Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

Just read a post on TechCrunch which inspired me to write my thoughts on this subject.

Mike finished his post with

We can assume that the whole startup investing environment is going to get tougher and more competitive as the VCs mature and the startups themselves raise the bar in quality. It’s also now an international market, with some entrepreneurs threatening to move if they don’t get the attention of Euro VCs.

It’s one thing for an investor to ‘get it’. It’s another to back it. I’ve heard so many entrepreneurs complain that although the VCs to whom they’ve pitched, ‘get it’, they all expect to see ‘traction’. It’s easier to invest when a company already has traction, where’s the risk in that. We need to see more early-stage investors willing to take educated/calculated risks.

I’d consider a move to the Valley, not because I don’t feel European investors get what I’m doing. I’d consider a move because there’s an entire ecosystem in one cluster in San Francisco. I’d also consider it because to be quite frank, the numbers add up. There’s a bigger (local) customer based in the US

That said, I’ll find out for myself, exactly what The Valley is like. As I’ve posted recently, I’m heading over with The Web Mission to help with connecting/networking/introductions.

Would you consider a move to SF and if yes, why? If you’re already there, would you consider a move to Europe, or is that just a dumb question?

Original post on TechCrunch

Here’s an interesting post written by Rob Loch. I agree with everything he has to say. In fact, I’ve been calling it ‘permanent beta’ for quite some time now. Oh, Hugh McLeod and I have spent hours at a time talking about this stuff on the phone.

It’s very easy to test a product to ensure it works as designed. But what most companies don’t do often enough, is test the requirements to ensure the design is what should have specified in the first place. Listening to your customer is key. The sooner you get their opinion the better.

Rob’s post

Er, find out on TechCrunch. As you can probably tell, I haven’t had much time to blog lately. I promise to put fingers to keyboard soon.

I asked the Twitter community what their favourite search engine of all time was earlier. After having a great conversation with a few people, I got thinking about my days at AOL and companies that came and went before that.

The purpose of this post is to find out what you did, which you may not have shared with lots of people, to get a job. Before I move onto what lies I’ve told, I might as well give you a little background so you get to learn a little more about me. Skip to the end if what you already know about me is more than enough.

I’ve done just about every job presented to me; sandwich board advertising (me inside one!), washing dishes in an Indian restaurant, collecting shopping trollies, store man, potato/strawberry picking, bar tending, office junior, hotel work and so on.

I wasn’t good enough academically to get into university to study architecture, so I ended up working in a bar, something I really loved because for me, it was all about people. What became apparent from a very early age was that, not only did I always want to be the best that I could be, I always wanted to be the best at what I did, irrespective of what job I did. (I don’t expect everyone to want to be the best. I do hope however, that people strive to be the best that they can be)

I realised that working in a bar, or even running my own chain of bars in the future (that was my goal at the time), wasn’t what I wanted to do longterm. So, after managing a cocktail bar in Greece during the summery of 1993, I returned to Dublin adamant that I’d get a job in an office. I didn’t know what I was going to do, I just knew it would have something to do with computers, because it would be 9 to 5 (cough) and I was pretty handy with computers at school.

I quickly got a two week job helping a company to clear out an office. Like I said, I always did my best and it was always ‘about people’. So, they liked me enough to give me one of their old (286) computers. It didn’t even have an operating system so I sold it and put the money against the hire purchase of a brand spanking new 386 computer with a whacking 4MB of RAM. It was state of the art. I guess that was a big risk at the time because I had very little money and the computer was extremely expensive (for me anyway). I was getting myself into debt on the assumption I’d be able to pay it off later when my investment paid off. I did actually think of the purchase as an investment. Without it, I couldn’t progress.

The first thing I did was learn how to type. I purposely made it more difficult by using my girlfriend’s manual typewriter. I knew it would significantly improve my skills on a computer keyboard when it came to typing tests. I used the same books that secretaries use and within a few months I was speed typing about 120 words per minute and ready to hit the agencies for office junior positions.

