Getting creative with funding: “Your business is not always morally entitled to their money”

"In the rush to go quickly sometimes you'll miss why your product is innovative, why your product is defensible."

Cian O Flaherty, founder and CEO of Safecility, knows a thing or two when it comes to getting the correct funding to ensure business growth. His company, Safecility, is a tech system that uses data to analyse the safety and situation of a building or site. Speaking on JOE's business show, All In, backed by AIB, Cian spoke about his journey of bringing his product to the market through hard cash, soft supports and a fairly robust ecosystem of partners, and how getting funding in business is a two-way street. "Rejection is part and parcel of the course as well. I mean, the other side of the house, they've a business model, they've a business that they're following, you have to respect that. "Your business is not always morally entitled to their money, you have to make it work for them and they're expecting certain things and certain time frames and if you can't deliver it's not going to work," he continues. "But we had to be a bit more creative about how we got initial funding in, we've been lucky enough to get H2020 support, European Space Agency support, and innovation support from Enterprise Ireland and small business innovation contracts with Limerick city and Dun Laoghaire council. "That has filled a gap that would otherwise be there in our business that has allowed the team to build a product here and grow something from Ireland." "You come out with a much stronger business proposition when you do go for funding, because it’s defensible, it’s proven, and you've put all of the time and effort in to mapping how it's a good product. "In the rush to go quickly sometimes you'll miss why your product is innovative, why your product is defensible, and you'll miss the opportunities to get those steps right. "And once you go into a big market with a big competitor, that weakness could actually be the one that ends up blowing a hole below the waterline." 

All In, backed by AIB, is available everywhere you get your podcasts and on YouTube.