Local Enterprise Office - opinions ?

MouseMan01

What is your opinion of the service given by the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) in your area? I've a long history with the Enterprise office going back to my developer days when I was trying to create and launch a software product.

Long story short, I got zero assistance. Meanwhile a competitor (and ex-employee of LEO) got north of 600,000€ in funding or so I was told by a LEO officer which he burned through in a little over a year and went bust.

Also a friend of mine who was running an interior design business part-time. Got tons of assistance and funding. Even though, the chances of her becoming an employer and exporting were virtually zero IMO.

I recently contacted them twice to request assistance in sourcing a contract lawyer and they were clueless. They sent me to the citizen's information bureau, like they had never received such a request before.

Then about 2 weeks ago, i sent them an email requesting some data. Which, according to my CRM, has gone unopened. I'm pretty sure it didn't go to spam.

Many of their courses seem to be of little actual value. I recently did one with a 'social media expert' which was time that could have been better spent elsewhere.

What's your opinion of LEO in your area? Maybe they're great and it's just me?

irishhombre

for the tech industry the LEO is useless.....if you are selling food or making candles you get help. (rolls eyes)

I think its because they dont understand tech.

Then again, if its a good idea and you can put a pitch and pitch deck together then you should be able to raise from angels.

Would love to know how that guy got 600k, impossible without employing people, even then they only pay half the salary at most.

you can look for the the trading online grant, up to €2500.

good luck

cms88

irishhombre wrote: »

for the tech industry the LEO is useless.....if you are selling food or making candles you get help. (rolls eyes)

I think its because they dont understand tech.

Then again, if its a good idea and you can put a pitch and pitch deck together then you should be able to raise from angels.

Would love to know how that guy got 600k, impossible without employing people, even then they only pay half the salary at most.

you can look for the the trading online grant, up to €2500.

good luck

From my experience if it's a tech company they trow money at them.

I know of a few who milked the LEO for all they could then moved on ti EI and did they same. All the while the business never went anywhere.

MouseMan01

yeah. sorry the 600k must have been from EI. Now that i come to think about it.

Long time ago.