Why doesn’t a country good enough to produce Ryanair and Stripe have a normal venture fund industry?
Alan Merriman spent three years lobbying the Irish government just to be allowed to launch one, and what he ran into along the way says more about Ireland’s capital gap than most economic reports ever will.
Merriman built Elkstone from a boutique advisory firm into one of Ireland's most active venture investors, and in this conversation he's candid about what it actually took to get there.
“When you’re judging a founder, it’s not just about their intellectual ability. Are they great storytellers? Are they visionaries? Can they attract the right type of talent? Even more importantly, can they retain the talent?” Alan says.
“There’s a lot of contradictions in venture. You want founders to be confident. You want them to be a little cocky. But you also want them to be humble and you want them to be coachable.”
In this episode, you'll learn:
- Why Ireland’s tax code made venture investing nearly impossible before 2022, and what it took to change it
- Why Merriman puts the quality of a founder at eighty percent of any investment decision, and what he’s really screening for
- Why Elkstone bets on the country instead of a sector, and what that says about the depth of the Irish market
- What Merriman calls “network compounding,” and his pitch for why the Irish diaspora is worth more than its checkbook
For Irish insights on what it actually takes to build serious venture capital in a small country, or how Merriman makes the case for engaging the Irish diaspora as more than a source of sentiment, this episode of Irish Stew tells the story.
You can listen to Alan Merriman on the Irish Stew Podcast here:
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