Marketing and taxes are biggest start-up challenges, Global Irish Economic Forum told

Marketing and taxes are among the biggest challenges facing Irish start-ups, whether they are based here or abroad, the Global Irish Economic Forum heard yesterday.

Two hundred business people from the Irish diaspora met in Dublin Castle for the first full day of a weekend conference, meeting with senior Coalition ministers, including Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Tánaiste Joan Burton, Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan and Jobs Minister Richard Bruton.

The forum was set up at the height of the financial crisis.

The Taoiseach told the conference that the purpose of the latest gathering was to tap the diaspora for more ideas for ways to “secure the economic recovery”.

But the forum heard from Irish entrepreneurs of the difficulties they face.

Government business agencies in the Republic and the North were praised, but speakers called for a unit, probably based in the Department of Finance, to help co-ordinate all Government activities and policies aimed at start-up entrepreneurs.

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Mary McKenna, who sold her Derry-based company last year and used the proceeds to set up a mentoring and investing business out of London, said women in particular are finding it difficult to raise start-up cash, saying women entrepreneurs only account for 7% of all venture capital funds.

She said the problem was the same the world over but said she paid a relatively low level of capital gains tax under the tax regime in the UK.

She was effectively “incentivised” by the UK government to grow her business, she said.

Damien Kennedy, founder of Cork-based Whey Hey, the healthy ice cream and foods firm, said Richard Branson now helps him as an unofficial mentor after Whey Hey delivered ice cream to the Virgin Airline chief’s Caribbean island.

Urging entrepreneurs to take the plunge, Mr Kennedy said building networks and marketing were key if start-ups have no family business background.

“We were not afraid to pick up the phone,” he said.

A delegate who had attended one of several regional Forum events on Thursday, said that 10 start-ups in Derry and Letterkenny reported, surprisingly, that accessing start-up finance was not their biggest problem, but building scale through marketing was a big issue.

Connor Murphy, founder of Datahug, which is based in Berlin, cited Web Summit founder Patrick Cosgrave who got started by reaching out to investors through Facebook and Twitter.

Finding good salespeople was however a key problem, Ms McKenna said.

Iseult Ward, chief executive and founder of Foodcloud, said after establishing links here she is reaching out to big retailers in the UK.

Mr Bruton said that last month’s budget had pared taxes for entrepreneurs and that Finance Minister Michael Noonan had signalled the Government would seek to do more in future years.

David McWilliams, economist and commentator, said that new thinking was still required.

He told the audience about his latest idea that involves harnessing multinationals and using a chunk of corporate tax receipts to invest directly in young children’s education through to college.

He said this would be preferable to locking money up in sovereign wealth funds, which many countries do.

Mr Williams said that people with good ideas are first laughed at before they are embraced.