Innovate!Europe in Zaragoza is an extraordinary event well worthy of professional accountants’ attention. I’ve seen a bunch of pitches where the company is either looking for funding, partners or mindshare. In some cases, I haven’t a clue why the product or service is seen as ‘exciting.’
For instance, despite the best efforts of Judy Gibbons, venture partner with funding crew Accel, I really don’t understand the big deal around WeeMee. If anyone gets this then please let me know!
Judy and I had an interesting discussion about next generation employees and how they will shape the businesses of tomorrow. Judy is one of ‘my generation.’ She agrees with me that the social networks of our 15-20 year olds will have much higher value than the educational qualifications they bring to professional firm training programmes.
I met with Brian O’Malley, senior development advisor, high potential startup division at Enterprise Ireland. He has a ‘can do’ approach to encouraging inward investment. I have a soft spot for Irish innovation. That government is leading the way in transforming its economy by making it easy to do business while offering a favourable and progressive tax regime for start-ups.
I’ve also met politicians from Zaragoza who are tasked with encouraging research in science and technology. These people have a similar encouraging approach to Ireland.
But…(isn’t there always), I’ve been disappointed with the relative lack of professionalism in some of the funding proposals I’ve seen. In one case, I saw a set of forecasts that had no supporting documentation or summary of number supported assumptions. The good news is that a significant number of the proposals have monetizing business models.
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