“We created one of the best policy environments in the world if you’re in FDI. But we are still coming from a base of having one of the worst if you’re an entrepreneur.”
Having lost its tax advantage, Patrick Walsh believes Ireland needs to develop a new economic strategy based around start-ups and innovation-led businesses. However, for that to happen, the founder and chief executive of Dogpatch Labs argues that the government will have to radically improve the suite of tax and policy packages available to entrepreneurs.
In a wide-ranging interview with Ian Kehoe, Walsh talks about developing Ireland’s start-up ecosystem across the country, the battle for talent, and what entrepreneurs can learn from the IRFU.
Walsh also talks about launching Dogpatch seven years ago, and how the co-working space and accelerator has grown to almost 40,000 sq ft in size over 3 levels. Having taken over the NDRC, he also talks about his plans for the national accelerator.
Manchester United appear to be on the right track with the appointment of Ralf Rangnick but in this podcast with Andy Green who was a vocal critic of the Glazers, he talks to Dion Fanning about the strategy under the owners and why they aren't going anywhere.
Working at the coalface of the office market, Andrew Lynch, the co-founder of co-working business Huckletree, has spent the past 18 months adapting, renegotiating, and trying to refine the Huckletree product. The company has five workspaces in London and Manchester and a 30,000 sq ft Dublin building also.
In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, he talks about navigating the business through the crisis, and why it is primed for expansion in the post Covid-world. He also talks about flexible working, the future of the office and creating curated eco-systems of companies.
After ten years living in the UK, he also talks about why he has just returned to Dublin – and why he expects many more to follow suit.
In this podcast, Dion Fanning talks to Jarrod Kimber, the acclaimed Australian cricket writer, about what the Azeem Rafiq story tells us about English cricket and more broadly professional sport.
As the dust settles on COP26 and the publication of the Government's Climate Action Plan, Thomas Hubert is joined by The Currency's columnists Ed Brophy and Stephen Kinsella and contributing journalist John Reynolds. From a common assessment that both high-profile events fell well short of the level of commitment needed to tackle climate change, they draw lessons for the changes now required of the state, businesses, voters and the foundations of democracy and capitalism underpinning their interactions.
“I always thought that was a hell of an excuse by the banks. They had big boards full of luminaries and experienced people but when the crash came, they said ‘Ah Anglo made us do it’.
Sean FitzPatrick's death has led many to reflect on his time at Anglo Irish Bank. In this podcast Tom Lyons - whose book with Brian Carey, The FitzPatrick Tapes, details the rise and fall of the bank - talks to Dion Fanning about the Sean FitzPatrick he knew, the generational divide in business between those who feel FitzPatrick deserves more credit for his achievements and those who see those days as history, and how he will be remembered.
“In a large corporate environment, being yourself is not rewarded. You get a really damaged corporate culture where people bore the arses off everyone, all day every day.”
Jack Murray has always been fascinated with the art of storytelling. For 20 years, he has advised politicians and business leaders on how to tell their own story, while his company MediaHQ has built software to help people share stories. Now, he has just published a book on the topic called: “The Magic Slice: How to master the art of storytelling for business.”
In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, Murray explains the book's thesis – that companies with great stories get more funding, more customers, and more emotional reaction. He explains what companies need to do in order to hone their story and gives examples of companies who have got the process right – as well as those who have failed. He also talks about the science of storytelling, why he abandoned PowerPoint, and the journey that led to him writing the book.
“It’s all very well getting in a minister who totally understands the problem… But if their solution isn’t popular with the people it affects, and their voters, then it’s unlikely to see the light of day”
Ben Southwood is a fellow at Policy Exchange, a UK think tank. Along with his co-author Samuel Hughes, he has an idea: individual streets should control their own planning rules.
Now, Southwood and Hughes' idea is on the UK legislative agenda. Obscure as it may sound, the plan has the potential to deliver tens of thousands of new homes in the places they're needed most. In this podcast, Southwood talks about street votes, along with his diagnosis of what has gone wrong in the housing markets of the English-speaking world.
In this podcast, Roman Imielski, journalist and editor at the largest broadsheet newspaper in Poland Gazeta Wyborcza, explains what is happening in his country and why the stand off with the EU could play into the Polish government's hands as they try to create anti EU feeling in a country which remains supportive of the union.
Sean Smith is a fresh-faced 22-year-old ag-tech entrepreneur who co-founded Micron Agritech, a parasite testing kit for livestock, while at university in TUD. Since its creation in 2019, the business now has 10 employees and an office on Dublin’s Northside. The company has already raised €500,000 through Yield Lab and is looking for a further €1.5 million in funding ahead of its official launch in early 2022. Although parasite testing in livestock is the current focus for Micron Agritech, Smith believes it has the potential for use in human health in the future as well.
