Conor O’Neill of Argolon has a great post on his blog discussing a method of jump-starting tech startup companies in Ireland. I think his ideas are right on the money, and relatively easy to put into action anywhere. The idea centers around creating a summer “hothouse” to help college students get rolling with ideas for new products. To his list of ideas, I would add just a couple of suggestions:
- Supporting companies should offer mentors on all aspects of business – not just fundraising, but management, leadership, community responsibility, etc.
- There should be monies available for the startup folks to travel to one or two conferences during the summer.
- There should be regular events along the lines of OpenCoffee or BarCamps set up specifically for these startups. These kinds of events will be helpful for the startups, but also for the supporting companies and the larger tech community.