If Conor O'Connor had followed in the family tradition, he might have become a builder, like his grandfather, or an architect, like his father. But he admits "I couldn't draw, for a start," so after school at Castleknock, he took himself off to UCD and did a B Comm and a postgraduate course in accounting.
He worked with the accountancy firm Price Waterhouse and did corporate work with Davy's and NCB stockbrokers, before joining venture capital company Enterprise Equity in 1991. In 1996, he became chief executive of the company and this year is chairman of the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA).
"It's actually a fascinating business. It's, I suppose, intensive in terms of hours but, at the end of the day, very rewarding if you can get it right. I have been very fortunate in finding something I love doing. It makes a huge difference."
Venture capital is a relatively new sector in the Republic, but well-established for more than 50 years in the US where its origins were in Silicon Valley.
"It started small scale and convinced people the concept made sense and moved from there. Today, venture capital is a major asset class. We want to try to promote the same concept in Ireland. Ultimately, if we can, there are benefits for everybody."
There are 16 full venture capital companies in the membership of the IVCA and 22 associate members. A recent survey shows, since 1997, they have invested a total of £376 million (€477 million) in 400 companies. The level of investment grew by 93 per in 2000 over the 1997 level and 75 per cent of the amount invested was in technology companies.
"If you had double that number of companies, just think of the benefits to the economy and the benefits of determining your own fate. I am very interested in trying to see can we move towards a knowledge-based economy," Mr O'Connor says.
His own company, Enterprise Equity, is one of two set up in the late 1980s by the International Fund for Ireland. From his office in Dundalk, which has just two other investment executives, he covers the Border areas in the Republic and shortly will open an office in Galway to service the western counties. The other company operates in the border region in Northern Ireland.
Starting with a £14.4 million fund, Enterprise Equity was mandated to invest the money on a commercial basis to sustain itself long-term and generate a commercial rate of return. To date, it has invested £3 million a year in more than 60 companies.
"That compares with the £14.4 million we were given - the difference is successful realisations and returns from projects we have invested in, which allowed us to continue investing in new enterprises.
"It's an evergreen fund - basically a revolving fund where we have a fixed capital base and anything else goes into the pot to be reinvested. If you're investing successfully, your pot grows; if not your capital gets whittled away," he says.
Because Enterprise Equity's remit is to operate as a regional venture capital company it is a little different from the other major players, which don't have any geographical restriction. Indeed, apart from a little more than £13 million invested in Connacht and Ulster, the remainder of the £164 million invested last year by capital venture companies was invested in the Dublin region.
"There are good investing opportunities on the ground in the regions. We are a dedicated fund that is ready and willing to supply that need and develop the market a bit," he says.
Venture capital is a concept that has to be promoted so that people - who can't raise debt because of lack of property or fixed assets in a situation where they are setting up a business, participating in a management buyout or planning expansion - would consider it automatically as an option, he says.
"We're gradually developing an economy which has an indigenous technology base. Crucial to that development is a finance mechanism to get technology projects off the ground and develop them internationally. Basically, you need people prepared to take a risk and people to back them. That is the business our members are in.
"In its simplest form, it comes down to a couple of high-profile success stories. If you can replicate that across the economy, you're talking about developing a significant indigenous technology base. We should try to become masters of our own destiny. If we're subject to the swings and roundabouts of external forces, that leaves things very volatile," he says.
The reason so much of the venture capital investment has gone to technology companies is, he believes, in the long-term they will produce a higher rate of return. And investors are not put off by the downturn in the sector.
"It doesn't matter that the bubble has burst," he says. "I would prefer to be investing at the bottom of the cycle rather than the top of the bubble. While things are not great at the moment, our members invest for the long term. Clearly, investment levels will be down this year.
"Raising hundreds of millions of pounds on an annual basis now demonstrates overall that the Irish venture capital community has taken a reasonably solid approach to things - not for a minute to deny that the market conditions which existed 12 months ago didn't impinge on people."
Enterprise Equity invests small amounts - £500,000 to £1 million - into the companies Mr O'Connor selects. An examples of its success stories is BCO Technologies, taken over by Analog Devices for £100 million sterling (€159 million) - "the return was huge".
Another success story is Datacare Software in Monaghan, which now develops corporate compliance software for the US and Canada. Also Ansamed, a former subsidiary of the US corporation Adam Spence, in Boyle, Co Roscommon, which manufactures medical devices; it got involved in the management buyout of the company.
Mr O'Connor says he and his two colleagues personally vet each company, doing an accounting due diligence and ordering a specialist technical due diligence where required. They don't wait for companies to come to them but make direct contact. It takes an average of 12 to 16 weeks from initial contact to closing the investment.
"The moment we write a cheque to the company and it crosses the table, we have to be reasonably sure in our minds that we understand the business very well. We're not giving them a loan that we can call in or enforce security on. It's risk finance and the only way you get a return is ultimately if the enterprise is successful.
"Basically we have got to look at what are the key drivers in the business, what makes it successful, what are the things that customers are looking for. You would look at the market in terms of the customer base the company is targeting, and figure out if there is scope for the company to grow and develop.
"In the technology area, a number of companies make fantastic products - a major problem area is distribution.
"The odd thing about it is that within six to 12 months of investing, you know you have identified the key factors which are going to make this a success or not a success.
"In terms of the 60-odd companies Enterprise Equity would have invested in, only a handful would have gone completely out of business."
Venture capital is definitely not a gamble, he insists, but a calculated risk. "You can't do your business without occasional failure - that is a hazard of the profession," he says.
But the only way members of his association can raise millions each year from institutional investors is if they have a proven track record.
"Venture capital is very democratic - in 99 per cent of cases, management will have a shareholding and also you have employee participation, so you actually find - in terms of drivers of growth and creators of value - that venture capital companies perform better than maybe non-venture capital companies."
A 39-year old Dubliner, Mr O'Connor is married to Dorothy, a teacher, and they have two children, Stephanie, who is four, and two-year old Adrian.
To relax, after long hours in the office, he plays tennis and walks a lot around the Dundalk and Carlingford area and reads "anything other than business.
"At the moment I am reading a John le Carre and the Dalai Lama."
