Supper Club – a new network for female entrepreneurs

Dell EMC and GirlCrew have joined forces to launch a new network for female entrepreneurs called ‘Supper Club’.

The Supper Club idea is simple – to build a network of female entrepreneurs.

At Supper Club, female entrepreneurs can meet to exchange advice and share ideas and strategies for success.

Dell EMC also runs the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN), an annual gathering of entrepreneurs to address the challenges faced by women when starting and growing a business.

“We have received feedback from women entrepreneurs around the world – consistently they highlight the value of fostering a network of female entrepreneurs,” says Aisling Keegan, vice president and general manager for Dell EMC Ireland.

Supper Club’s first meeting will take in Dublin on June 21, and more information about the initiative can be found via Dell EMC’s social media channels as well as through GirlCrew.

Founded by Elva Carri, Pamela Newenham and Aine Mulloy, GirlCrew has more than 80,000 members across 46 cities worldwide.
Pictured above are: Aisling Keegan, vice president and general manager for Dell EMC Ireland; Louisamay Hanrahan, co-founder of dating app Luvguru; Louise Dunne, co-founder of beauty app Glissed; and Pamela Newenham, co-founder of GirlCrew.

MORE INFO: Inspirational Irish business women.

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The gift of foresight

Sophia McHugh is the co-founder of oodlique.com, an online personalised gifts marketplace. This is her experience of setting up a fast growing eCommerce platform.

Our background is in eCommerce and web design. However, the idea for oodlique.com came from our previous business which was an online marketplace for independent retailers.
Running the last business for two years, Brendan and I discovered that the majority of our sales and web search queries were for one particular area – personalised gifts. We saw an opportunity.
After months of research, we discovered two major pain points for gift makers and gift buyers.
The gift makers couldn’t afford to launch eCommerce platforms, and the gift buyers couldn’t find what they wanted.
70% of the people we interviewed said they found it extremely time-consuming and frustrating to find a really “unique personalised gift” online.
We launched oodlique.com in October 2016 to meet these needs.
“Building a full-fledged platform from scratch without knowing your customer can be a real waste of money and time.”
If someone is interested in eCommerce, is there any advice you’d give?
Our advice to anyone considering building an eCommerce platform would be to get an MVP (minimal viable product) up and running as soon as possible.
Even if you don’t have all the bells and whistles, it’s important to see if there is an appetite for your business model and see how users interact with the platform.
Once you have gathered data over a few months, you will then have a much better view of your customers and improve the website to meet their needs.
“We are excited to be receiving such traction with a month-on-month growth rate of 100%.”
Your growth rate is impressive, what marketing do you employ?
The key to our growth rate is by focusing on a niche area such as “unique personalised gifts”.
If you have to market everything for everyone,

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Nine of Ireland’s best-kept tourism ‘secrets’

The Guinness Storehouse and the Cliffs of Moher are Ireland’s top two tourist destinations. However, our island has many hidden gems. What’s your favourite? Here are nine of ours.

The tourism and hospitality industry employs an estimated 220,000 people and generates an estimated €5.7 billion in revenue a year.

Following the release of Fáilte Ireland’s annual list of the most popular tourist attractions in Ireland, ThinkBusiness looks briefly at some of the lesser-known, but magical tourist spots the Emerald Isle has to offer. What’s your favourite? Let us know on our Facebook page.

Torc Waterfall, Killarney National Park, Co. Kerry

Located five miles from the centre of Killarney, this 60 ft. tall waterfall is a must-see for anyone touring the south-east coast of Ireland. The water falls from the Torc Mountains via a river known as the Devil’s Punch Bowl. The site also offers a two-hour walk for visitors, which includes a 220 step climb looping around the waterfall and back towards the car park.

The Rock of Dunamase, Co. Laois (main image)

Standing at over 45 metres in height, this ancient bedrock overshadows the surrounding countryside. Part of the reason why this site goes unmentioned in the official high-profile tourism reports is that there is no visitor’s centre. Nor does it offer any tours. The area is also a popular place for film crews when shooting in Ireland. The age of the rock remains disputed, but it’s believed to date back to 845 AD.

