Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

I read a post by Nic Brisbourne entitled ‘Small boards are usually better’ and it reminded me of numerous, frustrated conversations I had with a few Founding CEOs over the past couple of years. I’ve often heard them say “I think it’s a brilliant idea and I really want to do it, but my board isn’t sure because they don’t get it”.

I tend to hire people who are much smarter than me, mainly because it makes my job much easier, the team much stronger and the company more likely to be the best in its field. And naturally, they’re much more motivated. So, I get the importance of listening to the team and going with the majority. Most of the time anyway.

But, when you feel very strongly about something, I personally believe that as CEO, you should go with your gut feeling and ‘just fucking do it’. I make no apology for swearing by the way - I recently heard that it’s the same motto held by one of the few people I look up to, Richard Brandson. So if he can say it, I can say it.

Meanwhile, back at the Brisbourne ranch and his thoughts about the size of an ideal board…

I was on a call yesterday with a subset of one of the boards I am on and one of the directors was talking about how difficult it is to add value on boards.

I agree with that. It is definitely difficult. Also definitely possible, but it usually requires a lot of care and forethought.

I should add at this stage that the director in question has been brilliant for us, and that he has an awesome track record of entrepreneurial success behind him.

One of the reasons I favour small boards is exactly because it is hard for NEDs to add value. Despite their best intentions many fail, and it is also common to see people destroying value by chewing up management time precisely because they are trying to help.

Read his full post here

I totally agree with Nic. ‘Decision by Committee’ for everything just doesn’t work. You either get very little done or you’re too late to deliver. That’s why we created working groups in BIMA. By creating working groups, appointing a Chair of each one and importantly, giving them the responsibility to make decisions without reverting back to the 12 Executives, it means the ship is much more productive. There are lots of other benefits but I don’t want to go too far off topic.

Instead of having 12 Executives making decisions about everything, it now has 9 working group Chairs with teams of no more than 5, making the decisions. Moreover, each team is focused primarily on areas in which they truly specialise. Not only does this mean they’re likely to deliver based on their expertise and experience, they’re less likely to cause delays where they’ve got less experience than others.

What are your thoughts?

It took just two days for HSBC management to resolve this issue. They were extremely helpful and apologetic for the miscommunication and misunderstanding.

It’s not company policy to refuse bank account applications from social networking or mobile related companies. However, there’s a little more to it than that simple statement - look at my vblog if you wish to learn more.

Download the video to your iTunes (2:77MB; 01:42 minutes)

To be clear, I didn’t do this as a way of ranting about my situation with a particular bank. I brought attention to this subject to help ensure some change, however small, took place, so that others would benefit.

Congratulations to my friends Michael Smith and Tom Boardman. Their extremely sucessful company, Firebox, is 10 years old today.

What were you doing 10 years ago? I had just left AOL after joining it as a startup, to head for the shores of the UK, where I am now.

To have started a pure online company back then, is truely amazing. It’s one thing for people like me to conjur up great ideas back then, but it’s another to have had the experience and guts to execute them.

Well done guys!

Check out their interview with the BBC, when the company was run from their flat.

I found Tom’s comments regarding the site possibly crashing with 100 concurrent users hilarious. The guy is a genius.

If you’re a Top Cat and coming to the event on the 12th, make sure to say hi to Michael.

I suppose it should come as no surprise, that some people have either been a little confused about what I was saying in my original vblog, or they assumed it was me who had a problem opening up a business account and that it wasn’t HSBC’s policy.

The fact is, I’ve been told by HSBC staff, that they are not permitted to open business accounts for companies that have anything to do with social networking or mobile. I’ve posted this second vblog in the hope that it clarifies what I was trying to say previously.

Download the video to your iTunes (6:43 MB; 04:05 minutes)

I’d like to emphasis in writing that I’m having the conversation in the hope that, however small, some change takes place. HSBC clearly supports startups in these fields through its sponsorship of numerous initiatives and projects. So, either it’s company policy or serious uptraining is required.

I read a scary quote on Joe Drumgoole’s blog today. It’s from Director General of the IVCA. (original article can be found on Silicon Republic),

Most of our investments would be in software firms that can grow to scale, not in dot.com companies or because someone has a nice widget … Funding in Irish companies is at its highest now since 2001, but much of these are follow-on investments in existing companies. There is still a lot of work to be done in raising money to seed new start-ups. Venture capitalists are currently raising money but it’s debatable how much of these funds will go into new plays in the next five years.

This is one of the few reasons why wubud, my latest venture, is based in the UK and not Ireland. Not every dot.com company is based on a widget. Follow-on investments is much less risky than investing in few startups. I’m pretty sure the Irish VCs removed ‘venture’ from Venture Capital.