Whilst all of this was going on, I must have received hundreds (literally) of ‘thanks but no thanks’ letters. Almost every company in Dublin received an application from me. I was on social welfare and living in a flat I wouldn’t give to a stray dog. I used to find slug trails on the bedroom carpet and I used cling film across the windows to block the wind.

Bending it like David Beckham

I was tired of companies expecting high grades at school, so I told lies to land my first job working for an insurance company. Life was back on track until they asked for proof of my exams two weeks into the job. My forgery skills were never great at school when I tried my parents signatures, so I wasn’t taking any chances in the real world. So, I pretended to be sick and never returned.

Balls in a wheelbarrow

I got my lucky break when the lies I told about my experience gained by working for a great insurance company (see above), amongst other things, landed me the position as Computer Operator at Bank National De Paris in Dublin.

I must have carried my balls in a wheelbarrow on the day of the interview. The role included managing the entire bank’s computer mainframe, backing up the dealer room conversations each day, transferring the daily interest rates between Paris and Dublin and supporting 12 Programmer Analysts’ in their file backup and restore procedures for the rest of BNP’s branches throughout Europe. Remember, I had no experience and no qualifications. Mistakes were made, but thankfully they weren’t too serious. As far as I was concerned I could learn on the job. And I did.

That was the last time I told a lie about my experience or qualifications. I ended up moving to another bank before joining AOL as a startup in 1995.

How did you bend the truth to land a job?

http://designerzone.com/ is probably my first failure (I no longer own the domain).

In 1996 whilst at AOL, one of my fondest memories was learning how to build Web sites so I could teach the trainer, who could then teach the technicians.

Friends at the time, laughed at my idea of building a site about the town I come from. They all thought it should have been based on sport. I provided information and pictures of beaches, restaurants, hotels and the usual tourist attractions. With the exception of Yahoo! (indexed by humans), my site was placed in the top five results on just about every search engine. I guess it was easy back then as there wasn’t much to compete with. I remember saying I could charge the hotels and restaurants for advertising, to which my friends laughed and said ‘yeah as if that will ever take off’.

I used the domain http://aol.wexfordirl.com because aol.wexford.com was taken. The site attracted a lot of visitors from the US, many of whom asked if I could make travel arrangements or recommend where to go and what to do. Some asked if I could help track down their families. Perhaps that was yet another missed opportunity. Anyway, the whole idea got me thinking and I eventually decided that I wanted to sell designer clothes for men online. Why? Well, because I used to buy from sites that I felt were crap compared to mine and given how easy it was to appear at the top of every search engine, I figured I was in with a chance.

I conducted market research and continued to study how search engines worked over a six month period. I knew what men wanted, where they came from and the sizes that would sell. I had tens of thousands of email addresses belonging to people who signed up to the research and I had the International Sales and International Marketing Managers at AOL US on board. It was all good to go in late 1996 when there were very few Web sites selling designer clothes. That said, all but designerzone.com was taken, so I bought that. However, when the girl who was going to handle the buying fell ill, I decided to dump the entire idea. I put it down to inexperience. Why didn’t I just get someone else to do it? Ah well.

Come to think of it, I wrote an ebook entitled ‘how to setup an online shop within 24 hours’, based on my research and review of all the products available at the time. Again, I never bothered to publish/sell it. I’m confident that I could have sold a few copies too because there was so little information about ecommerce on the Web. I don’t think the word was even used back then.

So, advertising and selling designer clothes were the two real missed opportunities. Anyone can come up with an idea though. Only those who execute their ideas should be praised. Am I sorry? Absolutely not. We are the sum total of all our experiences and I wouldn’t have ended up with Segala had I gone down a different route.

I’ve had other failures including a marketing agency, which were much further down the road with the employment of staff and rented offices etc. I thought I’d focus on my AOL days because of the recent attention it has been given since the purchase of Bebo.

What mistakes or missed opportunities can you talk about?

Every month, Robert Loch and I host an event called Top Cats. The goal of the event is to forge stronger ties and greater collaboration between the internet start up, mobile, interactive marketing, TV and advertising communities.

