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Fergal O'Byrne Sonru Ltd, Damian Young Bank of Ireland, Edward Henrick Sonru Ltd, Michael Maddock SEBIC |
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Bank of Ireland's Bright Ideas Challenge
The Bright Ideas Challenge encourages and supports both innovation and enterprise in business start-ups, SMEs and individuals in the early launch stages of their business development.
Sponsored by Bank of Ireland and held in association with regional development associations in Dublin, Galway, Cork and Waterford, the Bright Ideas Challenge is aimed at rewarding small businesses that boast an innovative product or service. The competition received interest from many successful businesses, but the prize of €5,000 cash plus €5,000 worth of training and mentoring from the relevant regional sponsor, went to four lucky regional winners. They now have the chance to proceed to the national final in early 2010 with the opportunity to win another attractive investment package.
The Competition
The Challenge was open to all start-ups, SMEs, sole traders or social enterprises who could demonstrate an innovative product or service with export and high growth potential and backed up by a strong management team. The new “search for a business star” competition forms part of Bank of Ireland’s nationwide business events calendar and each final was run in conjunction with regional business advice shows that featured guest speakers and the all important judging panels.
A handful of finalists were chosen from a wide pool of applicants to present their present their business to a public audience and panel of judges, who put each bright idea through its paces. Here’s just a quick snapshot of some of the winner’s stories...
West Regional Final - Eventovate Limited |
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Jonathan Ruane Eventovate Ltd and Minister Conor Lenhihan (Science & technology) |
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Galway was the host for the final of the west region’s Bright Ideas Challenge, held on 12th May 2009 in conjunction with WESTBIC, the official EU Business and Innovation Centre in the Border, Midland and Western region. The judging panel, headed up by Seán Gallagher, entrepreneur and Dragon on Bank of Ireland’s sponsored Dragons’ Den, quizzed business finalists based in the wider Galway and Mayo area. The ultimate winner emerged as Eventovate Limited - a Ballina based technology company that has pioneered a new software and business platform that revolutionises the hotel events market.
The brains behind the business
Eventovate was founded in 2008 by two brothers, Jonathan and Jason Ruane.
Jonathan, Managing Director, has a B.Comm from UCD and a Masters in International Business. For 8 years he worked with Procter & Gamble Europe across a range of international businesses in both customer development and brand management. Jason, Technical Director, holds a 1st class degree in Applied Physics from DCU and a 1st class M.Sc in Applied Computing. His experience stems from spending more than a decade developing software and critical system applications for Intel in Ireland, US and Israel.
Both brothers have always had a strong passion for entrepreneurialism, developing databases and websites for SMEs whilst still at university. Having identified the fundamental consumer need within the events sector, they returned to Ireland in 07/08 to set up their business, which they immediately moved through the research and development phases.
Getting to where they are today
The brothers recognised how an enterprise-software solution could empower hotels to radically improve their events business: The key selling point of our events software is that it reduces the workload on hotels, increasing their ability to attract new business whilst all the time adding enormous value to their event customers through functionality that allows them to organise seating plans, choose menus or managing their RSVPs. |
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- Assessing the gap in the market - while we had no experience of the hotel or events industry, we were able to put ourselves in the shoes of the customer and assess how things could be improved from the point of view of the events manager and of a client
- Getting the technology right - we looked at different industries and other businesses to understand how we could re-apply ideas and practices that would deliver value added solutions
- Feedback from the market - we engaged early and comprehensively with leading hoteliers, other industry experts and real customers to refine our business plan
- Development - with a clear vision of the business idea and a concrete feedback and input from real customers we began development, funded with help from Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start-up Division
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The highs and the lows
High points include receiving our first order and cashing our first cheque; seeing our first customers use our software service and getting glowing feedback; gaining endorsements and multi-year sales contracts from senior industry experts; receiving unsolicited investment offers from both the US and UK and of course winning the Bright Ideas Award.
Every company enjoys their highs but also has to see through their lows. For us these were felt particularly when development took longer than expected, however in reality it only overran by 15%, which in this industry is actually quite good.
Also seeing the economy falter our hotels customer base has been tough. However, we know that recessions are temporary and any business should consider this a brilliant time to test new ideas. If they can succeed now they will go on to great things. Whereas if a company launches in a boom they may have been given a false hope of a truly viable business.
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Advice to other start-ups
The three most important things for a new business are: customers, customers, customers. People won’t buy because you think it is a good idea; you need to thoroughly validate your idea with real market customers. Ask for advice, ask for feedback - ideally ask for a commitment to purchase when development is done. Do not give up your day-job without this.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. The key is to learn from them. Don’t take them too seriously - there will be lots more along the way. Try and enjoy it all. |
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What next for Eventovate?
We have used our cash prize and mentoring package from WESTBIC to invest in ongoing innovation and product development and are thrilled by our order book being full well into early 2010. Our immediate plans for the future are to take on new employees, develop our products further and expand internationally. By 2012 we want to be generating revenues of €3m by being headquartered in Ireland and working across UK, Europe, US and even further internationally.
Cork Regional Final – ResourceKraft Limited |
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Bobby Kerr Dragons' Den, Frank Casey Resourcekraft Ltd, Michael O' Connor CorkBIC, Peter Whalley |
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The Cork regional final of the competition on 15 September 2009 was held in association with CorkBIC. Bobby Kerr, entrepreneur and Dragon on Bank of Ireland’s sponsored Dragons’ Den, presided over the judging panel, which chose Bishopstown-based ResourceKraft.
