Starting to Learn
The business and life experience gained from developing and launching a start-up business seems to be unrivaled in my view.
The chance to:
- Put into practice your knowledge gained so far, academic or professional and tailor it to the specific start-up requirements.
- Learn new skills as and when they are needed: finance, marketing, management, planning, design, negotiation, pr, networking.....
- Dedicate your entire attention to something you believe to be of value, knowing that you control the rewards associated with that.
Not suited to everybody, but those that can capitalise on start-up opportunities, can learn what is very difficult to teach.
Political Ambition
How do we improve the desire of young and energetic Europeans to engage in politics and take senior positions within government?
1. Remove the need for association with a political party as a route to politics.
2. Educate the electorate as to the need for young, industry experienced professionals to take senior positions within government
3. Lower the differences between adopting a leading public and private professional life
4.
Geographical Development and Support
Two conversations I've had over the last number of weeks have both revolved around where to locate a web app development company targeting the international market. Interestingly both came to different conclusions.
The successful support of web application development comes largely down to the ability to source talent and finance. If certain locations provide more access to both for a particular focus, then the results will be evident. Not to mention the work ethic that is generated when such an ecosystem of resources and development is put in place.
So the question is, do you have to be located in San Jose to ensure the correct support is available for your company. My initial thoughts are no, as successful web co's have been created in other large successful innovative centres, notably London. However, one cannot ignore the output and focus of the valley in this arena. Therefore it is a must to learn and feed off this experience to the best of our ability. We have therefore been very interested to see the opening of the Irish Innovation Centre in San Jose, and hope this is only the beginning in advancing our relationship and contribution to the future innovations emanating from this location stamped with a San Jose Irish Flag.
So with a combination of work work work,the continued development of our local eco-system and a strong relationship with all of the major innovative centres for this field, I believe we can create some truly excellent and successful international enterprises.
Let's leave it at saying we're planning a research trip to the valley in the immediate future.....
Bleeding Talent
Over the past 4-5 months I've been recognising some demographic trends that make me a little bit nervous. Being based in London and travelling back to Cork frequently I have a good chance to identify changes in both environments.
The one which concerns me most is the amount of young talented Irish people making their way to work in London. I've been based here now for two and a half years and there has always been a steady flow of guys and gals coming over. But, the state we are at now is where people's entire groups of friends are now either based in London or travelling and upon returning, coming to London. The people that are already based here, also, once questioned see very little prospect of returning to work in Ireland in the coming years.
Now there will always be an attraction for the best grads and professionals to work in large global cities due to the industry positions available. However, what we are seeing now must be classified as mass emigration, and a repeat of the devastating 1980's economic situation.
I'm not a pessimist, and will always look for solutions to a problem. So what can be done to ensure that Ireland can not only maintain but also attract the creative class required to drive the country's economy forward. FDI from multinationals will neither be freely available or the required solution to this problem. Investment in national enterprises and supporting an ecosystem of national successful upstarts is where we need to be at. Now the government will profess that the smart economy is their focus, but they have no real prospect of achieving this.
1. The speed at which initiatives are implemented are frighteningly slow
2. It's difficult to run without maintaining the smart people in the country.
3. Zero confidence not only in the current government, but the entire political hierarchy and its oversight of the inflated public sector.
So if we can't rely on the government to drive initiatives to inspire and maintain Ireland's talented workforce, then it must fall on universities, existing industry and professionals. Free professional training, free office space, equipment sponsoring, mentoring, no strings seedfunding, inspirational talks, innovation events, drives to attract international talent, international experience trips.
This is not a banking position in London paying graduates £40,000, but it does at least provide exciting opportunities for a work hungry young population. I’ll be doing my part to drive some of these initiatives and I just hope some of the people with real power wake up and smell the bloody coffee.
Development Progress
After a huge push last week, we are getting to the final stages of development before our official launch on the 27th of October. Most of the work we are doing at the moment revolves around the creation of our first business support module. It's pretty intensive stuff, but the result will provide an excellent tool for businesses that are serious about their web presence.
I can now state that the name of Loopthing's first business module is "Open Score"
As for the specifics to the exact functionality of this business tool, everyone will have to wait until the 27th and check it out for themselves. At which point we will be happy to address any questions people may have.
In other developments, we are bouncing ideas around for the redesign of the Loopthing landing page. We’ve got some great ideas for the new layout and we look forward to implementing the design in the coming weeks.
Input into Loopthing’s First Business Application
As we near the final stages of development on our first business app, we're reaching out to the wider social web for some input into its accuracy.
So if any well groomed social media boffins would like to pitch in and help us help the wider business community we would be very grateful. Only take five min, and a pint you will receive at our next encounter. Say hello
Running an Internet start up in a recession
When we first started developing the loopthing business networking project back in early 2008, we felt what we could produce would significantly change the way businesses interact with web based media platforms, and this concept has not changed.
What has changed dramatically in that time is the local economy in which we are based, and the global economy in which the network is poised. As many industrialised countries entered into recession over the past 18 months we from our small office in Cork, Ireland have continued to follow our business development plan in an attempt to put our project at the forefront of our country's economic re-focusing.
Although we do recognise that our forecast revenue earnings have taken quite a hit, it is still imperative that the desire and will to create exciting new products and services is not lost amongst the contraction in investment and consumer spending.
Cost-cutting is a must and hard work an absolute certainty in safeguarding our ongoing development. As we build up to the Loopthing official launch in October and the release of our key business networking feature our desire to innovate will not falter.
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