Founders, advisers and investors gathered for the final Founders Exchange of the year on December 3, returning to Dublin’s Digital Hub to chat building and fundraising.
On Wednesday (3 December) Enterprise Ireland and Silicon Republic hosted the third edition of a new event series for early stage start-ups in Ireland, the Founders’ Exchange, returning to the Digital Hub in Dublin. It rounded off a year that kicked off with the Founders Listening Tour in February, when the partners toured Ireland with eight events resulting in, among other things, the launch of this new meet-up series.
Aside from great chats and networking opportunities over lunch and mince pies, there was a characteristically open and honest founders panel again, with two Irish founders, who have both recently announced €2m raises – Aisling Browne of Glitch and Patrick Guiney of DevAlly.
They spoke of the importance of getting out of one’s comfort zone and getting out there and tapping on real and virtual doors when a start-up is looking to raise funds. In both their cases a mix of angel investment, Enterprise Ireland investment and VC funding leads based in Ireland has meant they benefit from not just having investors but real supporters and advisers to hand.
They both also emphasised the importance of great co-founders in what can be a tough, if rewarding, journey – particularly if they each bring different specialisms to the table. And they reckoned Ireland was a great place to build the technical side of their teams as the country continues to gain a reputation as a hub for great engineering and software development talent.
Investors and advisers then offered their guidance on the second panel discussion as to how at the various early stages of a start-up they can ensure they are investor-ready. Rose McGahan of the Local Enterprise Offices spoke of the breadth of supports now available locally to get your idea off the ground and prepare to approach Enterprise Ireland, while the latter was represented by Evelyn Smith who laid out what’s on offer from the state agency.
They were joined by Conor O’Sullivan, investment director at Atlantic Bridge who pointed to the growing number of university spin-outs and deep-tech start-ups now getting VC funding in Ireland, and flagged that it was part of Enterprise Ireland’s ambition that this only further increase in the coming years. There were indeed many university-based innovators in the audience who welcomed that development.
The panels, chaired by yours truly, were followed by the popular Start-Up Clinic where start-ups got to interact one-on-one with mentors from Enterprise Ireland, the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) and Furthr, with some great feedback coming from the mentors and advisers on the potential of several of the start-ups and aspiring founders with whom they met.
“It was great to meet so many founders and investors and see them really come together with a shared ambition to help more start-ups grow in Ireland and expand internationally,” said Conor O’Donovan, head of start-ups and entrepreneurship at Enterprise Ireland.
It was the third in a series of events planned to respond to the appetite expressed at the Founders’ Listening Tour for more opportunities for founders to hear honest insights from other founders, to network with each other and to get direct access to start-up expertise on funding and supports.
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