A hill of beans or a crock of gold?

Jackie Maguire, CEO, Meath County Council

31^st January 2017

 US to block early stage companies?

Is it possible that US President Donald Trump is about to ban early stage entrepreneurs from outside the US from locating in the US? I’ve just been reading a story on the new online investment news website Axios (@Axios) written by the highly regarded journalist Dan Primack (@DanPrimack) who writes today, “President Trump is planning to kill a program that would have encouraged startup company founders to immigrate to the United States, according to a draft executive order viewed by Axios.”

Meath is open for business

We’re only a week plus into the Trump era and already we know that anything is possible so we’ll wait and see what, if anything, comes of it. However, for any of those companies who would consider Ireland as an alternative home, we in Meath would like to talk to you. Subject to the ordinary law of the land Ireland remains, as it always has been, ‘Ireland of the Welcomes’. Tá fáilte romhaibh anseo.

The ‘Near America Experience’

As a non-Irish early stage company, if Silicon Valley is your target, but these potential new laws block you, then you could base your company in Meath. We’re less than half an hour from Dublin Airport. That makes you a direct flight away from New York, Chicago or San Francisco. You can effectively be in the States, no matter what the restrictions are.

The big names are already here

There are many, many incentives to base your business in Ireland. We work very closely with our colleagues at the Industrial Development Authority (@IDAIreland) the world leading industrial development agency. Ireland has many of the world’s leading tech companies based here, and more of them are choosing Meath as their preferred location for ease of doing international business.

Money’s too tight to mention

We know that early stage companies are always financially strapped and we know how much it costs to have the bare minimum of a base camp office in San Francisco. The most basic accommodation, a bed with cooking facilities can cost thousands of dollars in or around San Francisco. For comparisons I’ve just looked at property website Daft.ie which shows that for half the price of a San Francisco single bed apartment you can rent a five bedroomed house in Navan, a purple flag town, situated just over half an hour from Dublin Airport.

Your crock of gold awaits

This Trump story may eventually not amount to a hill of beans but while you’re waiting for your enterprise dreams to turn to into a crock of gold we want you to come to #MakeItMeath . Contact our Enterprise Development Team now and let your dreams take flight.