Embrace the Struggle - A Lesson in Startup Perseverance

For our latest meetup in Dublin, we were joined by guest speaker Garret Flower, co-founder of Krüst Bakery and Parkpnp; two very different businesses. The event was hosted at Krüst on George’s Street and attracted our biggest crowd yet. Before diving into his story, Garret encouraged everyone to take part in a mini-meditation – closing your eyes and taking 10 deep breaths, definitely a first for our group! The practice is something he picked up in California while at the Blackbox Accelerator recently and has incorporated into his daily routine.

Danny O BrienMarch 8, 2019

Small Steps in a Big Market: Wizard of Oz – Devan Hughes

Last week, we held our 6th Idea 2 Scale meetup in Dublin featuring Devan Hughes, founder of Buymie, an on-demand grocery delivery company. It was an energetic night in an unusual venue – after hours at Krust Bakery. Devan has founded multiple businesses in various industries and shared many tales of the ups and downs. There are too many insights to include but I’ve summarized key takeaways I feel are most relevant for founders starting out on their journeys.

Danny O BrienOctober 12, 2018

Idea 2 Scale and Nomadworks Partner to Launch New York City Based Global Incubator

Up to ten promising startups will be selected to work out of Nomadworks. They’ll spend five weeks (Oct 29 – Nov 29) on Broadway, dialling into remote webinars and mentor sessions to learn from some of the best experts from around the world. The program will also offer peer to peer mentoring to drive engagement among companies globally.

Danny O BrienOctober 5, 2018coworking, incubator, innovation

Putting Lean Principles into Practice with Wia

This week, we held our 5th Idea 2 Scale meetup, this time focusing on IoT. We were joined by guest speaker Conall Laverty of Wia at Glandore’s fabulous new location at Fitzwilliam Court. Wia is a cloud-based platform that allows developers to build IoT applications without any code of the awkward integrations between different technologies. The event was a great opportunity for audience members to learn from a VC backed company in the middle of scaling their platform to meet their ambitious goal of becoming the “the universal language of things” within the IoT space.

Danny O BrienJuly 13, 2018

VR: The Future of Meetings with MeetingRoom.io

At a recent Idea 2 Scale meetup we hosted, we chose the theme of VR as there has been a lot of hype in this space recently. We welcomed guest speaker Jonny Cosgrove of collaboration company meetingRoom. Jonny, the serial entrepreneur gave a fantastic wide-ranging talk on his journey to date, where Meeting Room is at and what the future holds for Virtual Reality (VR). Here a few key takeaways I noted:

Danny O BrienJuly 3, 2018

Angel Investing: What do startups and investors alike need to know?

Having spent almost three years working in the startup scene in New York connecting international startups to investors, I wanted to learn more about the investment environment in Ireland. Yesterday, I attended the annual HBAN (Halo Business Angel Network) conference at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham. The impressive panel of diverse speakers drew a large crowd – a mix of ‘old school suits’ and the next generation of angel investors; some who have successfully exited and are back to invest or raise again for a new venture such as Mark Little (Storyful). Here are some of the insights that stood out to me:

Danny O BrienApril 11, 2018