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Last week I got the opportunity to be a mentor to some early stage startups for two days at http://www.startupbootcamp.org. Myself and about thirty other mentors did a two-day evaluation of sixteen start ups in a speed dating format. At the end of the two days, sixteen startups were whittled down to eight. Those eight startups undergo an intensive three-month acceleration program. In May, they’ll have a demo day in front of potential investors to see if they can bring it to the next level.

Starupbootcamp has a few tips http://www.startupbootcamp.org/details/ on how to get accepted to the program. Listening to all the startups, I began to wonder if Realex Payments would have been eligible for the Startupbootcamp program back in the early days?

Tip #1: Be Resilient
Startups take time, and that requires entrepreneurs to be dogged. For Realex Payments, it took one year to get one customer, two years to get nineteen customers – we have over five thousand in 2012. It takes time and unwavering self-belief to build the customer base to make it all worthwhile.

Tip #2: Be 100% Committed
It’s hard to be 100% committed when there are bills to pay. Many of the teams involved were doing project work and consultancy on the side. Back in 2000, Colm Lyon founded Realex Payments. He was Head of Central IT in Ulster Bank, and left a good job to run with an idea of setting up a Payment Gateway. With no distractions (or safety net!), all his considerable energies were put into developing Realex Payments.

Tip #3: Be a Team
Most of the teams I met had worked together before, and a few were family members (brothers or husband and wife). Team dynamics are just as, if not more important, than the idea and the product. In the case of Realex Payments, Colm Lyon co-founded the company with Owen O’Byrne. Colm had worked with Owen in Ulster Bank. They had history. They’re still creating history (Owen heads up our Product Strategy).

Well done to Eoghan Jennings for organising the 2-day event while getting The Factory fitted out – no mean feat! And congratulations to the first batch of 8 teams for 2012 at Startupbootcamp Dublin: