One year on…
As I sit here, on a family holiday in sunny Spain, my mind drifts back to this time last year, or more importantly ‘business matters’ relating to this time last year.
You see this time last year I was sitting preparing for a 3 way business call between myself, Steve Orr of NISP Connect and David Kirk, a Northern Ireland man who knows how to get things started; from his bio you will see that David was instrumental in getting some of the world’s greatest start up started. Anyway the call must have gone well because I was successful in securing a place in NISP’s Entrepreneur ‘Bootcamp’.
The first day was a funny one for me as I started referring to ‘MatchMedia’ as ‘me’ and indeed ‘us’. David taught us a lot of stuff but most of all was ‘belief’ – ‘believe in yourself, your product, and your idea’ and ‘get started, up your game, don’t talk – do.’ I felt very at home in the academy, after all I am a business man and am lucky to possess strong presentational skills. For a few days last April – I stood on top of the world; from that vantage point all things seem possible.
I was joined on the course by some great folks; Suzanne from SISAF, Donal from Biznet, John from Bubble, Gareth from Etolan, Tony from Vertical Wind, Paul from Clarity Business, Oliver from SpeechStorm, Dave from Sophia, Anthony from Media Light Box and Anthony from EyeSpyFx.
On the final day I pitched my business and my business ideas – and people actually listened and actually understood – MatchMedia was born! I had previously pitched my business ideas a number of times before but people either didn’t understand or didn’t listen or perhaps they didn’t care. I had not only found my voice I had found my audience too- I had tasted belief!
After the course, I was invited to do a business pitch at the Halo Event in late June. Pitching at the event caused me no concern because I had my secret ingredient, “belief”, a dish served by master chef David Kirk.
After my confident pitch all fell into place rather quickly, securing an interest of private equity investment (many thanks to Alan Watts and Keith O‘ Donnell for their help and support)
On the September 25th 2009, MatchMedia Ireland Ltd sprang to life! A fledgling digital media company now worth an estimated £400,000, predominantly owned and run by me.
But, this is where the problems started:
-We had no staff
-We had no products, only ideas
-We had no premises
-No Furniture, website, or communication tools
-No accountant
-No credibility
And perhaps most worrying of all; no customers!
On the plus side we had BELIEF!
We partnered with EyeSpyFX and delivered our first product - and indeed our first revenue, 82 days later! Partnership is a fabulous thing for a fledgling business, take it from me.
One year on, we have five staff:
-a CEO, Technical Officer, Sales Manager, General Manager, and a Social Media operator.
-Two fully fledged product lines (with a third in rapid development)
-A fabulous office, in Blick Studios, Belfast
-Websites and blogs, Twitter accounts
-Support services
...and slowly gaining credibility even with those that didn’t think it could be done!
One ingredient was missing from the mix, that ingredient was belief!
It turned out I had it in my pot all along, only the best can make ordinary ingredients taste good...and there is no finer taste than the taste of belief!
As I said...what a difference a year makes!
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