There are no formalities apart from my introduction to the evening and we don’t have speakers. It’s an informal gathering of likeminded people, many of whom end up collaborating on very interesting projects.

Who qualifies to be a Top Cat

• Established Agencies = Founder/CEO/Chair
• Technology Providers & Brands (big companies such as Microsoft and the BBC) = Director/Head or other senior decision maker
• Startups = Founder/CEO/Chair + secured VC funding or have a seriously good track record
• Other = Publishers, Editors, Authors, TV Personalities, Establish Journalists, you get the picture.

I’m going to have a chit chat with a few people tonight and stream it live via my mobile. Keep an eye on my Qik account and feel free to comment and ask questions in the live chat room. It might be better to subscribe to my Twitter feed so you get a text message each time I stream live.

So, another Top Cats event is upon us. Check out the names of those who have said they can make it this month.

Who’s coming tonight

• Alex Hoye, Chair, Faction/Buildersite
• Alexis d’Amecourt, 19 Entertainment
• Andrew Shorten, EMEA Platform Evangelist, Adobe
• Andy Co Founder, Agency Mobile
• Andy Finney, Founder, ATSF
• Andy MacLaren, Co-founder, Agency Mobile
• Angela Kirkham, Publishing Manager, Online Marketing, O2
• Armando Ruffi, Co-founder, Zubka
• Ben Johnson, Principal, Both Vitruvian Partners
• Brian Hoadley, Managing Director , phunQube
• Caspar Craven, Co-founder, Trovus
• Catherine Toole, MD, Sticky Content
• Cathy Grimes, Marketing Manager Personal Solutions, Equifax
• Charles Astwood, Founder, London Eating
• Chris Wood, CEO, Top Table
• Craig Hill, Founder / Chairman, Digital Outlook
• Dan Morris, Managing Partner, Splendid
• Daniel Appelquist, Senior Technology Strategist, Vodafone Group
• David Hart, Director, Codegent Ltd
• David King, Director, APCO Online
• Dennis Greene, Head of E-business, Royal Mail
• Dr Anxo Cereijo Roibás, User Experience Research manager, Vodafone
• Edward Charvet, Co-founder, Trovus
• Elizabeth Varley, Editorial Director, Online Content UK
• Farzad Jamal, Group Internet Controller, Northern Shell
• Felix Velarde, Founder, Underwired
• Hamish Gordon,
• Irfon Watkins, CEO, Coull
• James Booth, Co-founder, Rockabox Media
• James Pimentel-Pinto, Managing Director, Agency Mobile
• Jasmine Birtles Founder/MD, Moneymagpie.com
• Jemima Kiss, New media reporter, Media Guardian
• Josephine Fraser, Social/Educational Technologist
• Julia Eilon, AMF Ventures
• Justin Bradley, Head of Digital Television, Sixth Sense UK
• Justin Champney, Head of Brand Innovation EMEA, McCann Worldgroup
• Justin Cooke, Managing Director , Fortune Cookie
• Mairi Clark, Editor , Revolution Magazine
• Mark Fallons, Head of interactive, McCann
• Mark McDermott, Director, Codegent Ltd
• Martin Lowde, 19 Entertainment
• Mike Butcher, Editor, TechCrunch
• Mike Risman, Managing Partner, Both Vitruvian Partners
• Nick Halstead, Founder, Fav.or.it
• Omaid Hizwazi, Co-founder, Crayon
• Paul Canty, Founder, Preloaded
• Paul Duncanson, Managing Director, Creativebrief
• Peter Ogden, Producer, ITV
• Richard Daish, Head of Mobile Services, Chelsea FC
• Richard Titus, Acting Head of UX&D, BBC FM&T
• Rob Corradi, Founder, Preloaded
• Rob Walk, Managing partner, NovaRising
• Robert Killick, MD, cScape
• Robin Charney, Sr. Marketing Manager - Web Platform Solutions, Adobe
• Robin Howard, Client Services Director, BT
• Satish Jayakumar, Co-founder, AdJug
• Scott Gallacher, Director of Online & Partner Marketing, BskyB
• Simon Grice, Founder, ideas.org
• Stephanie Bouchet, Marketing Director, Joost
• Theodore Emiantor, Managing Director, Westminster Accountancy
• Tim O’Neill, Founder / MD, Reactive
• Tom Nixon, Founder, Nixon Mcinnes
• Tom Sacchi, Founder / Director, Unit9
• Tony Cocks, Microsoft
• Will Jeffery, Managing director, Maverick Media
• Will McInnes, MD, Nixon McInnes

