Startup Boost is a global pre accelerator with a simple mission – to steer tech startups to financial success.

Launching in Austin, Detroit, Los Angeles, London, Toronto and Dublin in October 2017, Startup Boost will bring together over 100 startups in six global chapters for a six-week program.
“The idea is simple,” says Gene Murphy, co-founder. “The teams selected for Startup Boost will be there to increase their success ratio for the next stages of their business. This could be joining an accelerator program or raising seed funding. The focus will be on their business model and how they will generate revenue.”
The startups that make the program will receive weekly advice from experts in the areas of customer development, venture funding and market sizing while also having access to key local mentors with weekly one-on-one sessions to clarify their value propositions.
It’s about making money
“The focus is on revenue and preparing startups for accelerators,” says Murphy. “Startup Boost is for businesses that have made the first step and now want to scale. As a startup, you are often expected to go from first to fifth gear without ever having got up to speed in third. Our aim is to get startups up to speed before they try and hit fifth gear.”
Startup Boost takes no equity from startups on the program. After the program the businesses will have access to continued support.
“Support will come from their chapter directors as well as the growing community of community leaders within the Startup Boost network. The aim is to help them expand into new markets in Europe, Canada and the United States,” says Murphy.
Applications are now open at startupboost.org in Austin, Detroit, Los Angeles, Toronto, London and Dublin for the October cohort with interest now being accepted for chapters launching in 2018 in Amsterdam, New York, San Francisco,

Podcasts are an easy way to consume information. Here are eight great podcasts for the time-poor business owner.
The word podcast is a compound word that was first coined by BBC journalist Ben Hammersley in 2004. 
When Apple launched the iPod in 2001, it meant consumers were no longer confined to their radio or desktop to access content. Ben Hammersley combined the iPod and broadcasting to create the term ‘podcast.’ 
Business podcasts are rapidly becoming one of the most popular genres on the market. Here are just a few top business podcasts (Irish and international) for your delectation. 
Inside Business 
The Irish Times’ weekly business podcast is presented by The Irish Times’s finance correspondent Ciaran Hancock. Hancock invites experts and special guests into his Dublin studio to discuss relevant business topics. An episode can last anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour. Topics include the most up to date information on Brexit, banking and Irish business interests at home and abroad.
Start-up 
A Podcast run by Gimlet Media it focuses on what it’s like to start a podcast company. Gimlet Media was founded in 2014 by former ‘This American Life’ host Alex Bloomberg. In the first series of Start-up, it focused on every aspect from coming up with the name of the company, to how the company was founded, and how its’ co-founder came on board to grow it into the goliath it is today.

Masters of Scale 
Former LinkedIn co-founder Matt Hoffman interviews some of the world’s most influential business people about what it was like to start a company, and then scale the company to global success. In weekly episodes from the now venture capitalist, Hoffman interviews the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Sheryl Sandberg, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky and Ireland’s Patrick Collison about their journey from scrappy entrepreneurs to business giants. 
Ready Business 
Ready Business is the Irish Independent’s business podcast

An Irish invention, Modius, says it can help people lose weight without them exercising. Is this the Holy Grail of weight loss products the world has been waiting for? 
Created by Irish doctor Jason McKeown and his Scottish colleague Dr Paul McGeoch, Modius may prove to be one of the greatest inventions of all time. It could also help solve the obesity epidemic in Western societies, thus saving governments billions of euro in healthcare costs.
Modius says it can help millions of people achieve leaner bodies by reducing body fat, and it’s all thanks to neuroscience.
The device, which is the first product from the Northern Irish neuro-technology company Neurovalens, sends a signal to the part of the brain that controls fat storage. The signal then naturally causes a shift in a body’s metabolism to burn more fat, resulting in weight loss.
“A year ago we received confirmation from the FDA that we could sell the Modius device in the USA.”
The headset is available to pre-order for $449 on crowdsourcing platform Indiegogo, and it has so far raised over $1 million.
Its co-inventor Dr Jason McKeown says the headset reduced his body fat by 44 per cent. He spoke to ThinkBusiness to discuss his invention.

How did you come up with the idea for Modius?
I always wanted to be a doctor as I enjoy helping people. Parallel to that, I love technology. So I was delighted to combine both of these passions when I was invited to the University of California, San Diego to study neuro stimulation. The purpose of our research was to explore the neurological causes of weight gain and figure out a way to use technology to help people when they try to reduce their body fat.
It’s absolute scientific fact that metabolism, appetite and fat storage are controlled by an area of the

No farm? No worries. How a Tipperary urbanite, ended up producing award-winning ciders.
Over 35 years ago, James O’Donoghue’s curiosity in farming was triggered during summer holidays, spent helping out on his grandparents’ farm. As a trainee farm manager, he graduated Student of the Year from agricultural college, going on to gain experience at home and abroad across a range of agricultural enterprises.

My pathway to farming
Surprisingly, I’m not actually from a farming background. Dad was a bank manager with Bank of Ireland, and it was my grandparents who had the farm. Every summer holiday, we were quickly out the door and down to the farm. It’s from that experience, my initial interest grew.  In 1985 I qualified as a farm manager having been awarded a BoI Farm Start Award, for achieving first place in farm management. I then worked in Saudi Arabia for four years on a large dairy farm, before moving back to Ireland to manage a private co-op. Over the course of the next 15 years, I was employed as farm manager at O’Shea Brothers’ vegetable farm in Co. Kilkenny. At the time, they were farming over 3,000 acres with a staff of 110.
“We were getting a lot of calls for apples from craft cider-makers, but we couldn’t supply them, as we were contracted to C&C with our original 20-acre plantation.”
What inspired you to grow cider apples?
I always wanted to start my own business. I attended some ‘start your own business’ courses and one the main points emphasised, was to firstly focus on finding your market and then securing it. In 1998, I was lucky enough to be awarded a long-term cider-apple contract; to supply a specific ‘bitter-sweet’ type of apple to C&C (Bulmers) in Clonmel. To fulfill this contract, I purchased a 45-acre farm in 1998 and began

Anne Marie Green and her business partner Ian Kelly have launched a range of school and sports bags to help improve the lives of the children of Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam.
Anne Marie Greene (28) and her business partner Ian Kelly (26), who are both from Bray, launched DUC, a range of colourful junior bags, school bags and sports kit bags with the aim of creating opportunities for vulnerable Vietnamese children. 
Working in partnership with the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation, DUC – a shortened version of the Vietnamese word for education, giáo duc – is a one-for-one business model that pays for vaccinations, school kits, and local swimming lessons.
Drowning is one of the leading causes of death among children in Vietnam with 32 children dying from drowning every day in the country. 

What inspired you to launch DUC? 
Ian and I are both Irish, Christina Noble herself is Irish too, so naturally, it grew organically from here. 
Was it difficult to get retailers to support your idea?
No, it wasn’t, retailers like Arnotts and Mira Mira, have a tremendous sense of corporate social responsibility and our business model fit in with their CSR ethos. Of course, the fact that DUC doesn’t just donate a profit percentage to a charity but gives an actual tangible product to a child in Vietnam made it a no-brainer for a lot of the companies we approached. They have all been incredibly supportive of our venture and have become as passionate about the brand as we are.
“Nothing can be achieved without education; it is the most powerful tool.”
What was it like visiting Vietnam for the first time? 
Vietnam is such an incredible country, outside the city, the countryside is stunningly beautiful, and the cities themselves are vibrant and bustling. What I was unprepared for, was the level of poverty that exists. In the