Ardgillan Castle, Balbriggan, Co. Dublin

Situated along North Dublin’s elevated coastline, Ardgillan Castle is one of the most breathtaking landmarks on this island. The park consists of almost 200 acres of woodland and gardens which overlook the Mourne Mountains to the north, and Lambay Island to the south. The castle grounds are a sanctuary for many species of animals, mammals and birds.

St Michan’s Church, Co. Dublin

Located in the heart of Dublin city centre, this church holds claims to nearly 1,000 years of Christian history. The church is known for its famous vaults which contain many mummified remains. The walls in the vaults contain limestone, which has kept the air dry, creating ideal conditions for preservation. It’s a very spooky place, and one of the hidden gems of Dublin.

Blacksod Lighthouse, Belmullet, Co. Mayo

This historic lighthouse played a key role at the end of World War II when in 1944, a weather forecast from the lighthouse keeper was received by General Dwight Eisenhower. It led to one of the biggest military operations in world history. D-Day was scheduled to take place, but when Eisenhower heard about the bad weather forecast from Blacksod lighthouse, he decided to delay the invasion by one day and saved it from ultimate failure. Blacksod is one of the most western points along the Wild Atlantic Way.

The Marble Arch Caves, Co. Fermanagh

The Marble Arch Caves are a series of natural limestone caves, formed thousands of years ago by a cave river, eroding and dissolving millions of tonnes of limestone, to carve and shape the majestic passages. Visitors can experience a fascinating natural underworld of rivers, waterfalls, winding passages and lofty chambers.

Valentia Island, Co. Kerry

There is a campaign to make Valentia Island – and the station where, in 1866, the first trans-Atlantic communications took place – a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can read more here.

The Corlea Trackway, Co. Longford

The Corlea Trackway is an Iron Age bog road dated to the year 148 BC which crosses the bog lands close to the Shannon, near the village of Kenagh in Co. Longford. According to the experts who excavated the ancient road, it would have been built to allow the movement of wheeled vehicles. An exhibition centre exploring the unique nature of the Corlea Bog area was opened in 1994. It’s a must visit when exploring the midlands. Read more – there’s also a fascinating mythology behind the road.

The James Joyce Martello Tower, Sandycove, Co. Dublin

Located eight miles from Dublin city centre, The James Joyce Tower – like many other Martello Towers – was built to withstand an invasion by Napoleon. It now holds a museum dedicated to the life and works of James Joyce, who made the tower the setting for the first chapter of his classic, Ulysses. Sandycove is also home to the famous 40-foot swimming area and close to the beautiful tourism hotspots of Dalkey and Vico Road.

The ‘official’ top 20s

Here’s the list of the top attractions in Ireland for 2016, as compiled by data from Fáilte Ireland.

TOP 20 FEE-PAYING VISITOR ATTRACTIONS

Guinness Storehouse; Dublin; 1,647,408
Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience, Clare; 1,427,166
Dublin Zoo; 1,143,908
National Aquatic Centre, Dublin; 1,037,992
Book of Kells, Dublin; 890,781
Tayto Park, Meath; 762,000
St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin; 563,000
Castletown House & Parklands, Kildare; 547,324
Powerscourt House & Gardens, Wicklow; 467,507
Fota Wildlife Park, Cork; 465,281
Kylemore Abbey & Garden, Galway; 458,000
Blarney Castle, Cork; 420,000
Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin; 390,970
Kilkenny Castle, Kilkenny; 384,918
Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, Clare; 352,286
Rock of Cashel, Tipperary; 338,830
Emo Court House & Gardens, Laois; 293,056
Old Jameson Distillery, Dublin; 269,000
Dublin Castle, Dublin; 253,786
Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin; 229,085

