ONE HAS to admire any entrepreneur who has the guts to launch a new venture in the teeth of the recession. Doubly so one that relies on other businesses raising funding for their ideas.

Billed as Dragons’ Den meets YouTube, Cmypitch.ie is a website that enables aspiring start-ups to upload a video pitch which can be viewed by potential investors.

As well as providing a platform to attract the attention of angel investors Cmypitch has video tips on becoming “investor ready” from Irish and international entrepreneurs including former Formula 1 supremo Eddie Jordan, Dragons’ Den panelists James Caan and Doug Richard, and the man who could be argued to be Ireland’s most successful e-commerce player, Ray Nolan.

The site is the brainchild of Emmet Kilduff, the son of one of Ireland’s first successful software entrepreneurs – Kindle founder Tony Kilduff.

A dotcom version of the site launched in Britain last summer, where the more formal networks of about 20,000 angel investors provide a decent base of users. The site will make money by charging start-ups when they are contacted by an investor as well as charging for pitches at real-world events dubbed “cmypitch Live”.

“Access to equity funding in Ireland is virtually non-existent, yet there are angel investors out there, including my father, who have no formal way of sourcing good opportunities,” explains Kilduff.

“This is what drove me to launch cmypitch.ie. I want to help good entrepreneurs to find funding to fuel their business dream.”

Kilduff jnr certainly has a pedigree that suggests he might just succeed. He spent nine years as an investment banker with Credit Suisse where he raised over £10 billion for clients which included Eddie O’Connor’s Airtricity and Barry O’Callaghan’s Riverdeep. His favourite deal he says was the 2007 flotation of moneysupermarket.com on the London exchange.

The prescience Kilduff displayed in getting out of investment banking just before the banking meltdown should stand him in good stead with cmypitch.