GOSHIDO, A Limerick company which has developed software for managing projects, has completed a private fundraising round using only the social networking website LinkedIn.
According to executive chairman Frank Hannigan, the company is selling off 10 slots to investors at €25,000 each – each equivalent to a 2 per cent stake in the company.
Seven hundred e-mails were sent to potential investors through LinkedIn earlier this month, generating 200 replies by phone, e-mail and Twitter. The company raised €162,500 in just eight days.
Mr Hannigan, who joined the company in October and has taken one of the investment slots, called the response “an amazing result”.
He said it showed Irish businesses could exploit the potential of LinkedIn, which was about more than just contacts and recruitment.
“I’m blown away by it and it gives the lie to people who say social networking is just about Facebook.”
Until now, Goshido had been self-funded by its founder Ger Hartnett, who set up the company in 2008. He previously spent eight years at Intel as an engineering architect where he led teams which delivered three processors. He also worked for Tellabs, Digital and Motorola.
Goshido is intended to fill a gap that exists between simple web-based task-sharing tools and more complex, and expensive, enterprise workflow software. The web-based application breaks a project into actions and updates which people can use to create a scalable plan which allows team members to put their work in perspective while giving project managers a dashboard on all activity.
As a project progresses, anyone on the team can create, complete, update and delegate actions.
“It’s especially for knowledge workers who are stretched to the point of inefficiency by the number of e-mails coming at them and the number of different tasks they have to work on,” Mr Hannigan said.
Over the next six months, the software will be available as part of a closed beta-testing programme. Initially Goshido is mostly aimed at games development and media production teams.
The company has already signed up several customers in Ireland, Britain, Germany, Serbia and the US. Mr Hannigan said some were already paying a fee for the product. “We’re not looking for a huge amount of revenue from them this year. We’re getting huge insight from them into how they use the product.”
Goshido plans to raise an additional €200,000 from Enterprise Ireland this year.