Hosts

• Robert Loch, Founder, Internet People & Founder, That’s Useful
• Paul Walsh, Chair, BIMA & Founder, Segala

Thanks to Adobe for their sponsorship this month.

The Web Mission is taking 20 UK Web Entrepreneurs out to Silicon Valley at the end of April this year. The point is to enable the successful entrepreneurs to build relationships with great people in the US and to explore opportunities for their companies.

The Web Mission is supported by UKTI (UK Trade and Investment), Microsoft and Make Your Mark (the National campaign for enterprise). It’s organised by Oli Barrett (also found at http://dailynetworker.co.uk ) and by Polecat.

The trip itself will be a blend of organised activities from drinks receptions to a one day ‘Momentum’ event at Microsoft, one-to-one meetings and opportunities to visit companies in Silicon Valley, from VCs to start ups to high growth success stories. It is designed to coincide with Web 2.0 Expo, so there will be time to drop into that if this is interesting to the companies. They will be working with colleagues in the US to help populate a ‘local calendar’ of coffee shops events and informal drinks, the vibrant business scene for which San Francisco is rightly famous for.

Agenda

Day One. Saturday, 19 April
Arrival and welcome drinks

Day Two, Sunday, 20 April
Digerati Lunch and Optional Event

Day Three, Monday, 21 April
Momentum Event at Microsoft Campus

Day Five: Wednesday, 23 April
Web for Good Event: UKTI

Day Six: Thursday, 24 April
Optional Event: Meet an international Web 2.0 company located in the US
Wrap up Drinks

Day Seven: Friday, 25 April
Depart

Today, they’re opening up the application process to companies all over the UK. The entries will be filtered by UKTI, and individuals who have agreed to feed into that process include Mike Butcher from TechCrunch UK and entrepreneur Doug Richard. They will be looking at the organisation’s market potential, technology, traction, go to market strategy, management team and commercial viability.

Polecat will be assessing the applicants’ sustainability impact. The successful companies will pay a nominal fee which will cover flights, accommodation and passes to Web Mission activities. This will come at a subsidised rate, thanks to the sponsors.

Below are some views from a selection of people who they asked to give their take on what they’re doing.

The Web Mission represents an amazing opportunity for the best of entrepreneurial UK talent to visit Silicon Valley, and learn for themselves the differences that make the US a breeding ground for innovation and more importantly successful execution of ideas. With a spark of inspiration the UK has every opportunity to replicate that success on UK soil.

Michael Birch, Founder, Bebo

Innovation is global, and what better way to help than Web Mission: get the disruptors from both sides of the Atlantic to meet and discuss how they are creating the future. A great initiative!

Fred Destin, Atlas Venture

San Francisco is the world’s leading startup centre. The importance of building ties with the web community there can not be underestimated. I congratulate all involved in this hugely positive initiative.

Robert Loch, Founder, Internet People

I think The Web Mission is a great idea. The best businesses are global from day one and initiatives like this help entrepreneurs build the networks they need to grow their companies internationally.

Nic Brisbourne, DFJ Esprit

In reaching across the Atlantic, the Web Mission is leading the way in networking key talents here with great opportunities in the USA. Good luck in Frisco!

Mark Prisk MP Shadow Minister, Enterprise & Competition

When we create a web business we create it for a global marketplace, we source our products globally, and we’ll probably end up being acquired by a global company or listing on a worldwide stock exchange. It’s absolutely right that we encourage the hottest web talent to look to the unequivocal pace-setter- Silicon Valley – for opportunities, inspiration, and partnership as we build Europe’s answer to the Google, Microsoft and Facebooks the other side of the Atlantic.

