Startup – Page 9 – ɔimoɈɒ

Tax should be less taxing

Before we start, I am not an economist. From Wikipedia: A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a geographical region that has economic laws that are more liberal than a country’s typical economic laws. The category ‘SEZ’ covers a broad range of more specific zone types, including Free Trade Zones (FTZ), Export Processing Zones (EPZ), Free … Continue reading “Tax should be less taxing”

Before we start, I am not an economist.

From Wikipedia:

A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a geographical region that has economic laws that are more liberal than a country’s typical economic laws. The category ‘SEZ’ covers a broad range of more specific zone types, including Free Trade Zones (FTZ), Export Processing Zones (EPZ), Free Zones (FZ), Industrial Estates (IE), Free Ports, Urban Enterprise Zones and others. Usually the goal of a structure is to increase foreign direct investment by foreign investors, typically an international business or a multinational corporation (MNC).
…
SEZs are often developed under a public-private partnership arrangement, in which the public sector provides some level of support (provision of off-site infrastructure, equity investment, soft loans, bond issues, etc) to enable a private sector developer to obtain a reasonable rate of return on the project (typically 10-20% depending on risk levels).

One of the best things about meeting new and interesting people is in the stories they relate and the new words and phrases they bring. Today, the phrase was “Special Economic Zone”.

Also…from The Paradise of Capitalism, which also lists many of the potentially negative effects of an EPZ with respect to potential abuses from employers:

The first EPZ (Export Processing Zone) was established in 1959 in Ireland but it was in East and South East Asia that the idea found most enthusiastic support. Countries like Taiwan , Singapore , Malaysia and the British colony of Hong Kong embraced the concept that economic growth can be promoted best through encouraging exports rather than through import substitution.
…
In the sixties there were just 10 such zones around the world, which by the mid-eighties had increased to 176 zones across 47 countries. In 2003, the number of zones increased to over 3000 across 116 countries.

There are risks, listed in both articles with Free Trade Zones but there are ways to reduce them. Limit the applicability of the Export Processing Zone to, for example, Software and Digital Content. Ensure that the incentives only apply to products/service which are primarily sold outside the hosting country. These aren’t enough but there’s certainly a seed of an idea.

Scotland, hotbed of game development in the UK, is lobbying for up to a 20% tax break for their industry, citing Gary Langlands, president of the Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce:

“Canada, France, Australia and the US already offer subsidies. Let’s see fair play to support our own industry,” he added.

This is in response to an EU statement which authorised a tax break for French games companies which met the criteria of “quality, originality and contribute to cultural diversity”.

As the UK film and music industry already enjoys tax breaks, it would be nice to see some of our elected representatives in the White House On The Hill, pursuing what can be done to increase the chances of local companies. The only tax break scheme I am aware of which applies in Northern Ireland is the R&D Tax Credits which, direct from HMRC, is not applicable to content development.

As I mentioned, I am not an economist. I’d like to speak to some, hear their thoughts and see whether anything is possible.

Twitter down?

Apparently Twitter has been down for hours and related services are still recovering. I never noticed. Today was incredibly busy – and it’s just the beginning of a heap of long days and hard work. Today something new started and alliances were made. I’m committed, stretched, enthused, inspired and tired. I wouldn’t have it any … Continue reading “Twitter down?”

Apparently Twitter has been down for hours and related services are still recovering.

I never noticed.

Today was incredibly busy – and it’s just the beginning of a heap of long days and hard work. Today something new started and alliances were made. I’m committed, stretched, enthused, inspired and tired.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Excitement to Riot

I’ve not slept much tonight due to so many things going on. Xcake.org, the Cocoaheads Ireland and Northern Ireland wiki that John Kennedy and I set up last year has migrated to a NING network – mainly because we had to do something about the spam but it’s brought some unintended benefits and hopefully will … Continue reading “Excitement to Riot”

I’ve not slept much tonight due to so many things going on.

Xcake.org, the Cocoaheads Ireland and Northern Ireland wiki that John Kennedy and I set up last year has migrated to a NING network – mainly because we had to do something about the spam but it’s brought some unintended benefits and hopefully will be a community backend to apps.ie.

Similarly something is planned for DigitalCircle.org which has already started a movement to Digital Circle on NING again in an attempt to reduce the time it takes to get stuff up and running. If you’re looking for digital content creators in Northern Ireland, you can search the network there already.

On top of this is the current activity around the #nisw hashtag on Twitter. It’s nice to see do many people debating the future of the software industry in Northern Ireland. If you have an interest in this, get involved.

