new Irish web start-up, looking for investment

Zander1983

Hi
Myself and my business partner have spent 6 months working on a website which we have just put live (http://www.iwillmakeit.ie/). We are now looking for investment as we want to go into the Uk and US market as soon as possible. We are applying to Wayra and Aib seed funding but investors here worked in a slow way - applications need to be submitted before a certain date and then its usually 6 weeks before any response. We would prefer something quicker and more immediate. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Mark

PCPhoto

you want to go into UK and US market with a jobs website ?

I don't want to be rude but is there a market for (another) jobs website here ...let alone UK or USA ? do you think it can survive ?

there are not a whole lot of jobs available in the first place !

Also spelling mistake (tradesman) in the latest news section (down bottom of page)

on the whole the website looks very busy to me - havent really taken time to examine it properly.

Also the stats (numbers on top of page) ... its a bit convenient that the odd number is 445 in 3 of the last 4 !!

Should you not build your database in Ireland first and then try to expand into other countries - no harm in registering the websites in other countries and starting the build though - as the infrastructure should be a lot more complicated due to more localisation required in order to generate an interest.

Do you have a marketing plan ? or budget ? .... because at the moment it will simply be a case of friends, family and a couple of extras ....unless you advertise the site and let people know its there.

Zander1983

we are very similar to Skill Pages, which is doing extremely well (we only found out about them after we had completed design & development). Also, we're not an employment site, but rather a job tendering site. Helping users get the best quotes for small jobs/projects in their area

YellowSheep

Hi Guys....well done for trying, but the website is to slow, plus very busy. Before you can ask for investment you need to fix and get some trading under your belt. Good luck Oliver

Zander1983

Thanks for comment. Yeah the site is slow, we're in process of upgrading the server. What do you mean by the site is too busy?

sozbox

Hi guys, best of luck with the site, I see the niche you're aiming for and having used these sites in the past, think you will do quite well!

However, you need to fix the glaring spelling errors, yes you're new, yes these things happen in areas of text but to have one on the main page on your main graphic makes me uneasy. I've attached a capture of the error, it should be 'Add' instead of 'Ad' I presume?

In terms of investment, yes the 'Irish' way of doing things seem long and drawn out, at least in my experience so you could consider looking elsewhere for investment.

Again, best of luck!

Zander1983

Jason1984 wrote: »

Hi guys, best of luck with the site, I see the niche you're aiming for and having used these sites in the past, think you will do quite well!

However, you need to fix the glaring spelling errors, yes you're new, yes these things happen in areas of text but to have one on the main page on your main graphic makes me uneasy. I've attached a capture of the error, it should be 'Add' instead of 'Ad' I presume?

In terms of investment, yes the 'Irish' way of doing things seem long and drawn out, at least in my experience so you could consider looking elsewhere for investment.

Again, best of luck!

Thanks for the comment. I'll fix that mistake. There are only two of us trying to do design/development as well as business side so mistakes are been made!

sozbox

I know, sometimes it takes fresh eyes to spot stuff like spelling!
Is the goal of the site to be similar to www.guru.com except with a focus on a broader range of skills?

Zander1983

Jason1984 wrote: »

I know, sometimes it takes fresh eyes to spot stuff like spelling!
Is the goal of the site to be similar to www.guru.com except with a focus on a broader range of skills?

Yes it is. But also to concentrate more on connecting people putting a job out to tender with others based locally. I do freelance web development and never won a contract on Guru or Freelancer because bidders from India and South America were bidding 1/10th of what I was. So we're putting emphasis on getting quotes locally. Also, the quslity of work tends to be better when you can meet your clients face to face and no time difference etc

sozbox

Agreed, I've used guru in the past for graphic design but the quality of the work is questionable in most cases so I like the local angle. All the best with it, I'll certainly keep an eye on it.

Zander1983

Jason1984 wrote: »

Agreed, I've used guru in the past for graphic design but the quality of the work is questionable in most cases so I like the local angle. All the best with it, I'll certainly keep an eye on it.

thanks, we're concentrating on attracting investment now so fingers crossed. feel free to register!

I am pie

I'm not gone on the name, it doesn't instantly ring out the purpose of the site. Sounds like a site made by someone who is offering their services, rather than a site which aggregates local service providers.

