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ASK THE AVERAGE punter to name an entrepreneur and there’s a good chance they would nominate self-made billionaires like Virgin’s Richard Branson or Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.
But those unrealistic role models could be turning Ireland’s would-be company founders off choosing entrepreneurship as a “viable career choice”, according to the head of Startup Ireland.
“I think the role models we need to celebrate more are those who have grown businesses successfully to €5 million or €10 million and to start looking at how that is achieved,” the group’s CEO, Eoin Costello, told TheJournal.ie.
“Setting the very extreme examples like the Alan Sugars and the Richard Bransons, for a lot of people that is a deterrent – they don’t feel motivated by someone who is a billionaire, they just think ‘I can’t see the pathway for me to achieve that goal’.”
In 2008 Costello sold his own web-hosting company Novara to Digiweb for an undisclosed seven-figure sum before taking over the startup programme at the DIT Hothouse.
More recently, he launched Startup Ireland, an independent group with the backing of both the government and the Bank of Ireland, as one of its co-founders.
Cracking startups
Costello said encouraging more entrepreneurs to build startups was vital to Ireland as they were the companies that were most often growing their operations, creating “disproportionate” innovation and recruiting workers as they expanded.
“While the very big players and the multinationals are important, a lot of large businesses excel in optimising their business processes and looking at ways of reducing costs,” he said.
So all modern economies now realise they’ve got to crack this whole startup ecosystem agenda, because that’s where the jobs and innovation in the future are coming from.”
Central Bank research has shown startups, or companies that are five years old or younger, are responsible for two-thirds of all new jobs created in Ireland.
I think at the moment where we are at in Ireland, compared to say Silicon Valley or Tel Aviv, is that being an entrepreneur is a vocation,” Costello said.
For building a company to be seen as a valid profession there needed to be a far higher success rate, he added, with more “exits” like Colm Lyon’s recent €115 million deal to sell his Dublin-based Realex Payments.
“The more people who see that the trajectory for success is there, the more people see role models that are successful in creating jobs and wealth, the more people will feel this a definite profession that I can pursue.”
Startup Ireland will hold its first “Startup Gathering” in October to promote the sector and Costello said from an early age students should be introduced to the possibility of careers as company founders.
If I was to look at the educational system, the more opportunities there are for learning by doing in entrepreneurship – like sport – be it through boot camps or startup weekends, to enable people to see what’s involved,” he said.
Startup Ireland / TwitterGreat to see #Entrepreneur2015 trending, even better to have all you guys at Startup Gathering 2015 in October! #startups #entrepreneur
— StartupIreland (@StartupIreland) July 22, 2015
Despite some local firms complaining it was difficult to find skilled staff because the big multinational employers were sucking up most of the talent, Costello said the presence of companies like Google and Facebook was a “huge help” to startup networks.
The talent pool, the mobility of labour between those firms and startups is very important, there are the opportunities for ‘breakouts’ … that’s the kind of thing we need to see more of if Ireland is going to become a global startup hub.”
However he said the country did need to ”crack” the concept of share options in a tax-effective way for employees to offer more incentive for those willing to take a pay cut to join a startup.
There was also the issue of high capital gains taxes for people who sold out of early-stage businesses.
Startup Ireland has complained the Republic’s 33% rate acted as a disincentive to investment, particularly when compared to the UK’s 10% tax under its Entrepreneur Relief Scheme.
This month, as part of TheJournal.ie’s ongoing startup and small and medium enterprise (SME) focus, we are looking at recruitment and building your career.
To view other stories from our collection, click here.
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Branson has said the ethos of virgin is to operate like a smaller business so it keeps people grounded – think there are over 300 businesses under the virgin banner – he pu a great role model
May spalling is awful
The ethos of small business is to stay hungry for business, however that is easy said when you have a few billions behind you.
But he wasn’t always a billionaire – read his book and he had plenty of down days in his early career – that’s were people learn most
Man sells small business. Writes article to promote new business. Welcome to the Niall Harbison lovindublin business model.
Also writes ‘self book’ to ‘help’ other entrepreneurs… Sometimes I think entrepreneurs have to make their own mistakes and learn from them.
And a lot of waffle along the lines of “ecosystem”. Jargon is usually a way of so – called specialists hiding the fact that what they specialise in is, in fact, fairly basic.
Just like Branson did, it’s all there in his book “loosing my virginity”. Odd man to pick on.
Yeah, great. Think I’d rather listen to Branson if you don’t mind.
”Budding entrepreneurs need to have more realistic goals” stopped reading right there.
Budding entrepreneurs need to start off with a plan and projections of where they intend to be in one year, two years, three years etc. They also need to know how to finance that plan, particularly in the critical first few months to cover costs until money starts to come in.
Yeah ok.
You think of the idea. You find ways to turn the idea into reality. You do the hard work. You deal with the problems. You make the profits and the government will swoop in and take more than a third or more of your earnings. You don’t even get a thanks. Your business fails and all you get is a tough luck and no help from them. No incentive at all
Should new companies pay no tax? Corporate tax is just 12.5% here. Where did you get the third or more from? The 33% mentioned in the article relates to Capital Gains Tax, is that what you’re talking about?
No. Government bureaucracy, over burdening legislation, red tape and revenue commissioners who could give the mafia lessons in how to squeeze money out of a stone, are the main reasons people don’t start companies in this country. You want to infuse a spirit of entrepreneurship in Ireland? Then act like a country that encourages entrepreneurs and SME’s, not the current status quo that sees new indigenous businesses and small companies as easy pickings for zealot bureaucrats and officials!
Not to mention the education system. Nobody is ever thought how to start or run a business in public education. Your just thought how to be an employee. Schools should be encouraging more entrepreneurship. Having said that there are great schemes the government have introduced like the back to enterprise, enterprise Ireland etc. More needs to be done in this area though.
They don’t seem to be teaching English either.
But the first businesses that Branson sold made him a millionaire and he built from there. His autobiography is a great and honest read
The fundamentals rarely change which is why Branson is such a good role model. He is open, down to earth and smart. One of the best.
Branson is one smart business man. When he wanted to expand his airline in the 80′s he decided not to borrow money from the bank as he knew a cheaper way to get money. He issued shares publicly in his airline. He figured it’s cheaper than borrowing money and I have nothing to lose. The share flotation was a great success and his airline grew. Within a few years he made enough money to buy back all the shares and it cost him less than a bank loan would have.
hard work, persistence and a great product aswell as luck is whats needed. Entrepreneur on fire is a podcast and a great place to listen to entrepreneurs being interviewed daily, i recommend that to anyone whose interested in hearing about successful peoples ups and downs.
ah shite, I have his book to read this winter….
have your say