John Brady – Ireland – Bowsy.com
Welcome to our “How Is It? Worldwide Edition” concept. Our country today is Ireland. Our guest is John Brady, a successful business person. In this interview, you will learn what awaits an entrepreneur in Ireland thanks to Mr. Brady.
Let’s learn about How Is It in Irish entrepreneurship!
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Could you briefly tell us about yourself?
I am originally from Ireland and have been lucky enough to enjoy an international career working as a Marketing Director for a FTSE100 company before I left my job to start up my own business in Ireland. My work brought me to many amazing places and I have lived with my family in over 8 different countries including Indonesia, Iran, Poland, the United States and most recently Croatia.
My wife is from Australia and I have two wonderful children, who were the inspiration for me starting my own business.
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Could you briefly tell us about your initiative?
My start-up is called Bowsy and we are creating a new market place that connects university students with businesses through remote and study related project work.
There is a huge, digitally savvy, untapped workforce out there waiting to connect with businesses and academic research shows that universoty students who are lucky enough to work in a part time job related to their field of study are amongst the best academic performers and go on to enjoy better networks and careers. Yet the vast majority of students are still working in traditional part time jobs. Bowsy wants to change this.
I started the business in 2019 when my daughter was preparing to apply for university and I realised that despite the changes in technology, not a lot has changed for students in the 20 years since I graduated. Highly skilled students are still driving, delivering, working in restaurants and bars. Same as I did when I was a university student in 1994.
Bowsy is reinventing how students earn a living and how companies attract talent and we are begining to be recognised. Since we launched the business, we were selected as the “Top Tech Start-up 2020” at the Irish National Start-up Awards sponsored by Microsoft and Enterprise Ireland, as well as more recently winning the “Premier Cup” pitch event in the USA where we are now the first Irish start-up partnering with one of the leading HR Tech Accelerators in the United States.
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What does the definition of Entrepreneurship in your country mean?
I think entrpreneurs are looked on very positively in Ireland and we are very proud of our successes. It can sometimes mean risking everything to realise a vision that you believe in and it is about building something much bigger than yourself. Ultimately, if successful, it can benefit everyone through employment and exports and that is why it is a very important part of the Irish culture.
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What are the easy and difficult aspects of being an entrepreneur in your country? How is it in Ireland?
Firstly, entrepreneurship is very actively supported by the Irish government at home and abroad. In Ireland, we have a government organisation called Enterprise Ireland whose sole purpose is to support and promote Irish startups from the seed of an idea to promotions in other markets. Enterprise Ireland is very unique as they offices in over 30 countries throughout the World to help Irish business grow. Bowsy is already benefiting from this and for example we are working with the Enterprise Ireland team in the United States who are helping us with our expansion plans there.
The other very positive aspect of being an entrepreneur in Ireland is the tangible financial support a start-up will receive through various government grants and schemes. One example that Bowsy benefited from is the EIIS Scheme (Employment and Invesment Incentive Scheme) where Irish tax payers will get 40% tax relief for investing in approved Irish companies. The Irish government through Enterprise Ireland will then also match private investment in a startup. This means that if a private individual invests 100,000 euros in a start-up, they will receive 40,000 euros back in tax relief and then Enterprise Ireland will match the investment with an addittional 100,000 euros. So for a net investment of 60,000 euros an Irish start-up could potentially receive 200,000 euros!
On the other side, one of the main challenges of being an entrpreneur in Ireland is the limits of the market size, we are only 4.9mn people, but the Irish government is very aware of this and this is one of the main reasons we have government bodies such as Enterprise Ireland and the IDA (Industrial Development Authority) to help Irish businesses grow abroad.
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What is the path an entrepreneur must follow in order to establish his/her company?
How is it in Ireland?
Like any other country, early traction is critical to get investment and establish your company. It took Bowsy over 18 months to generate the right level of revenue for our current seed funding round.
At the start, most start-ups are boot-strapped but will receive a lot of support from the government and start-up networks to help validate your business concept.
Once you have a validated concept, it can take several years to get to the right level of revenue to justify investment to traditional venture capital companies but that process is now shortening with the growth of established crowdfunding businesses in Ireland and this is the route that we took with an Irish company called Spark Crowdfunding.
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Is there a support state support for entrepreneurs in your country, and if so, what are the conditions?
Irish start-ups are supported from ideation through to international expansion by the Irish government. From small scale start-ups that are supported by one of the 31 LEOs (Local Enterprise Offices) to larger scales start-ups who are supported by Enterprise Ireland.
Support can take many forms, from employment grants, to mentoring, to significant investments in a new business of up to 300,000 euros.
For very new start-ups, the Irish government has the Competitive Startup Fund (CSF) where Irish businesses with good ideas can get a 50,000 euro startup grant,
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How is it in Ireland? What are the tax obligations an entrepreneur will face?
There is a favourable tax environment for both entrepreneurs and investors in Ireland. For entrepreneurs there is significant tax relief for companies that are investing heavily in R&D, while for investors they can get upto 40% of their tax back for investing in approved Irish start-ups.
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Can people from abroad undertake such start-up projects in your country?
Yes, so long as the business is headquartered in Ireland they can avail of alot of the support that any Irish business would receive in the country. The Irish Industrial Development Authority (IDA) also provide a lot of assistance for companies that want to invest or move to Ireland. That is one of the main reasons that Ireland has so many international tech companies with their European headquarters in Ireland such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Twitter.
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How is it in Ireland? How much money does the entrepreneur earn on average?
For most entrepreneurs, the motivation is about the growth potential of the company and the value of the equity that you have in your business.
Based on this, in the early stages, upto when a company has received seed funding, an entrepreneur may receive little if any salary.
After seedfunding the salary can be anywhere from 20,000 to 60,000 euros for the initial years of the company against a background in Ireland where the average salary is approximately 40,000 euros. After the initial growth stage, the salary can be significant depending on the success or failure of your company.
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How is it in Ireland? What are the conditions for receiving investments in your country?
You need to be resident in Ireland and your business needs to be registered in Ireland but most importantly you need a good idea.
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Any advice you want to give to our readers?
After 20 years working for an international company, I am still learning lessons from being an entrepreneur. The main advice I would give is that there is never a perfect time to become an entrepreneur but if you are passionate about something and have a good idea, it is always the right time!
You can access Bowsy’s website here.
You can access Bowsy’s Linkedin account here.
You can access John Brady’s Linkedin account here.
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