The Winning Concept
Founders Frank Casey and Liam Relihan met while working for Intel Communications Europe in Shannon. They recognised that the rapidly increasing cost of energy was driving a need for people to manage and measure what they were using in a more effective way. After conducting a feasibility study into the energy management market, they set about developing a sophisticated technology-driven energy cost control system. This is helping customers to measure and reduce their energy usage and carbon emissions and has contributed towards 15% energy savings for customers in their first year.
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The Highs and Lows
ResourceKraft pinpoint a number of highs and lows on the road to success:
The high points have been the recognition of the quality of our solutions by customers placing orders after critical valuation, e.g. British Telecom and Energia. We have also been very pleased with the way in which the market as validated our approach and solutions with the business savings our customers have achieved. The lows were more disappointments, such as understanding how managing business through metrics is the exception rather than the norm in Irish-run business and the lack of integrity in the payment process with some companies. |
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The Current Economic Climate
ResourceKraft remains extremely positive about the current economic conditions:
This is the most dynamic time for good companies. They are looking at their costs and are open to good ideas from all sources to save money and revitalise their business. There is no better time to get fast tracked as their approved supplier when you meet these demands. There are good people available and costs of overheads, services and raw materials have come down substantially. So it would be a shame to waste a good recession! |
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Advice to other start-ups - Do your research first - a properly constructed feasibility study, identify markets, customers and competitors
- Talk to customers - always sound your ideas out on real customers and remember the most critical of your critics are the most valuable. Pilot your product with real customers and respond to feedback remaining humble and open to constructive criticism, while remaining positive
- Get a good descriptive business name - and validate it with your market. Get it right then get your .com and .ie domains secure
- Intellectual Property - if you have unique IP be aware of ‘prior art’ and be careful to keep it out of the public domain until it is fully secure
- Branding - is for when you are going to market. So keep it in perspective
- Costs - keeping a very tight control of spending
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What next for ResourceKraft?
We have used our €5,000 cash prize to upgrade our website, to uplift our profile and improve on issues raised by our customers and resellers. Our €5,000 worth of mentoring from CorkBIC is already being used and so far we have had two mentor meetings with more scheduled.
We have just secured seed funding that will accelerate our sales and product development, allowing us to address the vertical markets we have identified and grow on our initial success - large businesses energy users in targeted sectors and utilities seeking to manage data from meters and supply their end customers with more information on their energy usage.
We are already exporting to the UK and our vision for the future is to be the market leader in energy business intelligence tools for business and institutions; the platform of choice for those seeking managed solutions to their energy costs and carbon footprint
South-East Regional Final - Sonru Limited |
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Fergal O'Byrne Sonru Ltd, Damian Young Bank of Ireland, Edward Henrick Sonru Ltd, Michael Maddock SEBIC |
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Last up in the regional heats was the Waterford final, which was held on 14th of October 2009 in association with SEBIC (South East Business Innovation Centre). The judging panel led by Seán Gallagher chose Sonru Ltd as the winner.
The Big ldea
Established in 2007 by Edward Henrick, Sonru has developed an automated online video tool that has applications within the Recruitment, Training and Education sectors. It is a ‘Software as a Service System’ (SaaS) that allows companies to save time and money e.g. within the recruitment sector the software removes the need for travelling to do complete first round interviews and provides the ability to share interviews with colleagues in disparate locations.
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Getting to where they are today
There are a number of key steps that Edward feels were crucial in getting Sonru off the ground: - The South East Enterprise Platform Programme (SEEPP) - this gave me access to the expertise, time and framework to research the business idea, as well as the valuable aspect of gaining support from other participant peers whose feedback and collective advice can be very important when starting out on your own
- The Right People - getting the right team on board to drive the idea forward has been the second most important aspect. I met Chris Horan on SEEPP, who has been a crucial player in the building of the application. More recently Fergal O’ Byrne has come on board as CEO, bringing great expertise from his position as CEO of the Irish Internet Association
- Adapt to Change - be willing to change the idea and don’t be afraid to take criticism on board. Sonru did not start out as it is now; it has developed through a number of stages of concept. If I pushed on stubbornly with our original idea no one would have used it and we would not be in business today. So it’s very important to listen to your market and to adapt on advice from experts you work with
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The current economic climate
I don’t think that the economic environment makes that much difference to a start up company; things can be challenging no matter what the climate is like. Start-up companies are agile and should be able to adapt their offering to benefit from the economic environment. If you have a product/service that consumers want or that adds value to another business you should do well no matter what the environment.
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Advice to other start-ups
Fail fast - before you invest lots of money in your product, go to the market first with a rough prototype or mock up of what the product will look like and what it will do. Then listen very carefully to the market and if necessary make the changes they are asking for. Before we began developing Sonru we created a PowerPoint mock up of what the product would do and gained some invaluable market research from recruiters and HR managers. Local Business Innovation Centres are also great sources of gaining feedback; we presented our concept to SEBIC, who were a great sounding board. |
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What next for Sonru?
We used our €5,000 cash prize for product development and €5,000 worth of mentoring from SEBIC to further develop our expansion strategy. The potential of the product to reach a global customer base is enormous and we want to put Sonru on the map, while at the same time remaining an Irish company, with an Irish HQ and a strong Irish workforce. Ireland is a small market for a product like this so the export market is crucial to us so the way forward for us in terms of expansion and exporting is through developing strategic partnerships that will help us grow in Ireland and internationally. |