You should think about making the front page lkess cluttered, it comes across a little like a social network site. That has it's benefits in terms of familiarit to the user but detracts a little on the professional look and feel.

Who is your target market in terms of users ? Does this GUI appeal to them ? Think about that and get some feedback from people of that demographic. Generically it takes a little too long from looking at the home page to work out what going on, the eye is dragged to different sections of the page. Simplify and de-clutter. Focus on a very simple core message and try and get that to ring out.

Too much going on as the previous poster said. Keep it simple, the concept is simple so align the design with that.

I am pie

Also...think Dragon's Den. I assume you have a costed business plan, marketing plan, growth forecasts etc. If not you will not get investment. Get those in place asap if you don't already have them.

Zander1983

I am pie wrote: »

I'm not gone on the name, it doesn't instantly ring out the purpose of the site. Sounds like a site made by someone who is offering their services, rather than a site which aggregates local service providers.

You should think about making the front page lkess cluttered, it comes across a little like a social network site. That has it's benefits in terms of familiarit to the user but detracts a little on the professional look and feel.

Who is your target market in terms of users ? Does this GUI appeal to them ? Think about that and get some feedback from people of that demographic. Generically it takes a little too long from looking at the home page to work out what going on, the eye is dragged to different sections of the page. Simplify and de-clutter. Focus on a very simple core message and try and get that to ring out.

Too much going on as the previous poster said. Keep it simple, the concept is simple so align the design with that.

Thanks for feedback. The site been cluttered seems to be the main criticism. This is something we will work on fixing in the next few days. Re. the name, half of people like it, half dont. We have bought the .ie, which takes a ludicrously long time in Ireland, so we'll stick to it for now. Do names really need to say what a site does? Many dont. But for our site, I guess it should. We thought about www.skilledquotes.com recently. What do you think?

I am pie

Zander1983 wrote: »

Thanks for feedback. The site been cluttered seems to be the main criticism. This is something we will work on fixing in the next few days. Re. the name, half of people like it, half dont. We have bought the .ie, which takes a ludicrously long time in Ireland, so we'll stick to it for now. Do names really need to say what a site does? Many dont. But for our site, I guess it should. We thought about www.skilledquotes.com recently. What do you think?

It's easy to tidy up the design and to be honest doing that might get you an audience with potential investors but i can't emphasise strongly enough the need for a fairly forensic business plan. How many users do you predict to have, tradesmen etc, document your USP, your revenue plans. Everything. Also, really think about who the design is aimed at, who will use it and why.

Name just needs to be memorable and refencing the point of your site. Your current name is a little confusing, i had to scroll back to the OP to correct myself, skilled quotes is generic and not memorable.

This looks a little skin deep at the moment, i think you need to flesh out the business / operational side of the site. An investor is when it comes down to it, investing in a potential revenue stream or profit making opportunity, good GUI will only go so far. It get's them in the room, keeping them their is the bigger challenge.

EamonOSullivan

Zander1983 wrote: »

Thanks for feedback. The site been cluttered seems to be the main criticism. This is something we will work on fixing in the next few days. Re. the name, half of people like it, half dont. We have bought the .ie, which takes a ludicrously long time in Ireland, so we'll stick to it for now. Do names really need to say what a site does? Many dont. But for our site, I guess it should. We thought about www.skilledquotes.com recently. What do you think?

If I were you I would buy a few names that you like. Get them registered etc. Use goolgeads to sort out which name is the best i.e. use the same advert for all potential new names, and the one that gets the most hits get chosen.

Zander1983

EamonOSullivan wrote: »

If I were you I would buy a few names that you like. Get them registered etc. Use goolgeads to sort out which name is the best i.e. use the same advert for all potential new names, and the one that gets the most hits get chosen.

Good idea, we hadn't thought of that. What do you think of our current name?

Zander1983

I am pie wrote: »

It's easy to tidy up the design and to be honest doing that might get you an audience with potential investors but i can't emphasise strongly enough the need for a fairly forensic business plan. How many users do you predict to have, tradesmen etc, document your USP, your revenue plans. Everything. Also, really think about who the design is aimed at, who will use it and why.

Name just needs to be memorable and refencing the point of your site. Your current name is a little confusing, i had to scroll back to the OP to correct myself, skilled quotes is generic and not memorable.

This looks a little skin deep at the moment, i think you need to flesh out the business / operational side of the site. An investor is when it comes down to it, investing in a potential revenue stream or profit making opportunity, good GUI will only go so far. It get's them in the room, keeping them their is the bigger challenge.

We are just two, im a developer and my friends a graphic designer so I agree, we do lack on the business side. We are on the look out for a business partner with some experience. Any suggestions on where the best place to look is?

EamonOSullivan

Zander1983 wrote: »

Good idea, we hadn't thought of that. What do you think of our current name?

Hard to say, I thought at first glance it was a site to get someone who would make it i.e. manufacture something.

The important thing is to try a few names that you think are good and let googleads do the rest for you.

Names are cheap enough to buy. Later you can point the discarded ones at your main site and let them die out after a year.

It'll cost you at most Euros20 for the year ( maybe less? )

Zander1983

EamonOSullivan wrote: »

Hard to say, I thought at first glance it was a site to get someone who would make it i.e. manufacture something.

The important thing is to try a few names that you think are good and let googleads do the rest for you.

Names are cheap enough to buy. Later you can point the discarded ones at your main site and let them die out after a year.

It'll cost you at most Euros20 for the year ( maybe less? )

So say we buy 3 domains and we set up google ads for each, would the ad then link to some sort of placeholder on each domain?

sozbox

I was going to suggest www.localquotes.com as a name but..

EamonOSullivan

Zander1983 wrote: »

So say we buy 3 domains and we set up google ads for each, would the ad then link to some sort of placeholder on each domain?

Yep, or an ''under construction'' notice, or even a mention of iwillmakeit.ie. No need to overelaborate, just enough to get some real life views of what name is best, from real life users of googleads.

Zander1983

Jason1984 wrote: »

I was going to suggest www.localquotes.com as a name but..

its taken...

Zander1983

EamonOSullivan wrote: »

Yep, or an ''under construction'' notice, or even a mention of iwillmakeit.ie. No need to overelaborate, just enough to get some real life views of what name is best, from real life users of googleads.

Ok, we'll do this, thanks for help:)

I am pie

Zander1983 wrote: »

We are just two, im a developer and my friends a graphic designer so I agree, we do lack on the business side. We are on the look out for a business partner with some experience. Any suggestions on where the best place to look is?

Not sure really about where you would pick up an experienced partner. i think that's what you need first tho.

You will need to sharpen up before you get funding I think, but look..it's not rocket science. At the minute you've an idea and design, you just need to start thinking about the maximum number of users and how to generate some revenue. Look at the competition for a guide around pricing, be realistic (but ambitious) for potential numbers of clients.

Think about what type of investor you want? Business partner who will invest money and take the lead on how to generate revenue or a someone more remote who'll give you cash and take their cut. For the latter you'll need someone with more of a business focus to attract them.

sozbox

Zander1983 wrote: »

its taken...

Could go with localquotes.ie or even something like communityquotes.ie to emphasise the local aspect of the site.

nino1

Zander1983 wrote: »

Thanks for feedback. The site been cluttered seems to be the main criticism. This is something we will work on fixing in the next few days. Re. the name, half of people like it, half dont. We have bought the .ie, which takes a ludicrously long time in Ireland, so we'll stick to it for now. Do names really need to say what a site does? Many dont. But for our site, I guess it should. We thought about www.skilledquotes.com recently. What do you think?

nice idea and best of luck with it.
I agree that the name needs to be changed.
The name sounds like one of those websites that charges you 50 bucks to assemble your flat pack furniture.

Zander1983

Didnt see these replies, gmail suddenly putting all boards.ie emails into spam. Gmail gets worse by the day.

@I am pie - have you any suggestions of investors available in ireland? From what I can see, there are only a handful (NDRC, Ryan Academy, Hothouse) and they all work on their own time, not the start-ups time. Pretty ridiculous really. We applied to Enterprise Ireland and 6 weeks later recieved a short email saying we were unsuccessful.

