Double Exit

Raising finance at the start up stage can be one of the most difficult issues for a business. One important source of funding for young businesses can be business angels. These are wealthy private individuals who typically have had prior success with their own businesses and wish to invest capital in young growing businesses. This is essentially what the dragons are from Dragon’s Den.

One of the big benefits of business angels is that the start up business is getting more than just capital, it is also getting an experienced business person (or several if a collection of business angels come together to form a syndicate) that can help mentor the entrepreneur through the growth phase of the business and give them access to their contacts and industry knowledge.

There are many business angel networks in Ireland  – HBAN (Halo Business Angel Network) is a good place to start looking in this regard.

See here for a great podcast on the area of business angels and how it works in practice.