Beneath the wheels of romance
Stephen and Louise Murphy’s dynamism saw them approaching Silicon Valley with their bicycle parking innovation, says Andrea Smith
ERASMUS advised would-be suitors back in 1545 that a “faint heart never won fair lady”, and Galway’s Louise Murphy is living proof that this proverb can be applied to any romantic situation.
She was having a drink with her friend Jim in The Barracks pub in Carlow in 2007, when she spotted a guy she thought was cute sitting downstairs with pals. As she left the pub, Louise gave the bouncer a fiver to pass her business card on to a somewhat startled Stephen Murphy, who asked his friends if he was on Candid Camera?
“My friend said she must have been the blonde one upstairs who was looking down at me all night,” he laughs. “He said she was my style and that I’d like her, so I immediately phoned the number on the card.”
Louise says it wasn’t the kind of move she’d normally pull, but she did it as he hadn’t seen her so she had nothing to lose. Nonetheless, she was startled when her phone immediately rang and Stephen persuaded her to come back and have a drink with him. She joined his table, and they got on like a house on fire, mainly chatting about cars.
“Louise isn’t your typical woman as she’s a bit of a lad’s girl,” says Stephen. “She blew me away as she has a brilliant personality and a great sense of humour, and she’s intelligent and good looking. We were both going away for the weekend but I couldn’t get her out of my head, so I phoned and invited her for dinner in a local pub on the Monday. An hour later my parents, Liam and Sheila, unexpectedly walked in and we were chatting to them.”
“Later my Dad said to me, ‘You’ve rung the bell there buddy, as that one has it every way. I’d be nailing my flag to her mast if I were you’. We started dating and I fell madly in love with Louise and then I had to persuade her to fall in love with me.”
While Liam (39) is from Bennekerry in Carlow, Louise (43) was merely a blow-in. She’s from Ballinasloe, where she’s the youngest of Peggy and the late Louis Finn’s four children — her dad passed away only in August. She was working as a rep for pharmaceutical company Allergan, selling medicinal Botox when they met. Her beat was the south-east of the country, so it made sense to buy a house in Carlow.
They began dating and Stephen was very keen to get married, but claims he had to do a bit of persuading to get engaged. So what convinced Louise to agree? “Stephen is very driven, ambitious and focused, and while he’s a bit of a cheeky chappie and a real character, he’s also very soft and sensitive,” she says.
They got engaged in August 2008 and were married on a “magical” frosty morning that December in Kilronan Castle. They honeymooned in Cancun and Miami and went on a Caribbean cruise, and then stopped off in New York and stayed at the Waldorf Astoria.
While they were away, Louise discovered she was pregnant. “A wedding night baby,” she laughs. “I was so careful beforehand and Daniel was born exactly nine months later.” Daniel is now nine and their daughter Sophia is six, and the family live in their “dream home” in Kildare.
When they first met, Stephen
‘I was so careful beforehand and Daniel was born nine months later’
owned the car dealership Meridian Motors, which he ran for 13 years. It was hard work, particularly during the recession, but he enjoyed it. Then he started up Cyc-lok in 2014, which provides secure parking for bicycles, and he and Louise now work in it full-time. Louise’s brother Kenneth works with them, and with the growth in popularity of cycling as a mode of transport, it seems like a great idea.
There are various aspects to the business, but the principal one is that they provide companies with completely enclosed modular bike locker systems containing 12 separate alarmed lockers in one unit.
The whole system takes up one car parking space, and there are opportunities for branding the units with advertising material and for charging users of the service, if required.
Some companies get them for their employees’ bikes, while those in public spaces like shopping centres or railway stations are used by members of the public paying a charge — there is an app to facilitate that. A Cyc-lok unit is currently situated in Heuston Station and another is going in Maynooth station. They have also expanded in to Norway, Denmark, Switzerland and the US.
Another element is that they provide personal lockers, where individuals purchase an access-controlled locker for their bike that takes up minimum space and is bolted to the ground and the wall. They also provide an e-bike charging service.
Louise and Stephen are dynamic, adventurous people who say they work hard and play hard. For example, they moved to San Francisco for a summer in 2016, and Louise set up dozens of high-level meetings with leading tech companies there, which went very well and won them business. They also had dinner with various mayors, and had a great time there with the children. They loved the weather and the outdoor life and say they could see themselves living there permanently in a decade.
Working together goes very well and they have a team of eight at present and are expanding. They have won several awards, including the innovation award at this year’s National Enterprise Awards, and it seems like there is no stopping this driven and ambitious couple who intend to have a global brand.
They have lots of fun too, they say, and while Louise praises Stephen’s dynamism, he says she has the full package. “Louise is a really good mix of being great in business and no-frills, but she’s also very strong, caring and sensitive,” he says.