TOP 20 ‘FREE’ VISITOR ATTRACTIONS

The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; 755,577
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; 584,856
National Botanic Gardens, Dublin; 583,539
Doneraile Wildlife Park, Cork; 480,000
National Museum of Ireland, Kildare St, Dublin; 479,261
Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin; 413,900
National Museum, Collins’ Barracks, Dublin; 411,391
Farmleigh, Dublin; 383,335
Newbridge Silverware Museum, Kildare; 350,000
National Museum – Natural History, Dublin; 317,269
Galway City Museum; Galway; 213,390
Connemara National Park, Galway; 210,812
The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; 193,229
Crawford Art Gallery, Cork; 178,302
Sliabh Liag Cliffs, Donegal; 177,333
Malin Head Viewing Point, Donegal; 162,468
Kilmacurragh Gardens, Wicklow; 156,045
National Museum of Country Life, Mayo; 107,855
Grianan of Aileach, Donegal; 104,398
Gallery of Photography, Dublin; 80,000

Article by Stephen Larkin.

Images from ShutterStock and Ancient Ireland.

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Plynk raises €25 million to make it easier to share money

ThinkBusiness talks to Charles Dowd, co-founder of Plynk about bootstrapping and belief.

Speaking to ThinkBusiness, Charles Dowd (left), a former product manager at Facebook, and now co-founder of Plynk is in a good mood.

His new business Plynk has just announced a €25m Series A investment led by private investment trust, Swiss Privée Ltd.

Headquartered in Dublin, Plynk, the money-messaging app was co-founded by Dowd and Clive Foley (right). The solution was clear – to remove the complexities of money transfers, making it simple, fast and free for young people to send money phone-to-phone.

“The idea was simple, and our ambition was evident from the start,” says Dowd. “We wanted to be a pan-European money messaging app, but more than that we want to be a social network based on money. We make money more shareable, just like content is shared between friends across mobile. We had belief in our idea and we needed to validate it in Dublin, so we launched it in Trinity (TCD).”

Having spent over four years working on the product side of things at Facebook, Dowd says the idea for Plynk came from observations he made while working for the world’s largest social network.

“People tend to take money very seriously. Recent research suggests that 42% of people in Europe have lost a friend over a small personal debt. The problem is mainly felt by millennials,” says Dowd.

“Young people want immediate solutions. They are not going to invoice someone if they are owed money.”

Linked to users’ social networks, Plynk users can send money as a message to a single contact or in-group chats instantly and with no fees. Once an account is created, users receive a payment account with a dedicated IBAN and virtual Mastercard for online payments.

Dublin is where it’s at

Plynk started in Dublin in 2015.

“We bootstrapped this from the get go,” says Dowd. “We just walked into the Bank of Ireland Workbench in Grand Canal Square and got to work. When the Innovation team at the bank saw what we were doing, they rolled in behind us and supported us. I think they could see we were serious and had a product that had significant potential.”

The next markets for Plynk are Spain and Portugal.

“I worked in Portugal, and we know Spain and both are very mobile and social markets with large, young populations that are quick to adapt to new, useful technologies. Our target market is 18-24-year-olds, and our strategy is to launch Plynk in University campuses.”

Will Plynk stay headquartered in Dublin?

“Yes, no doubt,” says Dowd. “Dublin is where it’s at regarding finding the right talent to expand. The people are here. The business culture is real. It’s the perfect launchpad to Europe. We will open up other offices in Europe but our HQ will stay in Ireland.”

Plynk is available on Android and iOS.

Balancing work and parenting during the holidays

Top tips for working parents. How to get the work-life balance right during the summer break.
The days are getting longer, and the schools will soon be closing for the summer holidays. Your kids are getting excited about the long, lazy days ahead. But you find yourself getting increasingly anxious. How will you keep your kids busy all summer while running a business? Where will you find extra childcare? How much will it all cost?
School holidays can present business owners with a headache. But with a little planning and focus, you can stay productive. With some creativity, you can find solutions to fit your schedule and your budget. Here are some tips to help you get organised.

