Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

My wife Sheetal is speaking at TEDx about “Microfinance in developing and developed countries”. What more is there to say - she’s awesome and definately the best speaker I have ever seen - about a million times better than me!

Check out her Microfinance organization Shanti Microfinance - one of the few that is truely non-profit and transparent about fees and expenses. Most microfinance organizations are either for-profit (which is ok as long as they don’t over charge with high interest rates!), whilst others pass on currency fluctuations onto the poor entrepreneurs (hidden fees).

Sheetal is also a member of the Board at MetaCert - what an asset!

I read this post on TechCrunch this morning with great interest - it’s related to the UK Government’s creation of an ‘Entrepreneur’s forum advisory board’ to advise Government with business and enterprise policy. As soon as I read the list I quickly came to the conclusion that they appointed more women than men for PR reasons. Then, I read Vince Cable’s quote:

a significant proportion of the forum are women and increasing the rate of female entrepreneurs is one area the forum will be encouraged to look at.

I know a few people on the list. Some good. Some not-so-good (I’m being very diplomatic). How are people chosen? Who’s consulted to find out who should be involved?!

It’s good to see more women involved in such initiatives, but has Cable appointed lots of women for the sake of it? I think he has.

The Startup Marketplace is a business idea I had about a year ago. I still think it has potential today, as I’ve yet to come across a site that provides good practical advice, products and connections to budding and seasoned entrepreneurs. I no longer have the time, resource or motivation to launch and run it. So if you, or someone you know, would like to take it on, please get in touch.

Here was the original (basic) idea

Startup Marketplace is a web-based portal built on a social enterprise model which aims to assist startups and established companies. It provides access to recommended suppliers, advisors, mentors, recruitment services and early-stage capital. All stakeholders in the ecosystem are able to benefit from the network within
the portal.

A trusted source based on personal experiences

• When it comes to referrals and recommended resources, who should you trust?
• What is the best hosting provider?
• Who is a good Startup lawyer?
• Know any great Web designers?
• I think I have some IP, whoʼs best to help me protect it?
• How can I get my first round of funding?
• How do I find and hire an Advisor to help me scale the business?

The Startup Marketplace only recommends those companies that have been personally verified by the online community. It does not take any payment for listings or commission for business referrals in order to maintain the highest degree of objectivity.

The Portal is broken into 6 business units:

1. Advisors / Non-executive Directors - Trusted and respected advisors and non-executive directors will be listed
   on the site. Users can conduct a keyword search to ensure they fin people who are relevant to their business. Advisors are contacted directly by interested parties, who may charge for their services. SUM is not responsible or liable for anything that happens between these parties.
2. Mentors - The Startup Marketplace has access to more than 7,000 business and digital mentors following a tie-up with the Princes Trust. These are respected entrepreneurs who now want to ʻgive something backʼ. Members of the marketplace will be able to conduct a keyword search in order to find a mentor that is suitable to their requirements.
3. Suppliers - The portal will allow start-ups and established companies, to connect directly with companies that represent each of the stakeholders within the supplier ecosystem and which are recommended by us. One company per stakeholder will be recommended on the portal. That is, one lawyer, accountant, brand agency, Web design/build agency, SEO expert, PR company and marketing consultant etc.
4. Investment for start up members: - The marketplace will enable startups to connect directly with thousands of hard-to-reach early-stage investors in possession of digital funds that range from £6,000 to £600,000. Entrepreneurs will be able to complete an online business plan application form that is then automatically sent directly to investors.
5. Recruitment - The marketplace has a partnership with a recruitment technology company: x. Incorporating the x platform will allow The Startup Marketplace to offer improved recruitment speed & quality through the use of market leading tools to intelligently match candidates to jobs (personality profiling) and provide increased candidate insight (record / upload a CV or video pitch) Corporations will pay to access the database of candidates.
6. Events - Off-line activity will include regular meet-ups, mentor breakfasts, dinners and other opportunities for members to enhance their business potential. All events will be funded by sponsorship and delegates will pay to attend. Net.works, a reputable networking events company will be responsible for hosting each event.

