opencoffee – Page 2

Recession coming, solution = Entrepreneurship

John F. Kennedy writes about the recession of the Irish economy Enterprise and entrepreneurship are the antidote for unemployment and recession. Encourage people to use computers and broadband to beat the recession, they can work for anyone from anywhere. They can create businesses based on anything from selling stuff on eBay to using their intelligence … Continue reading “Recession coming, solution = Entrepreneurship”

John F. Kennedy writes about the recession of the Irish economy

Enterprise and entrepreneurship are the antidote for unemployment and recession. Encourage people to use computers and broadband to beat the recession, they can work for anyone from anywhere. They can create businesses based on anything from selling stuff on eBay to using their intelligence to write, provide consultancy services or develop technology. This is the way out. Failure to provide them with the tools is economic sabotage. Let’s hope intelligence prevails.

Yes!

This sort of thinking is what Momentum and the Digital Circle[1] should be working on. It’s not necessarily about supporting the existing economy but by providing grass roots access to technology to take advantage of nascent knowledge workers.

I just don’t see us taking advantage of it. And we’d have to work hard to create value in this ‘credit crunch restricted’ world. That said, while the property market is in the doldrums, there are investors with cash in their portfolios looking for technologies to invest in.

To this end we need strategies like Co-Working Belfast or my as-yet-stillborn New Workspace to provide the most basic substrate for people to find places to work and collaborate. Just getting the space organised would make a big step – the rest is then up to the individuals with experienced mentors providing the introductions. How about a system of half a dozen mini-Ycombinators?

Anyway. You’re a taxpayer. Think about it.

[1] For a laugh, see digitalcircle.org without the www. Anyone see a problem?

Co-Working

Andy recently posted that his efforts to build Co-Working Belfast have been bearing fruit as he gets QUB and Belfast City Council on board. For my part, I’ve pledged that Mac-Sys will buy a desk every month and put some loaner kit down there as well to foster mobile types into using it. Co-Working Ireland … Continue reading “Co-Working”

Co-Working Ireland started over a year ago and I was invited to blog about it. I wrote a few articles there

The Closed Door
Working anywhere you pitch a tent.
Coffee shops: spacial logistics

but not long after I changed jobs (long story) and being office based I’ve not really had the time or opportunity to blog more about it on coworking.ie though I have managed to put some stuff together here in my Bedouin and Co-Working categories.

I’ve got an article in the making for coworking.ie, a year after my last one. Woo-and-hoo!

Bedou-working…

The Economist on Techno-Bedouin. “The proper metaphor for somebody who carries portable but unwieldy and cumbersome infrastructure is that of an astronaut rather than a nomad, says Paul Saffo, a trend-watcher in Silicon Valley. Astronauts must bring what they need, including oxygen, because they cannot rely on their environment to provide it. They are both … Continue reading “Bedou-working…”

The Economist on Techno-Bedouin.

“The proper metaphor for somebody who carries portable but unwieldy and cumbersome infrastructure is that of an astronaut rather than a nomad, says Paul Saffo, a trend-watcher in Silicon Valley. Astronauts must bring what they need, including oxygen, because they cannot rely on their environment to provide it. They are both defined and limited by their gear and supplies.”

“Urban nomads have started appearing only in the past few years. Like their antecedents in the desert, they are defined not by what they carry but by what they leave behind, knowing that the environment will provide it. Thus, Bedouins do not carry their own water, because they know where the oases are. Modern nomads carry almost no paper because they access their documents on their laptop computers, mobile phones or online. Increasingly, they don’t even bring laptops.”

This is parallel to the Co-Working strategy that David and Andy have been working on.

It’s a tall order to fill a co-working space. Even at an offer acceptance of Â£10 000 per annum, that still means the costs will likely be Â£18 000 per year (when you add Â£6800+ in rates and minimal electricity) not including broadband and heating – that’s Â£1500 a month! To bring the costs to a manageable level that people might want to pay, you’re going to have to aim for occupancy of around 15+. You could do it with less people (paying more) but you’re then really buying into the idea that people will pay for a co-working environment.