Plan your child care
Now is the time to start planning the summer months. Probably your biggest challenge is finding a minder for your kids during the regular school hours. Your existing minder may be able to increase their hours, or a family member may step in. But if not you will need to find some new solutions.
You can start by talking to other working parents. What arrangements have they made? What child-minding solutions are available locally that you may not be aware of?
Think creatively about other solutions. Do you know any teenagers who would cover a few hours a day for a small fee? Do you have a niece or nephew living abroad who would like to visit and look after their cousins? Is there a local language school? Investigate if you can host students in exchange for some child minding. If you have an extra room in your house, maybe a short-term au pair would solve the problem?
Find activities
Start booking camps and other activities early to avail of discounts. To find options suitable for your kids’ ages, ask parents with children a year or

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Dr. Naomi Mackle on building Adare Clinic

A one minute interview with Dr. Naomi Mackle, MD of the Adare Clinic.
How did the company get its name?
Our first clinic is based in Adare, Co. Limerick, hence the name ‘The Adare Clinic’.
How long have you been in business?
For just over six years.
Did you receive any supports when starting your business?
None, we got no support from any state agency. A small bank overdraft saw us through our first year in business.
What factors helped you grow?
The company grew organically over the last five years. With the opening of a clinic in Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin, we were able to find a niche market for dermatology in the Dublin region. Waiting lists in hospitals have helped us a lot as our SLA for appointments at the clinic is three weeks.
What are your expansion plans?
We are planning to relocate to a 4,000 sq. ft. premises in Dublin with the introduction of a further two treatment rooms. We are also hiring Dermatologists.
“There are little or no reliefs for the self-employed, and it is very tough for people to navigate through the first few years in business.”
What are your unique selling points?
Personal service. We are good at this, and we have the highest of standards when dealing with people at out clinics. Even the basics like offering a tea or coffee or having the latest magazines and newspapers, make a huge difference.
We have made significant investments in technology and provide the most recent laser treatments and mole mapping.
Our people are very personable, making clients feel at ease when visiting our clinics.
Are there any magazines, blogs, newsletters or brands on social media you read religiously?
Not really, social media is a bit alien to me. I leave this to others in the office. While I have Facebook accounts, I never access them and to be honest;

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Moocall – saving calves and saving farmers money

One definition of an entrepreneur is someone who develops a solution to an age-old problem and brings it to a global market. Emmet Savage and Niall Austin did it. This is the story of Moocall.
Emmet Savage’s first introduction to farming was working on a small local farm during his school holidays. In later life, he became an entrepreneur running businesses within both the construction and fashion industries.
In 2010 he was approached by Niall Austin, a friend, and work colleague, about how losses during calving were having an impact on his family farm.
Austin had an idea. It was to do with a sensor attached to a cow’s tail that could act as an alert for farmers when a cow started to calve. The seed for an international business was sown.

From a trauma to an idea
Austin is a farmer’s son living in Offaly, with a lifetime’s experience of the calving season. He knew the rituals, the sleep-interrupted nights, checking on cows that are close to calving.
Then, in 2010 he experienced the trauma of losing a cow and a calf. It was a significant loss, as the cow was worth over €1,000 and the calf worth half that.
He went looking for solutions to alert farmers when cows were calving. However, the existing solutions were both expensive and intrusive, which meant that they were more likely to cause internal infection.
Putting their heads together, Savage and Austin began developing what was later to become Moocall.
“I brought in Michael Stanley who is the chairman of Cairn homes as an investor at a very early stage.”
The right idea at the right time
“Timing was critical but having a really strong product, and proof of concept were equally so,” says Savage.
“It helped keep everyone focused and got us to where we ultimately are now.
“Niall started to research a non-invasive

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Seven startups ready to scale in America

