Meet The Entrepreneur: Jenny Ervine - Raise Ventures

Jenny Ervine, co-founder of Raise Ventures has always had a passion for marketing and storytelling.

Throughout her career Jenny has worked in start-ups or with start-ups with her journey taking her “through working with private sector, public sector, small business, startups and corporates.

“No matter who you are marketing or selling to, it’s all about the story.”

Find out more about Jenny and The Raise:

Tell us a bit about your business?

Raise is the only private startup accelerator in Northern Ireland. There are one or two programmes aligned to banks and the government programmes. However as we are privately led, it’s in our interest to help our startups as we have skin in the game. We also work a lot on community and building the ecosystem, helping those people who have ideas and helping them find the right help to match their stage of idea.

We have a small team but a wealth of experience and a long legacy of being part of the ecosystem, both working with startups, community and investors.

What we do is take startups through a programme where we teach them the things they need to know. We provide opportunities for those who want to embrace and learn and then push them out into the real world, with support and introductions. Sometimes they fly, sometimes they need a bit of extra hand holding. But they are ready to take the next step for their business to build, commercialise and look for investment. .

How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Ten years ago Start VI was piloted by two of the Raise Co Founders. The foundations of the accelerator then created a report for Invest NI. This changed the director of support from Invest NI whereby they started to put together their own accelerator programme.

However ten years later, there is still a gap, whereby startups need to learn what investors are looking for and then need to be introduced to investors.

The first stage of Raise was the Raise pitching events started in 2017, the first open startup pitching events in Northern Ireland. Following the success of the events, the Raise accelerator programme started in 2019 in the Cathedral Quarter with a seasoned and incredibly insightful team.

Who/What inspired you to start your business?

Startups need support – this created the opportunity. We show entrepreneurs how not only to build and commercialise a startup but to understand investment, cap tables and valuations so they are prepared for the future and for investor conversations. Seeing so many startups with cap tables or term sheets that are at the disadvantage of the founder inspired Raise. We are on the side of the founders and it’s in our interest to help them succeed..

Who is your target market?

Startups and investors. We are looking for people in these two sectors to educate and introduce. With some great early stage founders from industry or technical background, they bring solutions to real problems which are interesting for investors to invest in.

What gap in the market does your business fill?

Raise fills the gap of being the only private accelerator. We are unique in that we focus on quality not quantity and we have skin in the game. We support Northern Ireland startups, but also have reach across the UK and Ireland with startups from London and Dublin.

Have you received any significant funding for your business?

Raise has been privately funded and like all product businesses, make their money in the long tail. They need time to build and allow the market to mature and grow. It’s different for service businesses that usually have no longer than 30 days to realise the fruits of their labour. A startup can take months or years for the big payoff. Risks are greater but so are the rewards.

Who are your main competitors and what do you think sets your company apart from them?

Our competitors are not normal competitors. One is a well funded government programme, linked into the government funds which gives away free money. That is a competitor that’s almost impossible to beat but they have no commercial interest in the startups.Other players in the market are the likes of the Ulster Bank Accelerator. They’re one of our largest potential allies. We’re not going after the same things and we address things slightly differently.

What is your vision for the company over the next few years?

We’ll help entrepreneurs build and grow their companies, help them sell their companies either to an acquirer or in an IPO. A single IPO could be the best thing to happen to Northern Ireland – we have precious few of them in the country.

What are the main achievements of the company so far?

We have some successful early stage tech companies who have built a product, have customers and have received investment.

We run a series of events focused on startups and the community that are second to none and we do it at a fraction of the budget of our competitors.
The startups on our programme get immense benefits from it and really value the support.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt so far?

The best qualities of an entrepreneur are not the ones you’d expect. There isn’t a cv long enough to capture all the jobs and qualities that a founder will have. The best qualities of an entrepreneur are those willing to get on and do things, resilience, optimism, pragmatism, adaptability and a sense of humour.

What advice would you give to someone thinking of starting a business?

Starting a business is something anyone can do. But for founders that want to start a startup and scale, who have ambition and want to grow a global company, they should come and talk to us.