@Jason1984 - we are thinking now of getting a .com. Buying a new .ie is ridiculously slow process in Ireland

@nino1 - any .com suggestions? What ye think of Jtender.com?

deepriver

Zander1983 wrote: »

Didnt see these replies, gmail suddenly putting all boards.ie emails into spam. Gmail gets worse by the day.

@I am pie - have you any suggestions of investors available in ireland? From what I can see, there are only a handful (NDRC, Ryan Academy, Hothouse) and they all work on their own time, not the start-ups time. Pretty ridiculous really. We applied to Enterprise Ireland and 6 weeks later recieved a short email saying we were unsuccessful.

@Jason1984 - we are thinking now of getting a .com. Buying a new .ie is ridiculously slow process in Ireland

@nino1 - any .com suggestions? What ye think of Jtender.com?

remove the "I" from the name, unless you the website owner personally intend to carry out the trade activity

Come up with a name before you ask anyone for money

register a .net or .com domain they are cheaper and have global appeal, .ie signals you are a local operator with limited ambition

develop a successful business in ONE territory and then look to international markets

check out the houthouse programme or a city enterprise board for funding but more importantly coaching on business plan development. I would recommend this option over VC/investment etc

think of how you can beat skillpages or tradesmen.ie or whatever they are, what is it you can do better?

develop a sustainable business model to make money, you have'nt mentioned that yet, but I havent looked in detail at the site so it could be there

Its a great effort, well done and goodluck

Zander1983

deepriver wrote: »

remove the "I" from the name, unless you the website owner personally intend to carry out the trade activity

Come up with a name before you ask anyone for money

register a .net or .com domain they are cheaper and have global appeal, .ie signals you are a local operator with limited ambition

develop a successful business in ONE territory and then look to international markets

check out the houthouse programme or a city enterprise board for funding but more importantly coaching on business plan development. I would recommend this option over VC/investment etc

think of how you can beat skillpages or tradesmen.ie or whatever they are, what is it you can do better?

develop a sustainable business model to make money, you have'nt mentioned that yet, but I havent looked in detail at the site so it could be there

Its a great effort, well done and goodluck

Yeah we have a business plan and have looked at the competition and how we can do it better. Ive applied to hothouse and enterprise ireland and got nothing. Its very hard to even get face to face meetings. Thanks for advice:)

JD Dublin

Zander1983 wrote: »

Yeah we have a business plan and have looked at the competition and how we can do it better. Ive applied to hothouse and enterprise ireland and got nothing. Its very hard to even get face to face meetings. Thanks for advice:)

Just my 2 cents worth, avoid wasting time on these government sponsored funders, the time would be better spent on developing the business.

Ask anyone that has applied for and got funding. If they got minimum wage for the time spent on applications/business plans/meetings/reports, they would just about break even, that is unless they raise half a million from state funding agencies.

Yes if it is global domination you are after, use a .com name. if you want to stand out in Ireland, use a .ie name, I think it adds credability to the website. This credability in my opinion is partly due to the fact that it is difficult in the first place to get .ie.

Zander1983

JD Dublin wrote: »

Just my 2 cents worth, avoid wasting time on these government sponsored funders, the time would be better spent on developing the business.

Ask anyone that has applied for and got funding. If they got minimum wage for the time spent on applications/business plans/meetings/reports, they would just about break even, that is unless they raise half a million from state funding agencies.

Yes if it is global domination you are after, use a .com name. if you want to stand out in Ireland, use a .ie name, I think it adds credability to the website. This credability in my opinion is partly due to the fact that it is difficult in the first place to get .ie.

thanks for the tips, yeah enterprise ireland have been no help. We have a .ie and .com

Trojan

Re: funding, I've found the same - a lot of that type of funding is simply not worth the trouble.

There's a Website Reviews forum if you're looking for feedback from web professionals.

etab

I have actually found the Enterprise Boards reasonably helpful. I estimate we invested around a 50 hours but achieved funding from enterprise board. Enterprise Ireland won't look at you at this stage. The EB want to hear you are different and that you will create jobs, tick both boxes and its well worth trying for. The first step is to enter their mentor program, worth it for the contacts alone.

