The best ideas often emerge from difficult experiences. Fleet is one such idea.
What sparks great business ideas? Truly disruptive ideas often emerge from bad experiences. They are solutions to problems. In the case of Maurice Sheehy, his idea sprang to life following a horrendous time when booking a rental car.
Why couldn’t it be like Airbnb?
On a holiday to the Canaries a few years ago, Sheehy and his friends booked a house on Airbnb. They had also booked a rental car.
The Airbnb experience was smooth and seamless, he says. “However, when it came to the car booking, that was a nightmare. We were hours waiting for it to happen and then we were upsold stuff we didn’t need, and it cost us double what we had thought we should pay. When we got to the Airbnb, we noticed the owner’s car parked outside. It remained there all week. We talked about this and said wouldn’t it be great if we could have got a taxi to the house and then rented the owner’s car when we needed it? Why couldn’t our rental car experience be like our Airbnb experience? The car rental company left a very sour taste in my mouth, and that’s when the seed was sown for what is now Fleet.”
Sheehy, an entrepreneur from Wicklow, who owns the Pure Fitness gyms in Wicklow town and Arklow, describes his new business as the ‘Airbnb for cars’.
So, what’s the business model?
People who sign up for the service can rent other people’s cars and can list their cars as well.
The idea is simple – people can have their cars make money for them while they are not in use. Garages can also list any unsold cars they may be struggling to sell. These cars must be taxed and have an NCT.
The Fleet app

Companies have built rigid structures in a world which has become more fluid. They need to change. Stephen Conmy talks to Bernard Flynn, CEO of Katawave, a ‘GPS’ for business leaders to help them navigate disruptive times and survive.

First, let’s go back to where you started in business. Lean optimisation – what did you aim for when you worked for companies? What do you look to remove? What do you keep? How does it work?
Ultimately, we looked to reduce manufacturing costs. Lean optimisation is the identification and elimination of waste.
We either reduced waste to allow for more capacity in a factory, (so there was an opportunity to create more product) or reduced CapEx by avoiding buying new equipment or not having to buy new stuff so often.
We pioneered lean and lean thinking in service-based operations. This approach (which was new at the time) included financial services. The step we took was from optimising companies to optimising industries and sectors. We eliminated 100s of millions of euros out of fat systems.
“By using the art of strategic imagination we bring leaders on a journey and inform them of real patterns, then they can ask the right questions.”
Now let’s jump to where you are now, what you are seeing, what you are solving with your new business?
The world of lean led me to a fundamental question. The challenge we identified is that you can optimise a bad business or a dying business, but it will still be optimised on the way down or worse, on the way out.
I asked: “Is it better to be a smart business over being an optimised one?” I explored the world of innovation. There was lots of tools and techniques and a whole lot of opinion. I could not find a repeatable process and methodology that could allow innovation.
“Businesses are

Not many people know this, but one of the best classical guitar makers in the world is based just outside Carlow town.
Father and son team, Michael and Alec O’Leary have combined their unique set of talents – as a luthier and accomplished classical guitarist – to make guitars, which are in demand by the world’s top performing artists, including the internationally recognised Berta Rojas from Paraguay.
For almost 30 years, Michael O’Leary had operated as production manager at Lapple in Carlow, responsible for the supply of steel panels to the European motor industry. In 2002, he was offered a redundancy package, which he accepted with a mixture of some relief and uncertainty about what the future might hold. It’s a compelling story about adapting to change; using the resources to hand, and developing a very successful niche business while acquiring world-famous artists as customers.

Why classical guitars?
I suppose there was a pattern to it. We all play music, and I learned to play, without any formal training. My father played guitar, and we had a traditional band in Graiguenamanagh, Co.Kilkenny back in the 60s.
In turn, I introduced my son Alec to the Spanish (or classical guitar). Alec then went on to study for a performance degree under virtuoso John Feely, who was in charge of the guitar faculty in DIT at the time. I suppose that’s what sparked my interest. While Alec was attending DIT, we were buying guitars, and as he progressed, he was always seeking to play a better quality classical guitar instrument.
What motivated you to make your first classical guitar?
At the time, I was looking for something to do. Alec was also looking for a guitar, with sufficient sweetness and volume, but was unable to find one that suited his needs. I set about making a guitar, researched from

This weight loss ‘miracle’ tech firm from Northern Ireland has broken a crowdfunding record. 

Neurovalens, the Belfast-based startup previously featured on ThinkBusiness, has raised almost £1.2 million during its 60 day IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign. It is the most successful fund-raising campaign ever run by a Northern Ireland company on the IndieGoGo platform.
The campaign, which raised money from more than 4,000 crowd funders across 84 countries, has been hailed as an “outstanding success” by Neurovalens’ early investor – Techstart NI. 
The original target for Modius was overwhelmingly surpassed which meant the company can expand its team and start exporting products worldwide.
“We know we can help adults with weight-loss.”
 