What else?

We’re still finalising sponsors for the ‘mobile concept and design challenge’ which is a competition that Digital Circle and Momentum are putting together. The idea being to get folk thinking about excellence in user interface design as well as real-world applications concepts. If you’re interested in being a sponsor, you know where to find me.

Core, the Co-Working space in Belfast will be opening it’s doors on the 4th of August. Co-Working is a subject close to my heart and though circumstances prevented me from continuing with that project, I’m extremely supportive of Andy and the excellent work he’s been doing to bring this to fruition.

This might be helped also by some new programmes in place. Craft NI have a programme they run called ‘Making It’, designed to teach business practise to those engaged in craft and art projects. Speaking to Sara Graham at Creative & Cultural Skills yesterday left my mind buzzing about chasing that as a certifiable programme that could be applied across all of the disciplines in Digital Circle. That’s something new for me to chase – creating a programme of mentoring and preparedness for digital creatives, using in-field experts, with the eventual plan to bring them from early concept to investor readiness. See – the Entrepreneur Machine I mentioned a couple of posts ago – it’s something I’ve been discussing with others.

I’d like to pursue that alongside a cross sector skills event hopefully bringing together C&CS, Skillset and eSkills – the three sector skills councils which operate in the digital content sector in Northern Ireland. It’s time to do a little joined-up thinking.

On top of that, I spent a couple of hours yesterday talking to a new Location-Awareness startup about funding through the e-Synergy proof of concept fund and I’m excited to see them get their company started. It’s a great idea with a proven market need – and they’re local.

Speaking of local – I’m continually impressed by the change in the industry in Northern Ireland. When I was sponsoring BarCamp 1 & 2 out of my own pocket, the industry was just getting it’s act together – finding each other – but now, as evidenced by the amazing turnout at BarCamp 3, kindly sponsored by Digital Circle, it seems the industry in Northern Ireland is not only sustaining but thriving. Every day I hear about new and cool ideas coming out of the woodwork – and it’s amazing the difference in attitude.

The real difference is in how we are perceived by the outside world. We have companies coming into the province to hire development talent because we have the will, the skills and the presence of a region much larger than our geography and population should permit. Our nation’s sons and daughters have built engineering marvels, pushed the barriers of science forward, inspired millions of others and we are often too humble to accept our own achievements.

The first handshake…

There’s currently a discussion on Twitter about the Northern Ireland Software Strategy. David Kirk writes: #NISW ‘s your input. What’s stopping NI creating the next Google or Twitter. Leadership? Imagination? Funding? David writes elsewhere: NI is in an interesting catch-22. The technology investment funds are small and conservative, so companies seeking funding scale back ambitions … Continue reading “The first handshake…”

There’s currently a discussion on Twitter about the Northern Ireland Software Strategy.

David Kirk writes:

#NISW ‘s your input. What’s stopping NI creating the next Google or Twitter. Leadership? Imagination? Funding?

David writes elsewhere:

NI is in an interesting catch-22. The technology investment funds are small and conservative, so companies seeking funding scale back ambitions and ask for less, so there no pressure for big, aggressive funds.

My reply…

What is needed is a entrepreneur machine.

We need to take people with good ideas and put them in rooms with people who can help them distil great ideas. Those people then need to be joined with funders – public or private as applicable – and match up the money to do this. We need special facilitators for this – they need to have the balls and the experience to tell whether an idea is killer or filler.

We can wax lyrical about how ingenious NI is, how educated we are, how smart our people are but the facts do not hold out. We have allowed this nation to evolve into a nation of administrators and hairdressers. The very idea of entrepreneurship is considered to be laughable – not a career move, something to be ridiculed. The very idea of having dreams and wanting something more is considered by many to be above our station. Even in my own household, the idea of wanting more than a 9-5 is balked at (which, if you know me at all, leads to a lot of silences because I am impatient, I want more, I’m not happy with my lot and I want to be part of the force that brings the rising tide which buoys up all the other boats.

I cannot stress this more vehemently, where we are told to be patient, not to want more?

“Balls to that!”

I’m coming down with ideas but have two limitations.

1) the first handshake. I need to talk to no-nonsense people who want a stake in the idea and have belief in the vision. No-nonsense people not afraid to tell me if they think an idea has no legs and should just be shot.

2) the day job. On two levels – the first being that I need to pay a mortgage and be a responsible dad. The second being that in that position I need to help others reach their dreams and in that I have been berated before about stepping beyond my remit. So, to a degree, my hands are tied.

