Media Release

10th July 2008

GIVE YOUR COMPANY LIFT-OFF WITH €280,000 SEEDCORN PRIZE FUND

Why not give your fledgling business lift-off with the help of a €280,000 prize fund from the Seedcorn Business Competition 08 – that’s the proactive message from InterTradeIreland to attendees at a lunchtime briefing held in the Enterprise Acceleration Centre in LIT on Thursday 10th July.

Small companies North and South have leveraged €65m of additional equity investment over the past five years through Seedcorn.

“Ireland is rightly renowned for its spirit of entrepreneurship and that is something we want to continue to support, so we would encourage even more young firms to sign up for this year’s competiton,” said Seedcorn Programme Manager Grainne Lennon.

“The prize money is simply the icing on the cake for entrants, because Seedcorn gives growing enterprises access to invaluable advice from some of Ireland’s top investment experts, helping them to raise significant additional investment and grow their businesses at accelerated speed. So often, small businesses feel they don’t have a chance in business competitions, but Seedcorn offers fledgling independent ventures the opportunity to develop their business ideas, improve their business plan and lean how to present concepts to panels of investors. It also gives growing companies the opportunity to gain exposure to a whole range of venture capitalists and to increase the profile of their business – so, given this whole range of benefits, why not have a go?”

Grainnne Lennon, Intertrade Ireland pictured with EAC Manager Donncha Hughes

and LEAP Programme Manager, Graham Royce before the Seedcorn Lunchtime briefing

Graham Royce, manager of the LEAP programme which assists ten start up entrepreneurs each year to develop an investor ready business plan, agreed that the Seedcorn competition provides fantastic motivation to entrepreneurs to put their strategy on paper and this in turn helps to drive the business forward by identifying opportunities and also the gaps that need to be addressed.

“Having worked as an Enterprise Ireland mentor with two former Regional Winners in BioAtlantis and NeoTech, the key benefit that Seedcorn provides is access to a wealth of knowledge and high level contacts within industry and the Venture Capital community. For the national and regional winners the importance of the publicity that surrounds this high profile competition, which covers the 32 counties of Ireland, can not be underestimated. And for every entrant, the crucial benefit of the competition is putting together a concise business plan that will be reviewed by independent third parties. The Business Plan is a key tool that demonstrates that the entrepreneur/venture team have a business proposition with the potential to be a star investment. The process makes you think about how you talk about your business.”

Highlighting that 23 of the 122 applicants in 2007 were Munster based companies, Ms Lennon provided a quick checklist to be considered when entering your business plan to the competition: 

• Make sure that the Executive Summary captures the attention of a potential investor
• Less is more, avoid a plan that it so long that a potential investor will be put off reading it
• Avoid an overly technical plan and use of jargon.  The plan should be market/sales focused
• Ensure realism prevails (e.g. valuation of the business, financial projections)

 All entrants to the competition must be able to demonstrate new equity requirements in excess of €75,000. Entrants to the Emerging Company category must be in existence for less than three years by September 26, 2008, and have sales targets of less than €5m.  Entrants to the Emerging International Company must be in business less than five years by September 26, 2008, and have sales targets of more than €5m.

To register your interest in entering the Seedcorn Business Competition, log on to the new dedicated website: www.seedcorncompetition.com Business plans must be submitted by 5pm on the closing date of September 26.

PRESS COVERAGE

Click here to see how Nick Rabbitts, Business Editor of the Limerick Leader covered our event

Networking @ the Lunchtime briefing

Peter Gaines, www.transactions.ie and Pat Ryan, www.upay.ie

Kieran Hanrahan, www.mbts.ie and Avril Webster www.offwego.ie

LEAP programme 2008 participants Camilla & John Shanahan, John Twomey and Ciaran Greene