Stress To Success
Business and life partners Fergus Kerrigan and Amy O’Flaherty started out making CBD products and have pivoted to energy and wellness supplements. They tell Arlene Harris about their struggle to find funding, developing their Ethos firm and working as a c
Life is stressful, and work can be even more so, and Fergus Kerrigan and Amy O’Flaherty have made it their mission to tackle stress with a new supplement. The new product, Resilience, is a pivot for the founders, who started their Ethos business with a focus on selling CBD products. The duo are persevering with their CBD enterprise, even if at times the cannabis connection has resulted in frustration, if not outright stress.
“We launched three years ago as a CBD brand, so those products are our babies and are doing great for us,” says Amy. “They have been very successful both online and in retail and we’ve landed some incredible contracts with big retailers, so they’ve been a real vehicle of growth.
“Our biggest challenge along the way has been getting support, even though we qualify for it from our Local Enterprise Office, because state agencies will not back any business with CBD products because it is under the cannabis umbrella,” Amy explains.
“This is quite unfair as we employ locally, reinvest back into the local economy and use Irish suppliers, so it has been a challenge and it’s a shame, to be honest. Despite that, we’ve had financial success and have been able to reinvest back into the business.”
Amy adds that marketing opportunities for Ethos have been limited as many platforms don’t allow the advertising of CBD products. “We do a good bit of podcast sponsorship, which has been very effective for us. I’m a fan of quality over quantity, so we invest in our own content and build meaningful connections with our target audience through our own channels with content marketing.”
Fergus Kerrigan (33) started out
down the law route, and worked in a few law firms in Dublin before moving to San Francisco to do the same there. “I realised that it wasn’t really for me and that if I wasn’t enjoying it then I never would, as it didn’t really suit my personality,” he recalls. “I decided to leave that career path and enrol in the Smurfit Business School at UCD. I did a course in strategic management, which set me up for applying for some of the consulting firms.
“I got a job with Accenture and worked there for three years. It was a great experience and then I moved to