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Competitive Start Fund (CSF) - Enterprise Ireland

enterprise-ireland.com

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Re: Competitive Start Fund (CSF) - Enterprise Ireland

#51

Post by rmc »

a-priori wrote: post #32
rmc wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any of the EU half a billion people can live and work in Ireland.

Or, if your parents or grandparents are Irish diaspora, like mine, you can claim Irish citizenship fairly easily. They already consider you a citizen, technically, so there's no immigration proceedings; you just need to "register a foreign birth" and provide documentation. Actually, if that's true of any EU country with similar rules you could claim citizenship in that country and be allowed to live and work in Irela…

if your parents or grandparents are Irish diaspora, like mine, you can claim Irish citizenship fairly easily. They already consider you a citizen, technically, so there's no immigration proceedings; you just need to "register a foreign birth" and provide documentation.

Yep. More info: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/irish_ci...

Re: Competitive Start Fund (CSF) - Enterprise Ireland

#52

Post by jsb »

My pal, Robert Shedd, took his company overseas to Ireland after participating in Philadelphia's DreamIt Ventures. He's written a tiny bit about the experience thus far: http://blog.shedd.us/greetings-from-ireland%e2%80%a6/

He's definitely someone who could tell you about the culture and ecosystem from a US background if you're considering applying to the program.

Re: Competitive Start Fund (CSF) - Enterprise Ireland

#53

Post by barry-cotter »

bluelu wrote: post #39
maayank wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May someone well-versed in the dark art which is French elaborate more on this program? Is it open only to EU members? Would a startup without millions of capital might really be eligible?

Your company must be based in Luxembourg, so you must have an authorization to create a company in Luxembourg which is sometimes hard to get. But they are trying to improve things there. You will get the help only once and it will only match the investment you invest into your company as well. So if invest 0€ into your company, you will also get 0€.

You need relatively substantial skin in the game. The minimum amount necessary to register a company is somewhere between €12,500 and €31,000.

http://www.ocra.com/solutions/setbusiness_luxembourg.asp

Re: Competitive Start Fund (CSF) - Enterprise Ireland

#54

Post by elai »

irishmanirl wrote: post #45

You might get a better deal in other countries but 12.5% corporate tax is hard to beat. Also the fact that just about every silicon valley heavyweight has significant operations (dev, marketing & support) in Ireland is an indicator something is being done right over there. Cheap, regular flights from Dublin to just about anywhere in Europe make those trips to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Germany into just day trips.…

BC, Canada has an even lower tax rate and special tax breaks for tech companies.

Re: Competitive Start Fund (CSF) - Enterprise Ireland

#55

Post by boxedin »

> Must be capable of creating 10 jobs in Ireland and realising sales of €1m within 3 to 4 years of starting up.

What actually happens if the startup fails to do this?

And, what is ordinary equity? As you can tell by that question, I'm a newbie when it comes to this. Any background reading recommendations would be appreciated.

Re: Competitive Start Fund (CSF) - Enterprise Ireland

#56

Post by yeahsure »

benofsky wrote: post #42
yeahsure wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to share why you're looking for a US visa? Your comment would certainly add value to the conversation (ie Why do you think the US is better for entrepreneurs than Ireland?)

I live in Ireland and am an Irish citizen (US citizen too, hoping to move to the US). There are several reasons I would think the US is better for entrepreneurs and startups than Ireland. * The truly brilliant people tend to leave after high school, since there're no world class universities here (particularly for sciences). * People seem, in my opinion, to get quite tunneled vision in terms of what they can achieve:…

Very interesting thoughts. Thanks for sharing! Upvoted :-)

I wonder why would big corporations move there if labor laws are so strict there. Maybe they get "special" treatment in exchange for creating lots of jobs?

Also, if Dublin is so expensive, does it make sense to hire workers there who probably have to make more in exchange to get low corporate tax? Hmmm...

Re: Competitive Start Fund (CSF) - Enterprise Ireland

#58

Post by hnt »

yeahsure wrote: post #56
benofsky wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Ireland and am an Irish citizen (US citizen too, hoping to move to the US). There are several reasons I would think the US is better for entrepreneurs and startups than Ireland. * The truly brilliant people tend to leave after high school, since there're no world class universities here (particularly for sciences). * People seem, in my opinion, to get quite tunneled vision in terms of what they can achieve:…

Very interesting thoughts. Thanks for sharing! Upvoted :-) I wonder why would big corporations move there if labor laws are so strict there. Maybe they get "special" treatment in exchange for creating lots of jobs? Also, if Dublin is so expensive, does it make sense to hire workers there who probably have to make more in exchange to get low corporate tax? Hmmm...

12.5% corporate tax.

Re: Competitive Start Fund (CSF) - Enterprise Ireland

#59

Post by hnt »

As an Irish software engineer/wantrapreneur working in San Francisco here is my take on some of the comments around this article.

-Ireland is incredibly expensive for what you get, food/drink/eating out is on par or more expensive than San Francisco. The only thing thats cheaper is rent.

-Couple the previous point with the fact that Software Engineers in Ireland get paid roughly 1/3 of what they earn in the valley.

-Most good Software engineers leave the country so the ecosystem in Ireland is not so hot for finding top talent.

-Most big companies in Ireland do localization, sales/marketing, IT stuff. Very little real development is done there by big companies (i.e facebook/google/amazon).

-Infrastructure in Ireland is shit. Its a right pain in the ass to get decent broadband setup and the roads here are a joke.

If I wanted to do a lean startup in Europe I would incorporate in Ireland for the tax rate and setup shop somewhere sane like Berlin where rent and cost of living is cheap.

Re: Competitive Start Fund (CSF) - Enterprise Ireland

#60

Post by benofsky »

yeahsure wrote: post #56
benofsky wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Ireland and am an Irish citizen (US citizen too, hoping to move to the US). There are several reasons I would think the US is better for entrepreneurs and startups than Ireland. * The truly brilliant people tend to leave after high school, since there're no world class universities here (particularly for sciences). * People seem, in my opinion, to get quite tunneled vision in terms of what they can achieve:…

Very interesting thoughts. Thanks for sharing! Upvoted :-) I wonder why would big corporations move there if labor laws are so strict there. Maybe they get "special" treatment in exchange for creating lots of jobs? Also, if Dublin is so expensive, does it make sense to hire workers there who probably have to make more in exchange to get low corporate tax? Hmmm...

It's not as big a problem for the big companies like Google and IBM since they can afford to pay people off, they can also afford to have a more extensive hiring process in the first place.

Dublin is definitely not so expensive that it outweighs the benefit of a 12.5% corporation tax, which is more than twice less than most other EU countries.

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