25,000 reasons to tell your VC backer to Foxtrott Oscar
Posted: September 29, 2010 Filed under: Belfast, Business, Do something Now is good, Mobile, Northern Ireland, Social Networking, Tech, Telecoms, Web 2.0 | Tags: banking, loans, ni VC, Northern Ireland, northern ireland funding, start ups, ulsterbank start up loans, VC funding NI Leave a comment
I don’t like VCs
I’ve worked in Telecoms for coming up on 10 years now, in the past 4 years I have moved more into the back end of the business into infrastructure and wholesaling. Most of my competitors are backed by hungry Venture Capitalist firms whereas my business is backed solely by the money we make from clients, clients are our sole reason for existing and clients are what keep us growing.
In the last 24 months, I have also worked closely with start-ups in the new media space through the Princes Trust and Open Coffee
What I have noticed most over the past 24 months in Northern Ireland is that there seems to be a wave of people advocating businesses to go down the VC route for funding to grow or start their business. Read the rest of this entry »
Watch The Social Network Movie but……….
Posted: September 29, 2010 Filed under: Business, Internet, Social Networking, Tech, Web 2.0, Wi-Fi | Tags: facebook effect, facebook movie, mark, Social Media, Social Networking Leave a comment
There is a great new movie coming out, you may have heard of it. The Social Network Movie.
Stories about companies, how they were founded, the trails and tribulations along the way are something I am fond off. My office has tones of books on businesses from global corps to small Irish firms.
Two thing you need to take in when reading a story about a company.
1. Is it written by someone in the company, because if it is then the ‘spin’ of the book will want to show the company in a positive light.
2. If the book is written by someone else then you need to know who the contributors are and what their angle is.
Good stories about companies have contributions from the founding members, customers, clients, staffers and people who have been burned.
In relation to this story, ‘The Social Network Movie’ There are in fact a lot of contributors from the staffers, the college students to the now famous ‘people suing facebook’. One person is missing though, that person is the founder and largest share holder. Mark Zuckerberg and for that reason (mixed with a little Holywood effect) you should take this movie with a massive dose of salt. Read the rest of this entry »
The Hotel Technology Summit // Belfast 2010
Posted: September 24, 2010 Filed under: Belfast, Business, events, Interesting, Telecoms, Web 2.0, Wi-Fi | Tags: Belfast, events, Hotels, Northern Ireland, Wi-Fi Leave a commentJust a little event we have been working on for hoteliers. I am not loosing any sleep or anything about over it !
Wi-Fi on the move
Posted: September 20, 2010 Filed under: Tech, Telecoms, Wi-Fi | Tags: Hotels, Ireland, press clippings, press release, Wi-Fi 2 Comments
Walking around with my head (and stuff) in the clouds
Posted: September 4, 2010 Filed under: Apple, Business, Do something Now is good, Interesting, Internet, iPhone, Mobile, OpenCoffee, Social Networking, Tech, Telecoms | Tags: cloud computing, evernote, flickr, google, RT, spotify, youtube Leave a comment
When I was younger my Mother always said that I walked around with my head in the clouds. I guess she must have been onto something because the big IT pro’s went and made a whole industry and buzz word around ‘clouds’ or cloud computing as it has became known.
Last year whilst travelling on a regular trip to London, I took my laptop from my bag to place it on the scanner in the Airport. I set it on the wrong side of the roller’s and 30 seconds later it was on the tiled floor with a failed hard drive and smashed screen. I back up regularly so I was able to re-cover most of my stuff, however I lost around 4 weeks of important work.
What a nightmare, it was time to embrace cloud computing……… on a budget ! Read the rest of this entry »
Wine connoisseurs, coffee snobs and tea?
Posted: September 3, 2010 Filed under: Belfast, Business, Funny, Government, Interesting, OpenCoffee, Personal posts | Tags: coffee connoisseurs, opencoffee belfast, opencoffee derry, opencoffee lisburn, the future is tea, wine connoisseurs 5 Comments
10 years ago, it was acceptible in cities to meet up with friends and colleagues and bang the world to rights over a glass (or bottle) of wine over lunch then head back to work so finish the days work. That has changes somewhat in recent years with the Governement branding anyone who dare even think about a glass of wine an alcoholic or binge drinker. Culture has become that it is, now unacceptabile to have an afternoon tiple during work.
So what happened to all the wine connoisseurs? you know the type…… your probably used to be one, the so called wine expert that always knew everything about wine but actually just picked a bottle because it had a nice label.
The wine connoisseur quickly became a coffee snob. Lunch time’s became filled with conversations like. What beans are you using now? Have you tried….? I keep mine in the fridge, I get mine imported from colombia. I’m guilty of it myself but there it is.
Now however the coffee effects are beginning to be questioned by so called experts, telling us things like the caffeine will kill us all, blah blah blah. I predict that in 15 years time, we are a society will have moved on from coffee but (and there is always a but) we still need something to impress and bore our mates with.
The future is Tea. Herbals tea, normal tea, what you use your own leaves? I’m impressed tea!
It’s a theory, not a great one but a theory none the less, give it 15 years and you will see!
I’ve decided to become an ‘early adopter’ of the tea fad so when it really kicks it, I will be the man to have around at lunch time and in true Gerry Maguire style I stand and ask ‘Who is going with me?’
Russell McQuillan 