Why you should never work for anyone else...

Seán Murphy@seanrmurphy

What do I know?

Career options...Academia...BigCo...SmallCo...

MyCompany, Inc....or you could just roll

your own!

What is a startup? Some mix of ideas, a team and (usually!) some money

...and what’s it like? Chaotic and risky

Why would you bother?

It’s fun...you can exercise your creativity...you might make a few quid...

You have some of the right skills...independent thought...ability to tell stories...experience working with new technologies...

Young workforce, vibrant tech sector...

Dublin’s a good place to start...

How does it work? What do I need?

An idea...

...doesn’t have to be new (although it helps!)...don’t be precious about it - talk to people...

A team...

Small - 2/3 people - some diversity very good...someone with exposure to business and/or world outside computers is nice...

Incubators are interesting for web/mobile startups...typically provide space and some money...

www.ndrc.ie/launchpadLaunchpad

Bootstrap...probably means bread and water diet...

Blog...twitter...write...slideshare...developer groups...hackathons...

Be visible...

Start young... ...you’ve no commitments...

Fail early, fail often...you learn so much...

BigCo will always want you...and will be very impressed with your initiative...even if you fail...

You have a safety net...

Shameless plug...

University Upstarts...great way to meet team...get started on an idea...Nov 12-14

http://www.csi.ucd.ie/uuwc

Logo crafted by Ben Arent

Make sure you’ve the right motivation...

...it’s not all about the money...

Information...

• Hacker news

• Techcrunch (crunchbase is amazing!)

• For ideas...

• anywhere there is a shortage of information there is an opportunity

• online listings of ideas

• some very big trends and huge opportunity out there - loads of really poor UIs

Questions?