It is eleven years since Jim Barry first attended the Entrepreneur Experience, a unique 24-hour programme that combines mentoring, networking, learning, and the sharing of ideas.

Barry, the managing director of Barry Group, the €280 million turnover family-run retail distribution business, has regularly been one of 24 experienced entrepreneurs matched with 24 emerging ones at the event.

“I benefit so much from the event,” Barry said. “It’s like recharging your batteries. It has a big impact on me meeting so many great entrepreneurs. It is just something I really enjoy being part of.”

Organisers CorkBIC have previously worked with Pete Smyth, the founder of investment company Broadlake, who has captained the event. Smyth stepped down as captain this year after a decade. It prompted a call to Barry from Fionnuala Wall, the marketing manager of CorkBIC and one of the drivers behind the event’s success along with Larry O’Donoghue, the chief executive of CorkBIC.

“I wasn’t expecting to be offered the job of captain,” Barry laughed. “I was thinking what poor eejit is going to have to try and follow in Pete’s steps – well now I know.” 

Barry’s co-captain this year is Rena Maycock, the founder of Cilter, a child protection software company that closed a €1.67 million seed round in May. Barry said the Entrepreneur Experience was a brilliant opportunity for anyone starting a business or a few years into their journey. “It is a chance to sit down in a confidential environment and get constructive feedback from people who’ve already been down that road several times,” he said.

Seasoned entrepreneurs who have previously acted as mentors include Peaches Kemp, Shane Curran, Patrick Hickey, Frank Madden and Niamh Sterling. “The Entrepreneur Experience is about building trust so that people are comfortable talking about their problems,” Barry said. “Once you have that trust, then people can open up and ask for help.”

The Entrepreneur Experience, he said, endeavoured to match each emerging entrepreneur to a suitably experienced businessperson. “We try to match people with experience that is relevant to them,” Barry said. “It is about helping people to constructively relook at what they’re doing and how they’re approaching things. Most people come away with their head in a different space than when they arrived.” 

Barry said a takeaway from attending the weekend was often realising that every business faces hard times: “Lots of good things happen in business but bad things happen too. It is often sharing what you got wrong that leads to real learning.”

The Entrepreneur Experience is sector-agnostic. Over the years, companies have ranged from coffee roasters to artificial intelligence, to e-commerce to artisan design to industrial manufacturing. “Personally, I have learned an awful lot more from interacting with people who are not in my sector,” Barry said. “I have a fair idea of what is going on in my sector as do many people. When people from different sectors start throwing ideas around and discussing what they are doing, that is when new ideas often emerge.”

Business cycles

Jim Barry has weathered a series of business cycles since taking over the Barry Group, which was founded in 1965 by his father James A Barry. Headquartered in Mallow, Cork, the Barry Group supplies more than 1,500 companies and employs more than 250 people.

“We are projecting sales will pass through €280 million this year,” Barry said. “We’re six months into a new three-year business cycle,” he added. “The year has gone well and we’re in expansion mode. We have a lot of good ideas in place to grow our business and we’re expecting to have double-digit growth. We are strengthening our team and adding positions to help grow our business, and we will look at acquisitions.”

Barry credited his team and its location in Mallow for helping the group reach its goals. “There is a good pool of people in Mallow and we’re lucky with our team. Our service standards have remained very high and our people give us an advantage. Some of our competitors have really struggled (finding employees) and are pulling back services. We’re actually enhancing our services and we feel we are in a good space to manage the current environment and grow.”

A worthwhile job

Jim Barry said Pete Smyth’s contribution as captain of the Entrepreneur Experience had been immense. “It will be a reasonable challenge this year as Pete has done a superb job over the years,” Barry said. “We (Barry and Maycock) will have our approach that will build on everything that has gone before. The learning opportunities of putting different entrepreneurs together are enormous for people who are open to it. It is incredible the amount of things that can happen in such a short space of time.”

Barry said every year the macroeconomic environment changed too, leading to different things being focused on during the Entrepreneur Experience. “I think the banking world and the funding side of things has got more challenging,” Barry said. “That’s been forcing people to get their house in order better. People who’ve been around the block and seen a number of cycles have the kind of experience that people at an earlier stage can tune into.”

Tougher times, he said, meant investors were looking for higher standards and strong corporate governance. “How you put your business plan together, managing investors, and finding the right ones is really important,” Barry said. “It is really important to get it right in this environment. An event like the Entrepreneur’s Experience is a place where people are happy to share, give a leg up or give some honest advice. It is what is unique about the event.”

Barry said other big issues likely to be discussed this year are staff retention and quality management but this hadn’t been finalised yet. “I will work as a team with Rena. We both have different strengths as does the team in CorkBIC. We want to ensure that the emerging and seasoned entrepreneurs walk away feeling that was worthwhile.”  

Applications to enter the EE close on Friday September 8. For further information, click here. The Currency is the media partner for the event. Other CorkBIC event partners are Cork City Council, Cork County Council, Grant Thornton, Broadlake and William Fry. The 2023 Entrepreneur Experience takes place on Friday and Saturday, October 20-21, 2023 in Ballymaloe, Co Cork.