11 PEOPLE TO WATCH IN ’18
(1) Mark Little and (2) Aine Kerr, co-founders, Neva Labs
Having done it before, can Mark Little do it again? The former RTE anchorman is a rare example of someone coming from a traditional media background to start up and sell a media tech firm, something he achieved with the €18m sale of Storyful to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in 2013. Now, he and former Irish
Independent journalist (and Facebook executive) Aine Kerr believe they can create a service that will cut through the noise and filter bubbles of our news feeds to produce something that informs us rather than confuses us. The Dublin startup, Neva Labs, already has six people on board, is attracting investors and is hiring steadily.
(3) Oisin Hanrahan, co-founder, Handy.com
Rathcoole-raised Oisin Hanrahan has navigated through choppy waters to bring Handy.com, a major online cleaning and handyman hiring service in the US and UK, to profitability. This is scheduled to be the year when the firm, which has raised almost €100m in venture funding, expands its service portfolio to include electronics and other assembly services. It’s an ambitious proliferation that could see Hanrahan hit a higher level of success.
(4) Claire Lee, managing director of early stage banking at Silicon Valley Bank
Wicklow Town’s Claire Lee looks set to enhance her pivotal position in funding a wave of future startups. This is for two reasons. First, her San Jose-based Silicon Valley Bank has become much more active in supporting tech companies from this side of the Atlantic, with almost €100m lent out to startups such as Boxever, Movidius, Openet, Swrve and Accuris. But she is also to the fore in promoting female-led startups. In this, she is the right person in the right place at the right time, with a groundswell of sentiment and action getting behind more diversely led tech companies.
(5) Eoghan McCabe, (6) Des Traynor, (7) Dave Barrett, (8) Ciaran Lee, co-founders, Intercom
Although it might seem an obvious choice, 2018 could be a humongous year for Intercom’s founders. The co-located (it has roughly equal bases in Dublin and San Francisco) firm’s next move may confirm it as a bona fide unicorn in a period when many startups tagged as such are seeing significantly reduced valuations. Like many other companies, Intercom’s online services come at an opportune moment in the transition of commerce to ecommerce. Even if it simply defends its existing market share, the company’s business could rise sharply over the next 12 months. (9) Bryan Meehan, Blue Bottle chief executive What will Bryan Meehan do next? 2017 was a huge year for the serial entrepreneur. Having seen his Blue Bottle coffee chain became synonymous as the tipple of Silicon Valley and hi-tech firms in New York, he led a majority sale of the 50-strong chain to the Swiss giant Nestle for around €400m. That made money for Meehan, partner James Freeman and a few lucky investors, including Bono, actor Jared Leto and celebrity skateboarder Tony Hawk. Meehan recently told this newspaper that he remains committed to Blue Bottle as its chief executive for the foreseeable future. But that doesn’t stop the Dubliner from other investment, with portfolios in several tech firms and a history of significant property-based assets in Ireland and California. It will be fascinating to watch what the mercurial businessman does next.
(10) Charles Dowd, chief executive and co-founder, Plynk
Former Facebook executive Charles Dowd is in a race with goliaths such as Apple and massively funded smaller firms such as Circle to win the moneymessaging habits of ordinary people. For him and Plynk co-founder Clive Foley, 2018 promises to be an utter rollercoaster of a year. Dowd scored one of the biggest early round funding deals ever in Ireland, with a €25m raise last year. The size of the round reflects the stakes — the company has to go for broke internationally and it has to do it quickly. If it stalls, the giants of Apple, Circle and others will start naturally integrating users who want to send a few quid to a friend or relative quickly and easily over their phones. Dowd recently told this reporter that he expects a need to return for more funding this year to back an international rollout.
(11) Daire Hickey, Web Summit co-founder
As much as anyone, Daire Hickey is the Web Summit co-founder who built up its formidable media operation. From nothing, the global tech conference suddenly had hundreds of journalists from big US and European newspapers, broadcasters and agencies attending first the RDS, then Lisbon, to see what might be said or what deals might be done. Hickey, a former journalist, has recently taken a half-step back from the Web Summit to focus on a new venture, a public relations firm with a focus on firms between Ireland and the US. He is joined by former Web Summit and Beachhut PR executive Mark O’Toole. With the connections and pedigree, 2018 could see the Corkonian (now living in New York) become a significant player in tech marketing.