Series B a year later. If you want anything of that scale (and to fulfil the business model of rapid iteration, you will need large amounts of funding), you will need to go elsewhere. That’s if Location is as important as they say. For crowdfunding, I don’t think it is.
There’s more in the blog post so pop on over and have a read. I just don’t think that any investors in Northern Ireland appreciate the difficulties for creating a real media business in Northern Ireland.this also means they do not appreciate the opportunity.
While you may love your idea and have a list of ideas as long as your arm, you will end up doing a lot of “agency” work as you use your finely crafted skills to make games for other people. This will distract you from your mission as you end up crafting games where your eye and expertise are not the deciding factor. This will provide you with much-needed liquidity – enabling your team to afford luxuries such as food and power. I admire the teams of people able to make games while living on 11p Ramen while sleeping on floors but that’s an occupation for the young. It’s not something that my wife and kids would be able to stomach. If you are like that, then try and reconcile your ambition with the Francis Ford Coppola model.
And it doesn’t matter how much you try to explain this to investors, they don’t play games. For the most part they got a trade in their youth (involving the lifting of bricks or other housing materials) and games were the things they bought for their children. Unless you mean the slot machines in Newcastle on a rainy summer day. The idea that the average age of gamers is creeping up and the average personal income of gamers is skyrocketing is beyond them. They don’t play games. They don’t buy games.
If you build a house for £50,000, you sell the house for £200,000, you get £150,000. If you build a game for £1,000,000, you sell the game for £13.99 and you get a massive loss. The idea that you have to sell a million copies is utterly alien to them. But you will have to explain to people who do not play games, how you’re going to sell a million copies of your game to people. And I shudder at the thought of trying to explain Free-To-Play.
You have to explain how long it’s going to take to make back the investment. And there is every chance that your first five games will not make back that investment. So extend your runway. There is no reason you cannot be as good as MOJANG or OMGPOP or Rovio. So measure your successes in years, not months. You have to be prepared for the long haul. You have to prepare your investors too.
Just as local investors do not understand you, your market or your product, your target customers absolutely do. You don’t have to implement every crazy ides they have (the Easter-themed mod might not make the final cut) but customers are all potential fans who will help you get to your returns. They’re the oil for the engine that will accelerate you to getting 1000 True Fans..
We are following the Coppola model in Conquest Dynamics. Everyone in the team has their day job, everyone has family and responsibilities. The current team (John, Aidan and myself) started working on this in mid July and we were able to demo at CultureTECH last week. An incredible amount of work has been done and the (other two) guys are amazing at what they do.
From this rough series of diagrams and icons on the 18th July:
To this working multiplayer demo, in 6 weeks.