Seven early stage Irish firms will take their places in startlab NYC, a free incubation space powered by Bank of Ireland.
BriteBiz, Glofox, LogoGrab, KONG Digital, Deposify, Pulsate and Axonista will set up shop in the free co-working space in New York for a 12 month period.
All the firms selected are in a position to enter the US market and significantly grow their businesses.
In addition to the free office and meeting space in central New York, the firms will receive mentoring from Bank of Ireland’s innovation and corporate banking teams in both Ireland and the US to “help them develop, grow and scale their business”.
“[This is] the perfect landing pad for the US right in the heart of its most vibrant city. We can just focus on building our US presence,” says Conor McLoughlin, CEO, GloFox.
“Glofox has seen rapid growth in the US over the past 12 months, accounting for over 50% of all new clients. The US accounts for 50% of the global software market, 40% of the global fitness market and given that it is a higher converting lower cost acquisition channel than any other territory it represents our primary market.”
High potential startups
The seven firms selected are high potential startups, and all have secured valuable deals to place them in prime position to grow in the enormous US market.
• Axonista received a €1.7m grant from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Innovation in SMEs programme.
• Deposify already secured a banking partnership with People’s United Bank and raised €1.1m in funding.
• GloFox raised €2 million in a funding round with investors that included Enterprise Ireland.
• Pulsate recently landed $1.5 million in funding, with PayPal backing the round.
• BriteBiz is currently based in the Bank of Ireland startlab in Galway and has a pipeline of clients in the USA and is looking

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Five little business ideas that became giants

Once upon a time these five companies were minnows. Now, they are giant killers, roaming the global markets.
Starting small and growing is difficult. Just surviving the first few years can prove tricky, never mind disrupting a whole sector. Nevertheless, it can and has been done; here are five underdog brands that became giant killers.

Netflix
Three years into its existence, Netflix was an unprofitable fringe movie rental service, sending its 300,000 subscribers DVDs through the post. When it approached Blockbuster that year, in the spring of 2000, and gave the video rental chain behemoth the opportunity to buy it out, Blockbuster laughed the company’s directors out of the room. Move forward to 2016, and Netflix has over 75 million subscribers worldwide with its innovative online model, while Blockbuster is long out of business. Not only has Netflix eclipsed the one time market leader, it had also raced past other media companies like HBO and YouTube in terms of subscriptions and web traffic respectively.
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Ben & Jerry’s
Ben and Jerry’s battle with Haagen-Dazs is one of the classic David V Goliath stories in business. Starting out selling homemade ice cream from a petrol station, Ben & Jerry’s grew to the point where it was beginning to sell its product in supermarkets. Concerned that the rise of Ben & Jerry’s could hurt the sales of Haagen-Dazs, parent company Pillsbury gave distributors an ultimatum; drop Ben & Jerry’s or lose Haagen-Dazs. Being too small to sue the conglomerate, Ben & Jerry’s launched the “What’s the Doughboy afraid of?” campaign, taking out ads on buses, setting up a hotline and sending out t-shirts and bumper stickers to supporters. Suitably embarrassed, Pillsbury backed down and Ben & Jerry’s was able to grow into the thriving brand we know today. It was

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Moving to Ireland to start a business – the pros and cons?

What’s it like to move to Ireland, from another country, and set up a business? ThinkBusiness talked to three entrepreneurs who moved here to build their dreams.

Andy Chen, Chopped (pictured above, right with business partner Brian Lee)
I moved from China to Ireland in July 2000. I’m a co-founder of Chopped, Ireland’s leading healthy fast food retailer.
How did I start this business? My business partner Brian Lee and I were both going to the gym a lot at the time but were frustrated at the lack of convenient and good value nutrition available to us. We talked about this, and the seeds of Chopped were sown.
Ireland is my second home, and I find the business environment to be excellent. I didn’t consider establishing my business anywhere else.
My first venture was selling imported goods from China to Irish market stalls around Dublin, with Brian, about six months after I came to Ireland.
Soon after, I opened Ireland’s biggest internet café, ‘Five Star Internet Café’, on Talbot Street. I also opened the ‘Xtreme Internet And Gaming Centre’ on Lower Liffey Street.
Around this time, Brian was running a property management company, and we were both eager to work together again, so we opened a convenience store near Connolly Station. It was at this time that the idea for Chopped came to us.
We were both into fitness, and we wanted an option to eat healthy on the go. We established the healthy food company, Freshly Chopped, to meet this need and a few months after our first Chopped opened on Baggot St, we opened FIT Studios in Fairview.
“Non-Irish nationals may struggle to reconcile Irish humour with the professional environment. It’s also not unusual to conduct business meetings outside of the office.”
Did you receive any supports regarding funding or advice when you started your business in Ireland?
We

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