Content

A wealth of professional business advice on subjects such as, obtaining Government grants or how to get start-up businesses up and running, will be freely available – ranging from legal to accounting.

Sales & Marketing - The Startup Marketplace has a dedicated sponsorship and events sales team paid on a commission basis to maximise the portalʼs potential as an online advertising space.

Strategic partnerships

Scale can be achieved through strategic partnerships. The marketplace is plugging straight in to Maverick TV (a social network of sub-16-year-old entrepreneurs – yet to launch), the Oxford Entrepreneurs network (4,000 members) and the London Business School Media Club (500 members). We will also achieve scale by partnering with Angels Networks, VCs and networking membership forums.

Get in touch if you want the domain and wish to take on the project. As I said, there are a number of alternatives out there, but none of them are doing it particular well.

I remember my three years at the helm of the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) as Chair and the hours and days we poured into creating categories and entry criterion for the Awards like it was yesterday. By then, the Awards were running for more than 25 years and were already established as amongst the most prestigious of all Digital Awards in the UK.

In 2007 when I actually chaired the Awards themselves, TechCrunch was kind enough to write about the winners… calling for “a cool tech awards” - perhaps that’s when Mike Butcher was inspired to create the Europas?! Either way, he has done a fantastic job as until then, there really wasn’t anything to reward the tech startup world.

Rather than complain about what they’re not getting right, as it’s totally impossible to get it right - you can’t please everyone all of the time, I’d like to make a few minor suggestions.

1. I know it’s difficult to put a time-frame on say, a clean-tech startup. But it’s not that difficult to put some boundaries in place for tech startups. I recommend no more than two or possibly three years. Definitely no more than three. Otherwise the same companies could end up winning every year, meaning it could take more than three years for a company to win - which makes no sense if we’re talking about a ’startup’. Here’s a previous post I wrote entitled ‘What is a startup?’.
2. Following on from my previous point, what is a ‘Best New Startup in 2010‘? Is it a startup that has launched within the past 12 months?
3. Following on from my previous point… again… provide entry criterion for every category and provide examples where possible. This is very time consuming but in my experience, it’s probably the most vital piece of the puzzle.
4. If you have a category ‘Best Startup Founder / Co-Founders 2010‘ and another entitled ‘Best New startup’, I’d expect to see a huge overlap in entries. How can someone be a great founder if their company isn’t listed? A real startup is the founder.
5. “Best Angel Investor of the Year 2010” should only shortlist people who have invested (money and not their time/resource) in at least three startups in that year. I know people on the shortlist who haven’t invested in anything that wasn’t their own startup for at least a year - this would make Jason Calacanis cringe. (Un)fortunately I didn’t have the time to launch and run Jason’s Open Angel Forum so I couldn’t take him up on his kind offer - my point? I’m familar with what the definition of a real angel investor should be
6. If you have a category specific to a medium such as Best Mobile Startup 2010 you should probably have categories such as ‘Best Internet-based startup’, ‘Best Web Application’ or ‘Best Technology Startup’. This is where it gets tricky and you could end up with a list as long as your arm. Hence why I picked out something specific.

This isn’t a rant, just a few observations and recommendations for anyone thinking of setting up their own tech awards. Let it be known that aside from my table tennis and break dancing trophies from the mid 80’s, my only other prize was a bicycle lock and two cinema tickets which I won when I was twelve from the local Wexford radio station

I’m not sure why, but TechCrunch thought this blog post was worthy enough to make it as a guest post. Azeem Azhar, the author, who I don’t know, complains about the necessity of filling in tax and VAT returns. My response is, get a bookkeeper and an accountant and focus on your business, instead of spending the time writing about not having time to perform such important tasks when running a business. To summarise, get on with it and stop complaining.

Most businesses go bust as a result of not managing cash-flow. My advice is to stay on top of your balance sheet and pay attention to tax returns to ensure you have enough in the kitty at the end of your financial year.

Here’s a blog post I wrote on the subject - the title says it all Entrepreneurs are not entitled to anything

Entrepreneurs in the slums of India don’t think they’re entitled to anything. They just get on with it.