JD Dublin

etab wrote: »

I have actually found the Enterprise Boards reasonably helpful. I estimate we invested around a 50 hours but achieved funding from enterprise board. Enterprise Ireland won't look at you at this stage. The EB want to hear you are different and that you will create jobs, tick both boxes and its well worth trying for. The first step is to enter their mentor program, worth it for the contacts alone.

Do you mind me asking how much you actually raised? Is it repayable? I'e heard the ''get the contacts'', ''tick the boxes'' arguments before and they do apply if you go all the way, but if you dont then the contacts and box-ticking is a waste of time.

etab

We got around 7k, if you have a phone conversation with the mentor or someone at the enterprise board you will get a very clear picture without having to do much work. Contacts are rarely ever a waste of time. If you are competing with something which is already in your area, there are no grants. You won't get a grant to open up an online butcher if there is already one in your area, you have to prove your novel and you will create jobs. Different grants are repayable depending on which one you get if you are successful, but you shouldn't mind repaying if successful in the future, getting the money now is the tricky part.
Farmers are prepared to do a lot of box ticking to get their grants, so afraid we might have to too

Zander1983

etab wrote: »

We got around 7k, if you have a phone conversation with the mentor or someone at the enterprise board you will get a very clear picture without having to do much work. Contacts are rarely ever a waste of time. If you are competing with something which is already in your area, there are no grants. You won't get a grant to open up an online butcher if there is already one in your area, you have to prove your novel and you will create jobs. Different grants are repayable depending on which one you get if you are successful, but you shouldn't mind repaying if successful in the future, getting the money now is the tricky part.
Farmers are prepared to do a lot of box ticking to get their grants, so afraid we might have to too

Do you recommend we go to the dublin county enterprise board or enterprise ireland? are they seperate entities? We applied for hothouse through enterprise ireland, got no feedback for 6 weeks, and only after emailing them did they come back saying we weren't successful

etab

Zander1983 wrote: »

Do you recommend we go to the dublin county enterprise board or enterprise ireland? are they seperate entities? We applied for hothouse through enterprise ireland, got no feedback for 6 weeks, and only after emailing them did they come back saying we weren't successful

Yes, Enterprise boards are likely your only option, pick the local one for your business location. Enterprise Ireland has stricter criteria and generally you need to be bigger i.e. planning to have 10 or more staff quite quickly (not sure on exact requirements). Found hot house a little frustrating for responses too. If you have a mentor with enterprise board it will add further credibility to all your applications.

IrishExpat

On an unrelated note:

While you have made good use of the Elgg platform (thought usually used between schools and students, or forums), if I were in your developers shoes, I wouldn't have used it.

I know it's open-sourced code and the community is active - but it's very bloated and slow. If your site were to grow to 100+ profiles and you found an increase in traffic, you 'might' find some problems.

I speak from experience: we have used it before, while working with a Spanish language school - and it couldn't handle the amount of data and users logged on at once.


Just my 2c.

maxmarmalade

IrishExpat wrote: »

On an unrelated note:

While you have made good use of the Elgg platform (thought usually used between schools and students, or forums), if I were in your developers shoes, I wouldn't have used it.

I know it's open-sourced code and the community is active - but it's very bloated and slow. If your site were to grow to 100+ profiles and you found an increase in traffic, you 'might' find some problems.

I speak from experience: we have used it before, while working with a Spanish language school - and it couldn't handle the amount of data and users logged on at once.


Just my 2c.

This project has morphed into something a bit different and we're not supporting www.iwillmakeit.ie anymore.

I wouldnt agree about Elgg. Theres lots of different ways to speed up Elgg. Facebook for kids has 250k members. Profile Engine has 5m members. Both are extremely fast. Caching and dedicated hosting do the trick.

asherbassad

Zander1983 wrote: »

Thanks for the comment. I'll fix that mistake. There are only two of us trying to do design/development as well as business side so mistakes are been made!

"being" made.

Do you need a proofreader?

VINCWM

The main issue I had when I looked at the website is that I got lost. I had to spend 5+ seconds to look for somewhere to go and that is too long. A website (and especially a Home page) needs to be clean and to the point.

It's a good idea and I can see it work but I think you might need a re-design i.e; Less text and better layout.
By the way, I really like the colour scheme.

All the best.

miju

my main prob with site is when I went to it first thing I saw was loads of spam under latest posts