I’ve already said that Mac-Sys will put money down to secure a space (which will likely be used once in a blue moon) and we’ll also supply some of the infrastructure as well, if required. I hope it works out – I’m a little jealous of the guys involved as my dance card is totally filled at the moment (with work, babysitting, writing the new book, spending time with her indoors and trying to actually live life!).

I still have my own dreams regarding a Co-Work space that will likely never be realised due to the costs and time it would take to set up (and the fact it’s not an affair for an attic). My theory is that a co-work space needs to have it’s own identity and, if necessary, it’s own employees. Someone needs to be responsible for cleaning the loos, someone needs to keep the place running, chase up the co-conspirators for rent money – and just like in a shared house, that can be incredibly wearing on the patience. Hence you hire someone to do it.

This is why my idea for it was based around the coffee shop. The idea being to straddle the space between public coffee shop and serviced office. I was never 100% sure if Belfast was the right place for it but I still would like to give it a go.

It needs more than just an office though. It needs to be a network.

V.C. Seminars in NISP

Dear Colleague You are invited to attend a Frameworks Entrepreneur workshop to be held at Northern Ireland Science Park, with a presentation on: â€œThe Venture Capital Processâ€ By Peter Stafford of A&L Goodbody Programme Overview: Raising money in today’s environment is no easy task — but it can be done if you focus on the … Continue reading “V.C. Seminars in NISP”

Dear Colleague

You are invited to attend a Frameworks Entrepreneur workshop to be held at Northern Ireland Science Park, with a presentation on:

â€œThe Venture Capital Processâ€

By Peter Stafford of A&L Goodbody

Programme Overview:

Raising money in today’s environment is no easy task — but it can be done if you focus on the right priorities and avoid common deal-killers. In this workshop, Peter Stafford from A&L Goodbody will provide you with a framework that will prepare you for raising capital from venture capital funds.

Benefits of Attending:

An overview of venture funds and venture financings;
Identifying the best approaches in dealing with investors;
How the venture capital process works;
Common terms used in transactions and what they mean.

Who should attend:

Founders, CEOs, and managers who are seeking venture funding, as well as scientists and technology experts considering a business start-up in need of venture financing.

About the Presenter:

Peter Stafford is a partner in the Belfast office of A&L Goodbody, Irelandâ€™s leading law firm. He specialises in corporate finance work including public and private company acquisitions and disposals, management buy outs, private equity transactions and commercial contracts. Peter regularly works for venture capitalists, business angels and investee companies and is â€œparticularly highly rated as a deal lawyer in the jurisdictionâ€ (Legal Week, July 2006).

Confirmed Panelists

Peter Stafford, Partner A&L Goodbody
Alan Mawson, Executive Chairman Clarendon Fund Managers
Sarah Bearder, CTO Datactics

Date:	Wednesday 16th April 2008
Time:	08.00am â€“ 08.30am Registration
	08.30am â€“ 09.30am Programme
	09.30am â€“ 10.00am Q&A
Location:	Northern Ireland Science Park, Queens Island, Belfast
Cost:	Free of charge
Contact:	Roisin Clancy, Northern Ireland Science Park
	Tel: 028 9073 7920, roisin.clancy@nisp.co.uk
Note:	Breakfast will be provided for participants

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY

â€œHow to land a whale: how does a small start-up land a big client?â€

By Linkubator

Date:	Thursday 15th May 2008
Time:	08.00am â€“ 08.30am Registration
	08.30am â€“ 09.30am Programme
	09.30am â€“ 10.00am Q&A
Location:	Northern Ireland Science Park, Queens Island, Belfast
Contact:	Roisin Clancy, Northern Ireland Science Park
	Tel: 028 9073 7920, roisin.clancy@nisp.co.uk

Join us on Thursday 15th May for a panel discussion featuring several savvy entrepreneurs of Northern Irish companies that have successfully sold to, and worked with, some of the largest companies around. Learn how they’ve been able to get the attention of big companies, how they’ve closed the big deals, how they’ve made the most of big company relationships, and how they’ve been able to avoid the pitfalls. And since some customer relationships or partnering arrangements with big companies can turn into acquisitions, our panelists will also address “next chapter” issues in relationships with big companies. See you there!

The workshop will be led by John McKee, CEO of Linkubator, a business development organisation working with CEOs and senior teams in creating successful strategic growth for companies.

About NISPâ€™s Frameworks Entrepreneur Workshops

NISP offers ongoing educational opportunities for entrepreneurs building and growing innovative Hitech, Biotech or Cleantech companies and offers member companies the opportunity to provide expert content to a responsive, interactive audience.

Many of todayâ€™s business founders and future entrepreneurs have scientific and technical backgrounds but have had limited experience in industry, so they often lack exposure to critical information which is essential to leading a start-up. To fill this gap, NISP offers InnovaNET Entrepreneur Workshops to provide these bright leaders with the vocabulary, foundations and framework around which they can build awareness of the many disciplines they will oversee as â€œCâ€ level managersâ€.

Venture Capitalism

Just over two years ago, I wrote about Venture Capitalists and how their use these days was not the money but rather their contacts; it was their address book and not their cheque book that entrepreneurs should be interested in and, to this day, I agree. That’s not to say I’d wouldn’t be interested in … Continue reading “Venture Capitalism”

Hank Williams on “Why does everything suck” writes:

“VCs generally don’t add that much value beyond cash. They will try to say otherwise. Unless they are famous for adding such value (check Google) they are probably lying. Aside from the fact that they are probably incapable of adding much value, even if they could, VCs are extremely busy managing their portfolio, meeting new companies, dealing with limited partners, etc. If you want your company to succeed, you will really have to do it yourself. Believing that a VC is going to add some incredible value that is going to help make your company is foolhardy.”

That’s almost the opposite of what I said back then and these days I’m inclined to agree. I’ve done enough networking over the last decade to see me through though I’m always interested in meeting new people and listening to new opinions (which is why I’m enamoured with NiMUG, OpenCoffee and other social events).

I’m certainly man enough to admit that I don’t know everything and that there are people that I want to spend more time with just to learn the pearls of wisdom given out so casually (and no, I’ve not met any of them at $BIG_COMPANY.) I’ll also admit that last night, while furiously tapping in code, it dawned on me that I might actually be too old to do anything else entrepreneurial. I had my shot and created a moderately successful company that will likely last a long time but never buy me a sports car. Since then I’ve been too pre-occupied to do much more than plan.

The new plan, after the wedding is all done, is to finish off some things I’ve started. I’ve got half a dozen domains sitting as constant reminders of unfinished work. And the code I’m writing is a means to an end so that I can stop depending on other people to do the graft and start depending on myself. Eating my own dog food so to speak.

Denny K Miu writes on lovemytool.com about VCs:

“VC’s have been my best friends and my worst enemies, in ways that are not always within my immediate control. In the process, ironically, I have come to respect Venture Capitalist as a profession, which I believe is the least understood if not the most misunderstood. And I am convinced that mistakes I have made with VC’s (eventually turning many of them into my worst enemies) were a result of my inexperience as a CEO compounded by a total lack of understanding of who VC’s are and what they do for a living.”

I’ll be honest. I don’t even like the idea of a Venture Capitalist: I just want the money. Doing stuff on the side just means it remains small fry and you don’t get to realise the big plan that kept you awake until the birds started twittering (presumably from their mobile phones) the next morning. So what do you do? Get in a VC, beg your way through the interviews (trying not to sound like an insufferably arrogant prick) and then be happy with the 3% of equity you retain?

I am amused by how my own opinion has changed over the last two years, borne out of frustration.

From Bedouin Tents to the Big Top

For a long while now I’ve been a proponent of ‘Bedouin’ working, which is known a little more in the mainstream as ‘co-working’. Whereas co-working speaks to me of a common, shared space for individuals to work, Bedouin speaks of multiple spaces, some of them dedicated and some of them ad-hoc where individuals can work. … Continue reading “From Bedouin Tents to the Big Top”

Loic Le Meur adds another definition into the mix: The Moving Circus.

