What's in the water in Cork - Sunday Times Business has a profile on Liam Casey; Ireland's entrepreneur of the year. Seems to be a hotbed of activity round there :)
7 months, 2 weeks ago.
14 comments so far
There seems to be two clusters, one in Cork, the other in the
NorthWest. Dublin punching way under its weight given the
population.
Dublin has google, microsoft, oracle and many other bigCos
hoovering up talent. Cork and the rest of the country doesn't have
that which is why there are more startups per capita outside
Dublin.
Very debatable walter... it's not like Google, Microsoft, and
Oracle don't hire people from outside of Dublin. And if anything,
their presence in the area should only contribute to a more
creative high-tech culture. (How many great start-ups were founded
by ex-Google and ex-Microsoft employees abroad?)
James, the history in Ireland is that start-ups are only created
when the big companies leave. DEC is the best example but the
recent Motorola shut-down in Cork has resulted in at least 5
start-ups which otherwise would never have been created. We don't
have the entrepreneurial culture here and necessity is the main
driver.
@conoro Sorry yeah, that
was worded very badly. I'll sleep more. Should have said it was a
shame that only when those gusy got the boot did they decided to be
entrepeneurs.
Delighted to seem Liam on this, I remember him when he used to
work in Blarney Wollen Mills shop in French Church St and before
that in Bugatti in the Queens Old Castle, great guy, I think his
last job in Ireland was managing Tricot Marine in Grafton St. Last
heard I heard of him he was in Laguna Beach, hell of a nice guy
I left EMC to do my startup. I do have kids and
a mortgage so I can't say it was easy. I planned on holding on to
my day job but the fire in the belly took over and I decided to go
full time. My point is: the motivations for starting a startup are
as varied as the startups themselves. You can paint this in a
negative light but it doesn't do justice to the people who start
something new, regardless of whether they were motivated from
within or externally.
@sxoop That's a good point.
I'm curious if there's anything that in a persons environment that
contributes to a desire to strike out i.e. why do you seem to get
clusters.
I have to say that Walter and Pixenate was a big motivator for
me. I went up to the Web2Ireland event in DCU in April 2006 cos he
told me he was presenting and it was like the scales fell from my
eyes. I left that day thinking "hell yeah, I can do this". Of
course it took me until June and hatred of my new job to convince
me to take the plunge.
14 comments so far
There seems to be two clusters, one in Cork, the other in the NorthWest. Dublin punching way under its weight given the population.
7 months, 2 weeks ago by conoro.
Dublin has google, microsoft, oracle and many other bigCos hoovering up talent. Cork and the rest of the country doesn't have that which is why there are more startups per capita outside Dublin.
7 months, 2 weeks ago by sxoop.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing when out and about today.
7 months, 2 weeks ago by conoro.
Very debatable walter... it's not like Google, Microsoft, and Oracle don't hire people from outside of Dublin. And if anything, their presence in the area should only contribute to a more creative high-tech culture. (How many great start-ups were founded by ex-Google and ex-Microsoft employees abroad?)
7 months, 2 weeks ago by jgalvin.
James, the history in Ireland is that start-ups are only created when the big companies leave. DEC is the best example but the recent Motorola shut-down in Cork has resulted in at least 5 start-ups which otherwise would never have been created. We don't have the entrepreneurial culture here and necessity is the main driver.
7 months, 2 weeks ago by conoro.
True... Irish people still have the "job for life" mentality.
7 months, 2 weeks ago by jgalvin.
It's a shame that only when people become jobless do they decide to do a startup.
7 months, 2 weeks ago by DamienMulley.
replace "only" with "mainly" above
Thinking about Dublin, MSFT begat Nooked (indirectly) and Iona begat a lot of companies but I wonder how many due to downsizing. Any other examples?
7 months, 2 weeks ago by conoro.
Dunno... I left my job to start up my company. But then I don't have a kids and a mortgage so that makes it a bit easier :)
7 months, 2 weeks ago by jgalvin.
@conoro Sorry yeah, that was worded very badly. I'll sleep more. Should have said it was a shame that only when those gusy got the boot did they decided to be entrepeneurs.
7 months, 2 weeks ago by DamienMulley.
Delighted to seem Liam on this, I remember him when he used to work in Blarney Wollen Mills shop in French Church St and before that in Bugatti in the Queens Old Castle, great guy, I think his last job in Ireland was managing Tricot Marine in Grafton St. Last heard I heard of him he was in Laguna Beach, hell of a nice guy
7 months, 2 weeks ago by PatPhelan.
I left EMC to do my startup. I do have kids and a mortgage so I can't say it was easy. I planned on holding on to my day job but the fire in the belly took over and I decided to go full time. My point is: the motivations for starting a startup are as varied as the startups themselves. You can paint this in a negative light but it doesn't do justice to the people who start something new, regardless of whether they were motivated from within or externally.
7 months, 2 weeks ago by sxoop.
@sxoop That's a good point. I'm curious if there's anything that in a persons environment that contributes to a desire to strike out i.e. why do you seem to get clusters.
7 months, 2 weeks ago by ciotog.
I have to say that Walter and Pixenate was a big motivator for me. I went up to the Web2Ireland event in DCU in April 2006 cos he told me he was presenting and it was like the scales fell from my eyes. I left that day thinking "hell yeah, I can do this". Of course it took me until June and hatred of my new job to convince me to take the plunge.
7 months, 2 weeks ago by conoro.