James Murray Wells, Glasses Direct

Successful in business comes from meeting people, sharing ideas and creating partnerships. ViaPost has benefited greatly from a close relationship with key partners in the UK such as our Accelerator partnership with Microsoft and we are really excited about the upcoming Web Mission in April.

Simon Campbell, CEO ViaPost

The Web Mission couldn’t come at a better time. The entrepreneurial spirit in the UK is more electric than ever, with communication channels to the US improving all the time. The current climate is one of collaboration and networking, with passionate individuals going out of their way to connect other like-minded peers so they can build stronger relationships, leading to more business.

The Web Mission is testimony to the kind of thought leadership that the UK could do with more of. Again, people going out of their way to help other entrepreneurs to build stronger ties with the US. This is a fantastic opportunity for the UK’s top entrepreneurs to build their businesses by either securing investment, collaborative, partnership opportunities. This is also an opportunity for the Americans to see exactly what the UK has to offer.

Paul Walsh, Chairman, BIMA (British Interactive Media Association)

As you can see from my quote above, I had way too much to say as usual. Please note however, that the opening of my second paragraph is dedicated to the guys responsible for putting this initiative together and driving it forward.

Hat tip to Oli Barrett, Bronwyn Kunhardt and Jim Lawn

The Paddies have done something like this before

I just wonder when Damien Mulley (my new Head of Communications at Segala) is going to arrange the next Paddy’s Valley. He managed to pull this off last year with the help of Conor O’Neill and James Corbett. Whats more, they did it without sponsorship and state agency support! The upstarts, I mean, startups, that went out from Ireland included mysay, Loudervoice, Glowday, Nubiq, PutPlace, justroutes, pixenate, Pix.ie touristr, polldaddy, Eoghan McCabe, Spoiltchild, CoClarity, Bench’d, Relevant Media, Mobonode and Lukulu.

This is a call to Ben Metcalfe and any other Valley based person who would like to help, please do

Register now for the UK entrepreneur mission

I’ve got two conference tickets to give away for a startup event in Brussels on March 19th 2008 call Plugg. If you haven’t been to Brussels before, it’s worth heading over to the conference if only to see this fantastic city. Although I wouldn’t go for the city alone, I’d got for the amazing networking opportunity to be had at this type of event.

Discover Europe’s hottest young internet start-ups and get inspired by some of the most compelling visionaries out there in just one day!

The Plugg conference is an excellent opportunity for you to get up to speed on the state of the European Web 2.0 industry. Register now for this extraordinary event - you can still enjoy the early-bird reduction fee!

I wish Robin Wauters the very best with this event. Robin used to work for Blognation before it was finally brought to a close through the unfortunate battle of the blogs late last year.

I’ll keep this simple. Leave a comment and I’ll pick two names out of a hat live on Qik on February 6th (around lunchtime in the UK).

This gave me a great laugh, thanks Steve.

Can you explain what your business does in less than a minute? I can, but it has taken me more than two years to learn how to explain what the hell Content Labels are, what problem they’re solving and why I think they’ll gain mass adoption, all in under a minute.

Ok that’s not true, I can explain what enabling trust on the Web using labels is, in under a minute but I can tell the entire story in under two.

Think about it, if you were to explain what you or your business does to one of my Indian chefs, would they get it?

I used to hang out at the OpenCoffee gatherings in London when they first started. It was, and still is, a great way to meet new people whilst strengthening current relationships. I mainly attended to hook up with people I already know whilst providing advice to budding entrepreneurs who asked for advice regarding their business models and route to market.

One of my fond memories of OpenCoffee London includes advising an entrepreneur to dump the idea of launching a dating Web site where friends meet up, rather than individuals (confused? so was I). I noticed he was on the BBC’s Dragon’s Den a couple of months ago and they told him to do the same thing. I’m not sure why I no longer go, perhaps I’ll pop along again soon.

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