 A significant market opportunity
“Neurovalens exists to improve lives through neuroscience, and for our first product to receive such an overwhelming response from around the world tells us we have a significant market opportunity, and that people want wearables which actively help them,” says Neurovalens CEO, Jason McKeown.
“We see Modius as the first generation of ‘careable technology,’ in our case helping people get lean through stimulation of the vestibular nerve – we know we can help adults with weight-loss. We think we’re in the foothills of a neuroscience-led revolution in global health.”
The Modius headset remains available for sale on the IndieGoGo website.

Co-founder of Simply Fit Food (SFF) Evelyn Garland spoke to ThinkBusiness about the highs and lows of starting a food business in Ireland. 
Simply Fit Food (SFF) was set up by sports-mad couple Evelyn Garland (23) and Luke Judge (25) after Luke was diagnosed with a heart condition in January 2016.
With degrees in food and agribusiness management from UCD and health and physical activity from DKIT, they made the jump into business life and started an online meal delivery company.
The idea behind SFF came from personal experience when both realised the difficulties of maintaining a healthy diet while training, whether it be with their respective GAA clubs, or following sessions at the gym.
“We know how hard it can be to eat healthily and stay on track when time isn’t on our side. With both of us working and training and with very little time to cook, we figured more people like us must feel the same way. So we thought why not provide a simple, convenient way of eating healthy, delicious food five days a week while staying on track.”
“Most people, if not everyone, thought we were absolutely insane starting a business, especially as a couple.”
Local, healthy, quick
SFF delivers healthy meals and snacks using locally-sourced ingredients straight to your home, and the company offers quicker delivery times than their competitors in the market.
“Local ingredients in our food are extremely important to us as we can track exactly what’s in our meals. Our customers only have to ever wait three working days for a delivery of fresh food. Customers who order from other companies in Ireland with a similar model have to wait over a week for their delivery if they order after the deadline.”
It wasn’t easy
Starting SFF proved a difficult process for the young couple, as they decided to fund their

The Invent Awards recognise the best new inventions emerging from Northern Ireland each year. 
The 2017 Invent Awards winners have been announced. Held at the Waterfront Conference Centre in Belfast, the annual awards recognise Northern Ireland’s latest breakthrough inventions.
The overall winner of Invent 2017 went to Phion Therapeutics developed by Dr. Helen McCarthy (pictured above centre). Dr. McCarthy won a prize package worth £13,000 and one of the sought after spaces on the NI Tech Mission to California in January 2018.
Phion Therapeutics aims to revolutionise how drugs are delivered to parts of the human body.
“Phion has been able to concentrate various anionic drugs into tumours while preventing delivery to normal or healthy tissue and cells. This is potentially revolutionary for the treatment of cancer,” says Professor Helen McCarthy from the School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University Belfast. “The list of potential applications is almost limitless.”
The other winners on the night
The five category winners, who received £3,000 and a place on the NI Tech Mission were:

KegoMatic, the brainchild of six electrical engineering students from Queen’s University Belfast – Connor McGurk, Connor Carville, Donovan Campbell, Patrick Devlin, Bryan Murphy and Aaron Rath – is an automated beer keg solution.
Evy, a smart tracking bag, was created by Queen’s University Belfast students Niamh Tohill, Andrew Cunningham, Vincent Kearney, Nathan Steenson and Matthew Whiteside.
Seatview, founded by Graham Little, Andrew Murray, and Stuart Ogg and provides customers with a 360-degree virtual reality view from their allocated seats.
Uleska, founded by experienced entrepreneur Gary Robinson builds cybersecurity into web applications while they are being built.
Hug, created by product designer Fiona Bennington, is a wearable heat pack.

For more information on Invent 2017 visit invent2017.co. The awards are sponsored by Bank of Ireland and Connect at Catalyst Inc. 

Related Resource

Ten Irish inventions that changed the world. 

ExamLearn, which was founded by three secondary school friends, is a fascinating new Irish Edtech startup. Here, one of the founders – Jack Manning – talks about building a business based on a big gap in the market. 

