The Irish Tech News Podcast

Mary McKenna, Irish tech entrepreneur, and angel investor, talks to Ronan about her background and what she looks for in a startup before she invests her time and money. Mary also talks about why the founder at times is the company and the benefits of bootstrapping,

Jack Drea the CEO and co-founder of BonzaQuote appears on the latest episode of the Irish Tech News podcast. BonzaQuote are about to launch in the UK and Ronan recently sat down with Jack to talk about how BonzaQuote was founded, some of the household DIY companies that are BonzaQuote clients, their competitors, their partnership with Google, their future plans in other markets, how they can help new homeowners save money, and why women are getting into DIY.

In this episode of the Irish Tech News podcast Ronan went to the NDRC to chat to the NDRC CEO, Ben Hurley and Conall Laverty, the founder of Wia. the provider of a service for developers building Internet of Things applications. Wia recently won €30,000 follow on investment at NDRC’s recent Investor Day. Conall talks about IoT, Wia, wearables, Raspberry Pi and that they are hiring. Ben talks about the recent NDRC Investor Day, some of the programs that the NDRC run and what they look for in a start-up.

In this episode of the Irish Tech News podcast Ronan was at the RDS for Coder Dojo Coolest Project Awards which took place last Saturday. He spoke to the award winning Jake O’Toole who developed a personal safety app that shares your location with trusted contacts to let them know where you are if you are feeling unsafe. He also spoke with Iseult Mangan the Cloghans Hill NS Principal who taught herself coding so that she could open and also run her local Coder Dojo.

In this episode of the Irish Tech News podcast Ronan talks to Alan Meaney and Des O'Donoghue of Fundrecs. Alan and Des talk about Fundrecs, the major fintech award they recently won, their Meetup Group, advice they would give to start-up’s,why Intercom and Slack are essential tools for Fundrecs, and Brexit.

One of the biggest stories of the past few months has been the Panama Papers and without the help of the Australian company Nuix there would not have been any story. Nuix is a data and cyber security company and their CEO is Cork man Eddie Sheehy. When Eddie joined Nuix they had three employees and they now have over four hundred employees. Eddie chats to Ronan about the Panama Papers and how Nuix got involved. Eddie also talks about the different products that Nuix sell and what makes their products unique.

On the latest Irish Tech News podcast, Ronan was in Belfast at the Digital DNA conference and he talks to Conor Wilson and Pat McKenna, two of the co-founders of Sproose which is a laundry app. They were recently on Dragons Den and they got the backing of Eleanor McEvoy who has invested in Sproose. Conor and Pat talk about how Sproose came about and their future plans. They also talk about Dragons Den and give tips on pitching to investors.

On the latest Irish Tech News podcast, Ronan was in Belfast at the Digital DNA conference and he talks to Eleanor McEvoy the entrepreneur, who is one of the Dragons on RTE’s Dragons Den. Eleanor was on the judging panel of The Start Up Event at Digital DNA Belfast where startup companies pitch for a £50,000 prize. Eleanor spoke about the Start Up Event, Digital DNA, Dragons Den and Sproose who she recently invested in when they appeared on Dragons Den.

On the latest Irish Tech News podcast Ronan and Reuben discuss Mark Dalton’s article on Irish Tech News about Snapchat usage overtaking Twitter, Digital DNA in Belfast, Startup Village in Russia, Startup Angel event in Dublin, Irish Tech News fintech top 20 setup by Simon Cocking, Blockchain association of Ireland, Brexit and the implications for the finctech sector in Ireland, Women in stem and stem gender quotas. Next week we will be doing an IoT podcast with Dell and Microsoft Azure taking part so we also discuss IoT and Eventease who I met last year.

Parker Stanberry, CEO and Co-Founder, Oasis Collections, winner of the European Travel Innovator of the Year Award at Phocuswright Europe 2016 which took place recently in Dublin, appears on this episode of the Irish Tech News Podcast. Parker talks about Oasis Collections, the the Phocuswright award they won and tells us how they differ from Airbnb.