The fact that most people in NI are ‘poor‘ doesn’t help matters. A friend of mine explained to me that his savings are such that if he stopped doing his day job, he has enough funds to see him through to October. That’s very much the exception. I have enough funds to see me through to Tuesday next week. Therefore I can’t give up the day job and chase the dream (and besides, I did it once before, got fuck all help from anyone and still succeeded.) I think a lot of people in Northern Ireland are very realistic about the costs of chasing the dream. I’m not alone in working for a startup which failed as much as I’m not alone in having learned from that and built up my own, still functioning, startup. My second startup – well – it’s working slowly, has cost me money, has earned me nothing but it’s a long play I guess. I bootstrapped both times and it was hard work both times.

In May, David did a briefing after a week long ‘entrepreneur-hardening’ course where he and others roasted some would-be entrepreneurs over an open fire, filed off the charcoaled fatty bits and then roasted them a little more. The result was a lean and hopefully fierce investor-ready entrepreneur.

During the briefing, a representative from one of the local VC firms asked:
“Are you saying you and others (foreign investors) will be investing in companies in Northern Ireland?”

David’s answer was a simple, “Yes”.

The VC in question was visibly shocked and discussed exactly this revelation with two colleagues outside the briefing room.

Why was the VC so shocked? We’ve had a market of entirely sessile voyeur capitalists and they’re concerned that they’re going to lose out to a group of nomadic vulture capitalists. They don’t return calls, they don’t seek out new opportunities and they also don’t have the balls to tell you if they don’t like the idea. Instead you end up courting them, treating them like a first date and then wonder why you didn’t get the call back. You might think your idea was bad or maybe you had brocolli in your teeth but the truth is that they’re much too conservative to start off something like this alone.

So where am I right now?

Coming down with ideas, zero capital and unsure where to go to get something built. I’ve shared my ideas with others, told them what is essentially the crown jewels. I’ve even taken ten of my ideas, of varying quality I admit, and given them to a group of developers to see what they can do with them.

I admit, I don’t need to drop the day job – I need funding to pay folk to build my ideas. I need some experienced adults to tell me whether this idea, these ideas – which I love – are actually shit or not.

I need the first handshake.

Implementation and Execution

Techcrunch’s Sarah Lacy asks if Execution is more important than Vision Napster changed the music world, but it was iTunes that profited off of it. Google was one of the last companies in the Internet bubble to try their hand at building a search engineâ€”and was laughed out of some VCsâ€™ offices as a result. … Continue reading “Implementation and Execution”

Techcrunch’s Sarah Lacy asks if Execution is more important than Vision

Napster changed the music world, but it was iTunes that profited off of it. Google was one of the last companies in the Internet bubble to try their hand at building a search engineâ€”and was laughed out of some VCsâ€™ offices as a result. Palm pioneered the smart phone, not Blackberry. And Friendster was the social network pioneer before Mark Zuckerberg even entered college.

I’ve always been of the opinion that execution or implementation matters much more than vision or ideas. As someone who has a lot of ideas, this is no small amount of pain to bear – the knowledge that I’m seldom going to be the person building the ideas I have.

Back more than a decade ago when I was writing, the whole point of writing was to get some of the ideas I had out of my head and into the world. It didn’t actually matter if anyone read them, it was cathartic to write, I got real enjoyment out of it. It took my ideas and gave them somewhere to live in the real world. With writing I could produce something – but when the idea was an image, I’d have to pay someone to draw it. It’s the same with code – though it’s a lot more expensive to get someone to write code than draw an image (As I have discovered).

But rather than sit on these ideas, I’ve done something about it. No-one could ever accuse me of being secretive with these ideas, with my vision of things – quite the opposite when I have lunch with folk and they tell me to be more secretive. I’ve even threw a few ideas into a melting pot with two separate groups of developers to see if any of them catch. Maybe some of them will create something cool and maybe, just maybe, they’ll remember me. What’s more important to me is that someone does these things, someone builds them.

Y’see, implementation, execution, is important. I’m always hearing of folk who won’t talk to developers or potential funders without the protection of an NDA without realising that they themselves are the main ingredient. I’m sure there will be others who reckon we should maintain the secrecy, maintain a barrier of protection especially when speaking to funders. After all – if you have but 2d and they have a hundred grand, who is better placed to put together a plan to implement the idea? But if my heart and soul are not part of the vision, then it’s not an idea I’ll lose sleep over.

