Entrepreneurs learn secrets of raising venture capital

17 July, 2007

A unique aspect of the event was the fact that all presentations were made by experienced practitioners from both venture capital funds and professional advisory firms. Joe Tynan, PWC, and John O'Sullivan, ACT Venture Capital gave a joint presentation on how to structure a business plan for investors. John O'Sullivan stated that it is vital that those preparing a plan should understand the motives of the different investors and the objective of the initial plan is to get a meeting with a VC and from there the plan can be developed to suit both the growth of the company and the investment requirements of the VC.

Participants were also invited to a networking event held on the evening and supported by InterTradeIreland. Entrepreneurs were given the task of promoting their project ideas to representatives from the venture capital community and the winning company deemed as the best investment pitch was VV Ventures from Co. Carlow represented by Brendan Moore, James Dowling and Andrew Thompson.

The theme of the event was continued on the second day with presentations from Michael Donnelly, Growcorp, Shay Garvey, Delta Partners and Joe Tynan, PWC, on the venture capital process. Michael Donnelly described the length of time that a usual process should take and stressed the importance of promoters doing their research on the various VC funds before they are approached. Quite often, he stated, promoters target a large amount of funds when, in reality, they should take a more targeted approach, as each fund has its own investment requirements. Shay Garvey expressed the importance of developing a robust term sheet with your VC partner.

The objective of any investment is to eventually make a return for all parties and this can be achieved in many ways such as a trade sale or flotation. Brian Caufield of Trinity VC gave a presentation on the typical exit routes, the current market situation and the process involved in realising investments. He was followed by Michelle McLoughlin of Maples and Calder who took participants through the legal and administration processes involved in both seeking venture capital and realising an investment.