Bizcamp Dublin, Bizcamp Limerick, Bizcamp ….

I was at Bizcamp in Dublin at the weekend and I must say I am still Energised from meeting such an enthusiatic bunch. The event was well orgainised and located at a great venue, the Digital Exchange in Dublin.  The event made RTE news at 6PM and 9PM. Here is the clip as posted on YouTube, If you look carefully you might see me in the background:

What was really fantastic about Bizcamp Dublin was the fact that it was a free event arranged by Entrepreneurs for  Entrepreneurs (or potiential Enterpreneurs). The atmosphere was alive with passion and energy, which is a nice contrast to the doom and gloom we are been currently bombarded with. After Bizcamp, I can really feel that 2009 is the “Year of the Entrepreneur” and Ireland is going to evolve to the next level thanks to the collaboration of the “Smart Minds”, We shall be successful with or without the Government.

There were a quality list of speakers, and there was a choice of up to three talks running simultaneously. The best part for me was the Panel, which consisted of Entrepreneurs who had actually broken the “Raising Capital” Barrier. The panel were :

Caelen King - RevaHealth.com - €1.25 million Jan 2009 - detail here
Niall Harbison - lookandtaste.com (formerly iFoods.tv) - €400k Oct 2008 -  some detail here
Campbell Scott - IGOPeople - €750k 2008 - some detail here
Keith Bohanna - dbTwang - €110k Dec 2008 - some detail here
Ciaran Crean - MicksGarage - €560k Dec 2008 - some detail here

The panel gave practical advice on Funding and Cashflow, some of which was:

• “Fund raising is really tough” and “Get the revenue early, get the costs under control” by Campbell Scott,CEO of IGO people.
• In relation to raising funds, Caelen King talked about how he needed to find someone trustworthy with influence and rest would follow. He started with his boss at the time - “I’m leaving to start my own company and I want you to fund it”, it took about 3 months to get his boss to agree to invest.
• The one third rule was also discussed, this goes as follows: The Entrepreneur(’s) raises one third, and external investor puts in one third and the last third comes from a bank (not sure how likely this last third is currently)
• As far as percentage equity goes, it is not in the external investors interest to Fleece the Entrepreneur(’s) especailly in the first round of investment as the remaining equity serves as a motivator.
• Raising funds is a continuous process, once you you finish one round, you start into the next round.

One thing is that a cash certain that cash is so vital to any business, especially in the start-up stage, a business can last a while without profit, but not very long without cash. The start-up can burn cash very quickly, especailly if there is not an inflow of cash the business will just choke and die.

While I was there, I meet some many interesting and like-minded people, most of whom I have been connected with on Twitter but, had not meet in “real life” as well as some familiar faces.

The next stop on the tour is Bizcamp Limerick, I am one of the many speakers at this. I shall talk about ”Life after Dell?”,  in the talk I shall share my experience whereby I left Dell after more than 11 years and a half years, and entered the external world. One of the goals of the talk, is give some practical advise to anyone wanting to start there own business. Another goal is to gently encourage this first step into the unkown, and to let potiential Entrepreneurs know that they are not alone, that they have an experienced and helpful community of Entrepreneurs to aid them on their journey.

If you are on Twitter then follow the #Bizcamp, if you are not on Twitter then get on Twitter and “join the conversation”.