Haggling: a way to kill a startup

This one did the rounds before I finally paused for two minutes to see it. This sort of abusive relationship endeared me to one of the big names in the content industry in Northern Ireland. It was 2003 and I was working in a brand new startup. Out cashflow was zilch and I had five … Continue reading “Haggling: a way to kill a startup”

This one did the rounds before I finally paused for two minutes to see it.

This sort of abusive relationship endeared me to one of the big names in the content industry in Northern Ireland. It was 2003 and I was working in a brand new startup. Out cashflow was zilch and I had five families to look after.

“If you give me three of these $high_end_powermacs now, then I’ll pay for them in three months.”

Needless to say he was shown the door and I’ve never worked with that company since. Caveat Startup.

Was I too “risk averse” at the time? Did I want to risk the little savings I had (which were paying salaries at the time) in order to try and weather out three months of no cash flow for someone who drove a big car and owned a big building? Maybe I made the wrong decision but it’s my feeling that if I’d taken that step then the following five years of work, fighting and the joy of success would have been condensed into three months of going out of business (and the machines would therefore never be paid for).

The Cocoa Cooking Class

This came out of two ideas I had. The first was Code4Pizza – the idea that people, in order to learn, would be willing to spend their time coding for open source projects. I still think this idea is a winner for getting younger folk involved but as an evening class, it fills in many … Continue reading “The Cocoa Cooking Class”

This came out of two ideas I had.

The first was Code4Pizza – the idea that people, in order to learn, would be willing to spend their time coding for open source projects. I still think this idea is a winner for getting younger folk involved but as an evening class, it fills in many gaps present in the current market for young and really smart folk who want to use computers for more than FaceBook and MySpace.

The second was Tuesday Night Cocoa – something the lads up at Mac-Sys were doing – on a Tuesday evening when the Enterprise Park was open late, they would gang together and learn Cocoa from the books, helping each other through tough problems.

So, the Cocoa Cooking Class was born.

First off, I’m not even sure if Tuesday night is the best sort of time for something like this but it’s catchy, sosumi.

The Background:
Due to my organising of DevDays and generally being loud about the iPhone, I’m inundated with people wanting to learn how to do stuff on the iPhone. How to write applications and generally take part in the gold rush that is the iPhone. I’m working my way through the books but as my time is ‘expensive’ (in so far as as it’s really bloody hard to find ‘free’ time), I’m thinking I need to formalise something in this respect. My idea is that an experienced developer guides a workgroup on a weekly or biweekly basis through an application specification, design and build. The workgroup then owns that app and can do whatever they want with it. I’ve spoken to an experienced developer about it and he’s on board, details yet to be discussed. It’s unreasonable to expect him to dedicate this time for free so we have to take that into account and allow for him to help people ‘online’ in a forum or via email. Holding it on a Tuesday night might make sense but the idea is to get someone who knows what they’re talking about to come in and spend time instructing people and get paid to do it. If it’s not worth the money then we stop paying them and we hack it together on our own time. We even have the option of varying our instructors.

The Pitch:
Take one room with enough seating for 11 people.
Fill with 10 or so eager would-be application developers. Do not over-fill.
Add in one seasoned instructor. Mix for twenty minutes.
Establish base level of capability and break the people into 3-5 groups.
Distribute skills liberally through the groups to attempt to maintain consistency.
Start to build projects, one for each group for 90 minutes.
Break for 15 minutes to check consistency and share experiences.
Return to the room and continue to build knowledge for a further hour.
Stop activity and get each workgroup to show and tell for 5 minutes each.
Rinse and repeat weekly or bi-weekly.

To cover costs, everyone hands the instructor a Â£20 note. This covers room hire, instructor time and during the week support. That’s a reasonable night out.

Reasoning:
It’s my belief that this will create multiple opportunities for Mac and iPhone developers in the province. It will provide a collaborative approach to building applications with some real potential for IP creation and future revenue generation. Mix this with XCake and other initatives and we’ve got something to talk about. Would be even better if we could get some sort of funding for it (or even just a free room somewhere for the evenings).

What do you think?

Hostel Hero – shout out for a great little app!

Jason Morris, an ex-colleague of mine from $BIG_COMPANY, has released his latest app to the iTunes App Store. It’s called Hostel Hero – and pretty much delivers everything I would have wanted for budget accommodation when travelling. For those of us attending WWDC in June this year, it may prove to be very cost effective … Continue reading “Hostel Hero – shout out for a great little app!”

