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When Veri Integrated Training was a Beta product for our sister training company Iresource, we knew the pain involved in ensuring consistency in course quality, communications and outputs. This gave us the basis for the exisiting sofware, but we had to improve it and ensure it was stable. With advice from our EI mentor  Alan Carey I was advised to carryout a code review….. A what ? I asked.
So basically it’s just getting another coder to have a look at the code that the first software was based on and seeing is it worthwhile going forward.
The day that my mentor asked me to do that I thought ok, I don’t know any code – its written in PHP which I don’t understand and I don’t know any other coders.
Our team had a gap and I needed to fill it.   In my office building there was a guy who I knew, who knew PHP called Brendan from  Pinpoint , I asked him  did he know anyone who was a programmer and that has got good PHP skills who might do a code review and he gave me a number for a guy from Toodle.ie, Shane Barrron. The same week I had started a graduate for a three month internship through WIT and from Brazil. Anna, the  graduate and I  headed down to see Shane and asked him to have a look. I liked Shane’s directness, he gave me a price some feedback and agreed to work with our Beta Client on added functionality. I didn’t look up his credentials. I had a personal reference and I thought I’ll give him a shot and see how it worked out.
This mini team, me, a pay per hour experiened PHP programmer, an intern to do the basics  work and our beta client gelled and after our second team meeting,  Shane said to me, this solution is very different and solves a real problem, we should build the new version from the ground so we can produce a really strong, stable, scalable software…. I agreed with the only issue being a huge investment and no money.
Shane had a solution, he came on board, building out the platform for equity in the business. And the kicker, he has a blue chip backgroud in software development . He was the first employee of Sonru as Technical Services Engineer. Previously was a developer with Unum, an American startup company based in Carlow. He had created his own  Perfume.ie and Toddle.com with a BSc Computer Science DCU. And the kicker … he was lead developer with Hostel World, a company that now works with over 20,000 hostels from destinations all over the globe listed on Hostelworld.com, like everything, they started small and IPO raised €180 million in 2015.
So now we had a team and we were well on the way to having a product ….
The next step.. Christmas comes and so does validation!

I was introduced to Franklin Covey and all about the seven habits of highly effective people by a mentor about  10 years ago and I find there uses constantly keep re-emerging on this Start Up journey .
The first habit that Covey talks about is ‘Begin with the end in mind’. The great support I have had from Local Enterprise, Inspire, New Frontiers and other mentors all are aiming towards this,  getting a business plan together. Simply put it this is  a picture,  if you like,  of what your business will look like when all the work is done. Financially, strategically, operationally and culturally.. …the people that will help you make it a reality.
Veri Integrated Training, now selling, would not have got to this stage without the following great support we sought out over the past 12 months.
Inspire Programme

• Mentoring from an industry expert
• Research Trip to A Fab Lab In Wales to investigate new product design

Local Enterprise Office  

• Onlinetrading voucher a 50% support for doing business online
• Specialist Assistance for a 50% support marketing and design

Enterprise Ireland

• Innovation Voucher- €5000 for project research work such as mapping or design
• New Frontiers – Mentoring and Stipend of €15.000 for supporting the time it takes to get a product like Veri Integrated to market.

As well as the practical elements of these programmes, the confidence and group aspect is all important. Start Up can be a very lonely place, normally a one man show having  to find the motivation to move, manage and critically analyse the new business every day (normally with little or no money).
So, for sure there are great days with new breakthroughs like new clients and awards but there as many knockbacks and resilience and support systems are a  critical resource for the Start Up Founder.
The main objective of New Frontiers Phase 2 is to be ready to sell and grow, it’s all  about being able to have the vision to scale. Then be able to share that vision with strategic alliances, especially with new investors and partners. And that is the next post, how our CTO (Chief Technical Officer) Shane Barron came on board !

Henry Ford, the great innovator, explained that his invention, the Model T was a transport solution that his customers didn’t know they wanted. Cars were for the rich, not accessible to them, so he came up with a solution, an affordable motorcar.
Sitting around a table a few months ago at the New Frontiers Conference with a dozen other start ups, we had some great advice from one of the group who had originally worked for Google.
The topic of discussion was selling, and I had kicked off saying that I am not a natural Salesman, and while I am passionate about my product’s benefits, I was really a little uncomfortable looking for money.  The advice was that I needed to shift my company’s Paradigm, selling solutions, especially what people now refer to as “a disruptive piece of  technology” is less about selling and more about understanding your customer and finding a new way of  fixing their problems.
When I thought of my sales to date, I realised he was right. Last February at a meeting I mentioned  my  software to a colleague who was setting up a new community training centre: School of Food. His problem was that he had no follow up staff, no systems or processes for this new venture.
When I showed him it’s functionality, without blinking an eye he said it would solve all the issues and agreed to buy the MVP (first version). A few weeks later another colleague from a larger accredited company that I work with, Barrow Training, was showing me the details of the new consultation for Quality Qualification Ireland (QQI). Again the focus on a need for Management of Information and Communications with Learners was apparent and Veri solved the problem.
Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. Ensuring Quality means that we have to be looking all the time. This costs time and money and was the original reason for developing the software.
So three down – three companies using the software and we were just on version 1, then I decided, you know, there is something in this, I need some advice to take it further. The next post.. the huge support available along the way.