- Mentoring Programme Launch, Irish Embassy, London
- 'A Private Evening in New York with Padraig O'Ceidigh' Founder of Aer Arann
- 'A Private Evening with Lochlann Quinn'
- 16th July Summer Boat Party
- Question Time - Panel Event "Irish Entrepreneurialism"
- Review of Liam Black event on 24th September
- "Building a successful airline" by Padraig O’Ceidigh, Founder, Aer Arann
- "Competing With The Best" by Jerry Kennelly
- "Hostelworld - The Industry Standard, Worldwide". By Ray Nolan, Founder, WRI and Hostelworld.com
- "The Unsinkable Entrepreneur" IIBN's launch event
- Mentoring Programme Launch, Irish Embassy, London
- 'A Private Evening in New York with Padraig O'Ceidigh' Founder of Aer Arann
- 16th July Summer Boat Party
- Question Time - Panel Event "Irish Entrepreneurialism"
- Review of Liam Black event on 24th September
- "Building a successful airline" by Padraig O’Ceidigh, Founder, Aer Arann
- "Competing With The Best" by Jerry Kennelly
- "Hostelworld - The Industry Standard, Worldwide". By Ray Nolan, Founder, WRI and Hostelworld.com
- "The Unsinkable Entrepreneur" IIBN's launch event
- New York Launch, Irish Consulate, Park Avenue
Back Barry Maloney, General Partner, Balderton Capital
On 12th June 2007 IIBNs guest speaker was Barry Maloney, General Partner, Balderton Capital. 80 attendees came to listen to Barry's presentation which took place at the Royal Society of Arts, just off the Strand and which was generously sponsored by Enterprise Ireland.
Barry Maloney kicked off his presentation with a short overview on Balderton Capital, a venture capital firm responsible for the early stage funding of some very successful start-ups, like eBay and AOL. Prior to joining Balderton, Barry spent five years as CEO of Esat Digifone, Ireland's second largest GSM mobile operator. Under Barry's leadership, Esat Digifone expanded to a profitable company with 900 employees, more than 1 million customers and £500m in revenues. Esat Digifone was acquired by British Telecom for more than £2.5 billion.
Before Esat Digifone, Barry spent two years at Xerox Corporation in Palo Alto, California, where as Vice President of Business Development initially and then Channel Operations, he was instrumental in revolutionising Xerox's approach to global marketing. Before this, Barry enjoyed a pan-European career at Digital Equipment as European Pricing Manager, Director of Software Business Europe and Vice President of the Component and Peripheral Business Unit Europe.
Barry's presentation focused on his personal experiences as a venture capitalist, highlighting his best and worst investments and the ones that got away!
Tips - Mistakes frequently made:
Entrepreneurs forgetting to mention what business they're in!
Boring us to death with the story!
Underestimating Sales/Marketing requirements Great technology = great business. NOT!!
Tips - Learnings as an investor
Back people who want to be rich not famous.
If something is not working 'get out' early.
Entrepreneurs rarely/ever make great CEO's. Don't get emotionally involved. (Really hard!).
An average idea with a great team is a much better bet than a great idea with an average team. VC is an 'Art' not a 'Science'!