For those of us attending WWDC in June this year, it may prove to be very cost effective as well as useful for the traveller. It works on iPhone and iPod touch and caches data for thousands of hotels and hostels across the world and integrates it with Phone, Email and Google Maps. The caching of the data means it works great for offline viewing – pretty essential for backpackers and travellers not wishing to pay up to Â£6 a megabyte for data (and I’ve griped about roaming charges before!). You can also book your room from within the app as well as view photos of the accommodation.

Did I mention it’s free?

The app has had some excellent reviews already and has recently joined my arsenal of apps on my iPhone due to my current increase in travel plans. You can view the Press Release, a guided tour and the demo video at the Hostel Hero web site.

Jason is also the man behind PlayTripper – another essential app for the frequent traveller or long-term backpacker. I’m guessing he’s passionate about the subject matter, had the skills and intent and developed something he would use. Perfect formula for a great app.

Over 3G, the downloads are a little slow due to the amount of data involved so it’s clever to use WiFi for those bits – and the download progress bar is misleading – it finished before hitting 1% even on 3G. The UI is also a little plain – using Apple’s standard widgets and it could do with a bit of colour and design I think. The main subject of DevDays last week was the application of design to software where it crosses with User Experience. The table views are also very long due to the amount of countries, cities involved and a side-picker like the Address Book would be a big advantage here. There are no luxury hotels listed – no Marriots or Hiltons – and that I’ll take as a negative rather than a positive – it’s great for the cash-conscious traveller but this could appeal to a wider audience with a bit of buy-in from the big names too. The app is consciously designed for the budget traveller so I guess I’m being picky – it’s still a hundred times better than hitting Google for budget accommodation.

I’d be much more inclined to use this for myself (work travel) rather than use it to book a getaway for me and the wife (leisure travel) – that’s the only caveat I would add. I’d also like a bit more information, maybe some filters, for locations that might be kid-friendly. I know that’s a little bit of an oxymoron for budget travel but when I travel it’s more likely to be with kids. Even just for finding hotels and hostels around Ireland and Northern Ireland – it’s already proved it’s worth to me.

DevDays

DevDays.info, the biggest Mac and iPhone event to hit Ireland ever, now has nearly two hundred registrations split across the two days. Talks across the two days, split between Dublin and Belfast, include starting your first app for the iPhone, the business of App development, excellence in User Interface design and two separate talks on … Continue reading “DevDays”

DevDays.info, the biggest Mac and iPhone event to hit Ireland ever, now has nearly two hundred registrations split across the two days. Talks across the two days, split between Dublin and Belfast, include starting your first app for the iPhone, the business of App development, excellence in User Interface design and two separate talks on games – one on user interfaces for games, the other on the possibility of an Irish Game Publisher on the island.

Make sure you register for these events – the first in a series of recession-busting initiatives. We’re going to create some great things in the coming weeks.

More ‘Seed Incubators’

TechCrunch has the scoop. Silicon Valley has Y Combinator. Boulder, Colorado (and now Boston) has TechStars. Boston also as of today has Start@Spark. Washington, D.C. has LaunchBox Digital. Philadelphia has DreamIT Ventures. And now Atlanta is joining the seed incubator movement with Shotput Ventures. We are looking for â€œcapital lightâ€ web startups. … Ideally we … Continue reading “More ‘Seed Incubators’”

TechCrunch has the scoop. Silicon Valley has Y Combinator. Boulder, Colorado (and now Boston) has TechStars. Boston also as of today has Start@Spark. Washington, D.C. has LaunchBox Digital. Philadelphia has DreamIT Ventures. And now Atlanta is joining the seed incubator movement with Shotput Ventures.

We are looking for â€œcapital lightâ€ web startups.
…
Ideally we are looking for a small team of co-founders, most likely still in college. We will pick 8 to 10 teams and give them $25k each so they donâ€™t have to get summer jobs and can work on the product full time. … We will take a 5% to 10% equity stake.

The closest I’ve seen to this is the NI Tech Fund (PDF) which is an InvestNI supported Venture Capital fund. The brochure is from 2007 but I’ve emailed to see if the exec handling it can comment some more. It’s not the same as a Seed Incubator though.

A Seed Incubator aims to fund the very earliest stage – the bit with the highest risk in theory – with really small amounts of money (in VC terms). The idea being to allow small teams of smart people a few months of breathing space to build something great – so they don’t have to worry about the pressures of holding down a job as well as trying to create the next online revolution. The amounts are small and therefore are likely to attract younger folk to the table (or folk who have fewer commitments – family, mortgage, subscription to Sky movies).

Today I’m not sure we could find 8-10 startups in Belfast and the surrounding areas to qualify for this sort of programme. We need to start smaller and aim higher.

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts: