What a great name for a design company – Red Lemonade Creative. Here John Cleere, the founder, talks about starting a business in the South East and the rise of Kilkenny as a major hub for the design, creative and tech industries.
Tell us about your background and what you are working on at the moment?
I am a native of Kilkenny and returned to the city 15 years ago, after a spell working in Dublin, to set up the design agency Red Lemonade Creative. Kilkenny is the perfect location for a healthy work-life balance.
At Red Lemonade we help clients design better products and services. Currently, we are finding opportunities to develop beyond our design and production services to including the growing need for business design strategy. We are now working with client teams on Design Sprints, a process of design that rapidly tests new business ideas and features, and finds problems and solutions, creating real, constant progress.
The projects we work on are always varied, engaging with new industries on a continuous basis. Right now, for example, we are designing websites for a new Kilkenny festival and a biotech company. We are also midway through a corporate brand and digital strategy for a new business innovating in off-site construction.
“Design is one of the largest growing industries creating value in the economy.”
What are your passions? What drives you?
Design is obviously my passion, and I see tremendous possibilities here for industry, communities and employment. This inspired me to set up ‘Tech Thursday Kilkenny’ which has now been running for two years. It’s a monthly meetup of business people and curious locals interested in the new industries of tech, design and innovation. The meetups have more than 200 people attending and are growing in strength.
Can you tell us more about ‘Tech Thursday Kilkenny’?
Tech Thursday Kilkenny

Imagine a business that captures and preserves local stories from all over Ireland. StoryTracks does this and its ambitions are huge. 

The telling of stories has always been integral to Irish life and it’s this rich vein of talent that Fergal Nealon’s, StoryTracks app aims to preserve. Collecting and recalling authentic stories of a locality can spawn that sense of belonging and connection for both native and visitor alike. In 2016, the Sligo man began researching the market and outlines below, his hopes and aspirations for StoryTracks, a new storytelling audio-guide.
Capturing stories 
The first real exposure, I had to collect tales, was during my time back home in Sligo, when my parents needed caring. At that time, I worked alongside my late father, Ted Nealon on the compilation and editing of ‘Tales from the Dail Bar’, his collection of yarns and anecdotes, from his career in broadcasting and politics. When he passed away four years ago, so many great tales went with him. Such is the case, multiplied across the country, where stories lay dormant, gathering dust, perhaps lost to local memory forever. This was the initial inspiration behind StoryTracks, a user-friendly means to capture older generations’ stories in an engaging digital platform.
“Fáilte Ireland recently announced a €1.25 million fund for ‘Storytelling in Ireland’s Ancient East’.”
It was time for something more sensible
My background and training were in visual storytelling, working in the TV and film industries. After my parents became unwell, I decided to leave the industry and moved back to Sligo 10 years ago, to care for them. During my free time, I discovered the game of poker and was fascinated by the strategy and game theory involved. I threw myself into studying the game, and within two years I was playing at the highest levels in both online as well

Vanessa Tierney’s business Abodoo finds jobs for remote workers and smart workers. Currently, there are three forms of remote working, and it’s quickly becoming ‘the norm’. 

Following a spell in the UK, serial entrepreneur and recruitment specialist, Vanessa Tierney, became aware of a growing gap in the recruitment market. In 2014, she returned home with her husband and two years later co-founded Abodoo. The business makes it easier for people who don’t want to commute long distances to work and to intuitively match them to firms looking for new talent.
It’s a platform for professionals and skilled workers who would like the option to either work from home, hub, office or a hybrid of these. She reveals the inspiration behind starting the business, along with her future ambitions in this blossoming sector. Abodoo launched recently and is located in the Hatch Lab, in Gorey, Co Wexford, with a team of 13 people and growing, spread across the UK and Ireland.
“What was missing was a national database for remote and flexible workers. It has become our mission to work with the IDA and build that database.”
The inspiration came easily
The name Abodoo derives from ‘abode’ meaning home and ‘do’ meaning work. Some years ago, I moved to the UK for medical treatment, and at the time I needed to recuperate from my former home there. Despite the disruption, I was able to work remotely from home, while successfully managing my team in Dublin via Skype. It showed me you could hire people from any location. My team also worked remotely and carried out recruitment globally for the IDA. More and more FDI companies were arriving in Ireland.What was missing was a national database for remote and flexible workers. It has become our mission to work with the IDA and build that database – a

Here are five very different businesses that are showing strong growth. 
The Little Milk Co.
Its business is making organic cheese. The organic sector in Ireland is worth about €140 million while the organic market in Germany is worth €10 billion. From start to now, the business has grown tenfold. “Looking five years down the road, we’d like the business to be four times the size it is today. Most of our growth will come from exports because the markets for organic products abroad are ‘ginormous’,” says CEO, Conor Mulhall. Read more here.
Child Paths
Child Paths developed a web responsive app to support, assist and educate parents in understanding what they can do at different stages of their child’s early development years. The app helps early years educators to work quicker and smarter cutting down on the amount of time spent reporting with pen and paper and in turn giving them more time to spend on what’s most important, the children. The business already has thousands of paying customers and is looking to expand outside of Ireland. www.childpaths.ie. 
Fund Recs
Fund Recs provides reconciliation software to the global funds industry. If you’ve studied any accounting in school, you’ve probably completed a bank rec from your accounts to a bank statement. Fund Recs provides software that automates that same process but on a much larger scale and with a lot more complexity. The firm’s clients typically use Fund Recs software to free people up from time-intensive data processing like filling in Excel spreadsheets with manual data. The business was started in early 2014 and is expanding to serve its enterprise clients locally and internationally.
HUB Controls
HUB Controls, a Tallaght-based company which makes a device that regulates temperatures in the home, is a leader in the Cleantech industry. The word “cleantech” spans all sectors – from energy to transport and

Graham Burns is a regional director with CPL, one of Ireland’s leading recruitment agencies based in Limerick, with a responsibility on business development and operations.
What are you most interested in?
I’m always interested in seeking new opportunities to grow, both on a personal level and professionally.
What are your ambitions?
Challenge the status quo to create a path that others will grow from, and to always be learning.
What drives you?
I’m mostly driven by seeing my family, friends and colleagues achieve their full potential.

“Challenge the status quo to create a path that others will grow from”

 
Who do you admire in business?
So many to choose from, but locally, Margot Slattery, a proud Limerick woman who has consistently conquered the challenges that were in front of her. She has a great story.
What are we doing well in Limerick?
Limerick is emerging as a truly attractive destination for diverse sectors from technology to medical device and from financial services to professional services. The combination of our educated workforce powered by first class educational institutes and a comfortable lifestyle is our unique selling point.

“Limerick is emerging as a truly attractive destination for diverse sectors ”

What way could the city improve?
More pedestrianisation in the city and more quality accommodation within the city and make it far easier for better access for shoppers, commuters, workers to get in and out of the city.
What makes Limerick unique?
The people in Limerick make this place truly unique. Without their creativity and risk taking we would not be on the upward curve we’re currently on.