I’m going to modify his list in terms of the parts that I find especially relevant to my own ideas about mobil/bedouin working and co-working. In doing so I’ve nibbled it down to 10 of Loic’s points which I find are more relevant than the others (and removed some specific product references). Some of the characterisations of the Moving Circus are:

no office
- This is best expressed as either being completely bedouin (I work where I please and yesterday I networked with a teacher, a lawyer and a homemaker.) or not having a ‘private’ office (I co-work with ten other individuals in different industries and we regularly kick around ideas at the water cooler).
no boss (self employed)
- I’m not going to criticise being an employee or being a non-founder because I’ve enjoyed being both a founder and a non-founder. The best thing about being your own boss is that you understand the reasons for the stupid mistakes your boss makes. Following a boss who is, frankly, stupid is career suicide.
no tie, no suit: casual all the time
- It’s 2008. Any institution that requires developers to wear a suit or business casual is archaic. Sure – customer facing there may be a role for it (though what’s wrong with a black turtleneck and jeans?)
no monopoly, no center, everything decentralized
- Too many companies, especially small businesses with 3-10 employees, put everything they own onto one server – using a Microsoft Small Business Server – on their ADSL line in their office. That’s just bad juju. Keep your files in the cloud. Back them up to a local store. Back them up to somewhere else in the cloud. Use lightweight applications (No, you don’t need Word) which can be easily replaced. Standardise on file formats that are well-supported in a lot of software and not proprietary files which need an expensive reader.
in sync: no email, no phone, just IM, twitter, social software…
- To me there is a place for email. It’s for time-independent messaging. Instant messaging is obvious too. And the phone? With a handsfree kit it’s what you use when driving. An important point is not to lock your staff behind an ultra-restrictive firewall. Don’t block their email hosts. Happy workers can check their banks, pick up emails from friends, shop on eBay for that knick-knack for their spouse. If you don’t trust them to get the job done, what are you paying them for?
no off-line: everything online
- A little short-sighted because networking is not yet ubiquitous. I have ‘desire’ for offline storage and processing because of this. The lack of storage for files other than music and movies is a real bugbear on the iPhone.
no distance: it does not matter where you are
- This could not be truer. I had a brief twitter conversation this week regarding location. If housing is expensive where you are, move. You do not need to be in the city. I moved to a nice house 5 minutes walk from a beach and I do not regret it at all.
no fear of embarrassment or of failure: the “always beta” culture
- I think it’s great there’s no fear of failure or there’s acknowledgment of mistakes and a desire to do better in an honest and transparent way. But the ‘always beta’ thing bothers me as it often means that it’s okay to be crap because it’s not finished. Or that support is withheld because it’s unfinished. Being unfinished is a journey not an excuse.
entrepreneurial or self employed
- Sometimes I do feel like I was born twenty years too late. To be 18 years old now, with the possibilities laid out for you and with some sense of entrepreneurial spirit would be a wonderful thing. But I’m an old fogey. Oh well.
ideas over systems
- Every conversation should start with “Wouldn’t it be cool if….” and then after that you worry how to build it (and ideally the person saying it has some appreciation of the challenges involved).

The gist of the Moving Circus is also that at the various conferences/unconferences you go to, you see a lot of the same faces. If you go to OpenIsland, BarCampBelfast, NiMUG, OpenCoffee, BLUG, Cocoaheads or any of the other ‘techie’ things in the province it’s the same people. I’ve not been to Apple Expo in a couple of years now but there was a small group of UK people who would always find each other at the Expo. I think this would be even more prevalent these days with more social networking apps like FaceBook, Twitter.

Is this a good trend? Maybe there needs to be more of an ‘advertisement’ telling others that there are events going on. Some, like NiMUG and Cocoaheads, are pretty specific to a subgroup who use the Mac. BLUG, similarly is for people who want to group together because of Linux. But there’s more than this and it should be open to more than just technologists – there’s a lot of potential for leftbrain and rightbrain types to mingle.

Blogs of OpenCoffee People wot I barely know.

As proof you can work in the same building as someone and for the same company and yet not know them or their blog, I present Gareth and Conor. Hunky Doray ~/home/conor/ramblings I know them both via OpenCoffee Belfast as it happens. Related posts: Venture Capitalism Samsung vs Apple is good for the consumer. It’s … Continue reading “Blogs of OpenCoffee People wot I barely know.”

As proof you can work in the same building as someone and for the same company and yet not know them or their blog, I present Gareth and Conor.

Hunky Doray
~/home/conor/ramblings

I know them both via OpenCoffee Belfast as it happens.

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

â€œThe Venture Capital Processâ€

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts:

â€œThe Venture Capital Processâ€