How and why did you start? 
ExamLearn was initially called JC-Learn. Me and two friends, Johnnie Bell and Eamonn Flannery, set it up shortly after getting our Junior Cert results (where we achieved a combined 30 As). We felt there was a lack of technology around the school study process. We also wanted to combat the need for expensive grinds and revision books so that anyone in Ireland could achieve a high grade, regardless of how much money they had to spend on education. We set about outlining all the most important features of an effective study plan: subject notes, A-grade past exam answers and expert study advice.
“Many older Edtech companies are behind the times when it comes to content and user experience”
How long did you spend on your business plan before your launch?
We initially didn’t spend any time on a business plan as we just got straight to work. We were completely inexperienced when it came to planning a  business model. However, after working on ExamLearn for a few weeks we became aware of the Student Enterprise Awards run by the Local Enterprise Offices. When we entered, we had to form a business plan and were given guidelines and workshops on how to do so. This provided some direction for our fledgeling business and allowed us to think about the more long-term business goals.
“We know exactly what students want because we are students ourselves.”
What is Examlearn’s USP?
The Irish ed-tech market is quite open. This has allowed a young startup like us to grasp a serious chunk of the market. Many older Edtech companies are behind the times

April Kerr is the founder of NurseCare, a business that marries two of her passions – nursing and beauty therapy. This is how she started and grew her business. 

In the beginning
When I was filling out my CAO form, I told my mother I wanted to be a beauty therapist, and she convinced me to be a nurse. So, after my four-year degree, four years as a scrub nurse in theatre and, two years doing a HDip in Midwifery, I found a way of marrying my love of beauty and aesthetics and nursing.
I got a job working in The Ailesbury Clinic under Dr Patrick Treacy. This was the beginning. I knew I could offer more of myself if I were out on my own. I knew I had an aesthetic eye and I have an excellent bedside manner. After my wedding, I bit the bullet and put every penny of our wedding present into funding my venture.
“After my wedding, I bit the bullet and put every penny of our wedding present into funding my venture.”
The trials of business planning
My business plan was a giant convoluted mess in which I spent about a month banging my head against a wall. It was full of self-doubt and fear of failure. There was one reason for this; I am a nurse. I had no business background except for an eight-week accounting module in the fourth year in school. I then met with a very sound minded businesswoman in Partas in Tallaght, and she advised me to pare it right back and look at the essentials and what market I was to target.
My USP
I am my USP. That is not meant to sound conceited, but when I am in a room with a client, nothing else matters but my client. I genuinely care about the

April Kavanagh is the founder of NurseCare, a business that marries two of her passions – nursing and beauty therapy. This is how she started and grew her business. 

In the beginning
When I was filling out my CAO form, I told my mother I wanted to be a beauty therapist, and she convinced me to be a nurse. So, after my four-year degree, four years as a scrub nurse in theatre and, two years doing a HDip in Midwifery, I found a way of marrying my love of beauty and aesthetics and nursing.
I got a job working in The Ailesbury Clinic under Dr Patrick Treacy. This was the beginning. I knew I could offer more of myself if I were out on my own. I knew I had an aesthetic eye and I have an excellent bedside manner. After my wedding, I bit the bullet and put every penny of our wedding present into funding my venture.
“After my wedding, I bit the bullet and put every penny of our wedding present into funding my venture.”
The trials of business planning
My business plan was a giant convoluted mess in which I spent about a month banging my head against a wall. It was full of self-doubt and fear of failure. There was one reason for this; I am a nurse. I had no business background except for an eight-week accounting module in the fourth year in school. I then met with a very sound minded businesswoman in Partas in Tallaght, and she advised me to pare it right back and look at the essentials and what market I was to target.
My USP
I am my USP. That is not meant to sound conceited, but when I am in a room with a client, nothing else matters but my client. I genuinely care about the

Cronan McNamara is the founder of Creme Global, an Irish firm with most of the biggest food companies in the world as clients. Here he talks about running a global business from Ireland and what more can be done to encourage entrepreneurship.
It’s nearly 20 years ago when I started working within the food safety sector. It’s funny while taking physics in college if someone had forecast the industry that I would be working in – I probably never would have believed it. However, the food sector is an exciting area; lots of data; lots of interesting work from agriculture to the finished product; issues ranging from shelf life; to food safety; to working on areas like the microbiome and DNA sequencing.
I always had an interest in maths, science and building things and so studied physics, because of the mathematical element and the real world nature of it. I also started to enjoy the computing side and followed with an MSc in Computing. After college, I began working in financial risk analysis, writing financial-risk software for derivative options pricing.
“Cash is king. We avoided investors, which I would recommend if you can.”
Later, I met my former professor, who at the time was working on a food-risk analysis project, linked with the Trinity Innovation Centre, which involved working with multiple partners across Europe. I then decided to go back and work on the technology, developing the next generation food-risk analysis system for Europe. It was delivered using web-based software, which was quite innovative at the time. This work became the genesis of Creme Global, which then subsequently evolved as a Trinity spin-out.
“Build your product as lean as possible, get something out onto the market, iterate and build on that.”
What was your first major project?
From a consumer and nutritional perspective, we were involved in an IBEC