Scale Ireland had recently rolled out a survey to gauge the sentiments of the Start-up founders in Ireland.

The results of this important survey has been released by Scale Ireland. 248 founders / CEOs responded to all the 22 questions spanning across various factors impacting the Start-ups in Ireland.

Some of the key points:-

155 people (62.5%) answered yes to the revisions brought out by Enterprise Ireland for Pre Seed funding. (Do you think Enterprise Ireland’s revised terms and conditions for PreSeed funding will improve the environment for indigenous start-ups? )

The number of start-ups with female founders or a female in the senior role is at 52%. (Does your company have a female founder or senior staff that are female? )

The survey also points out to the fact that a greater visibility for the leading female founders can help in increasing the above percentage.

One of the biggest challenges for start-ups has clearly been to secure funds. 52% of the respondents found it difficult to get their funds. The cost of living is another main concern with 163 people answered yes to this point with housing followed by staffing costs that came as the top two contributing factors.

Scale Ireland highlighted the below mentioned 6 points along with highlighting the fact that 66.9% of start-ups do not have a sustainability plan.

Finding the right skill set has also been a challenge for most of the start-ups. It can be seen that more than 50% start-ups have mentioned this in regard with Marketing & Sales followed by Finance as the next one at 30%.

The survey results emphasise on many factors which are already widely discussed and acknowledged in the ecosystem. However the survey also brings out lot of other critical parameters like how start-ups are finding the process difficult to avail schemes like Employment Incentive Investment Scheme (EIIS) and more than 80% of the respondents have not used the KEEP share options to attract / retain talent.

Scale Ireland has been a great support for the start-ups and scale up in the tech ecosystem. It is good to see organisation like this reaching out to the founders , capturing the factors that are working and not working for them . Scale Ireland had highlighted many of the points from their previous reports while making recommendations to the government in the pre budget session.

The start-ups in Ireland have great ideas, products, services and potential to grow. The launch pad is almost ready and it is just a matter of months or a year before we get to hear / read more global success stories about Ireland start-ups . The action taken in the right direction by all stakeholders involved in supporting the start-up industry will be crucial in making sure that this happens without much delay.

Link to the complete survey report of Scale Ireland: Click here