A proposal for Enterprise Ireland
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David Copithorne of Cork based startup Waveson has the following proposal for Enterprise Ireland -
“There have been parallel conversations between people about the lack of small tech company support, looking at Enterprise Ireland (EI), and around co-working. How about somebody proposes to EI to simply do the following:
At some trial location they provide 24×7, hotdesking facility. During this trial anybody who’s engaged in generating invoices or in a business generating cashflow (not necessarily profit) pays for the privilege of using the facility. BUT any startup gets a three month waiver on the fees, thereafter paying like everybody else. The startup would pay some sort of deposit in case things go pair shaped.
EI might say they already do this in the likes of the Rubicon Centre in Cork but I have no interest in applying to get on the GEP programme for the following reasons:
- We don’t all live in cities. I live 60miles away from Cork and I can’t (financially) commit to living in Cork for a year, I could for three months. Getting to use a facility for three months would help enormously and would allow me to try it out both a project idea and co-working.
- I mightn’t even commit to a project for the year (which you’d be expected to do for GEP, along with providing detailed business plans) never mind anything else.
Most importantly, It would give me the chance to work on a project and if it went nowhere I haven’t lost enough to stop me from trying again.”
I have a post to do on the Rubicon which is overdue by about two weeks. There are a few misconceptions about it which I shared with David until I talked to Paul Healy who runs it.
The main one is that GEP is just one aspect of Rubicon. At heart it is a general incubation centre. Of the 80 seats in the current building, only 20 are for Genesis.
They are just about to open a second building which will have 10 hot-desks (going to 20 if demand is there). From a co-working perspective the main drawback is that you have to book the desk a month at a time. However, they are only €220 per month all-in which is fantastic value for Model Farm Road.
I’ll write more on this when I get a chance as Paul is very interested in the Coworking concepts and is very interested in suggestions for both the new (actually old refurb) building and the upcoming extensions to the current building.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the model for the hot-desks in Rubicon is this place in Macroom (http://www.macroom-e.com/services.htm). Paul himself used one of these and was highly impressed. I know Walter also thought highly of them.
Another important point is that the Rubicon has to self-fund, it does not get ongoing subsidies from EI or CIT. So the idea of freebies for start-ups can’t work there.
I did ask my EI Dev advisor about all available EI/IDA office space in the greater Cork area and was shocked to find that there is very little. Most space is non-office. I had images of thousands of square feet lying idle around the county but it appears this is not the case.
there’s lots of options for existing coworkig businesses to assist startups.
Some we had toyed with:
Equity exchange How about a small percentage of the company in return for housing and ‘feeding’ a startup
Quid Pro Quo What do you do? Is it of use to the facility? Why not do a little green dollar work in order to pay the rent?
Internal Jobs Preferential rates for other startups and co-working regstered companies and perhaps even work-for-hire to get your cash flow going
Other Services Would you be willing to have a member of your founding group work on the reception of a co-working facility in return for getting workspace? Some people might balk at cleaning the loos
Conor: Thanks for the update. My understanding of the funding for GEP was that CIT offered a ‘scholarship’ of around 6K (hence the requirement for a degree) and up to 50% (to a max of Eur38K) of your previous years wages was offered if you met certain EI criteria. As you know there has been a lot of talk lately about the lack of support for small tech companies and I suppose I was just highlighting some of the reasons why I wasn’t pursuing one of the few available options. Having said that I didn’t realise Rubicon offered hotdesking. Like you say, seems good value.
Matt: The one startup that I’ve been involved with grew entirely within an existing (small) company and had a very symbiotic relationship until we physically moved out. So I think you’ve some great suggestions there..
David,
I know what you mean. My startups to date have grown from one single company and gained their own independence later. As a result we’ve used every method of “co-feeding” event o the point that some people from one startup will cover the phones for the other if there’s a meeting.
I like that kind of co-operation.