April 23, 2026

Ep 19 - Damien Mulley - Start-Up Programme Manager at UCC

Ep 19 - Damien Mulley - Start-Up Programme Manager at UCC

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Damien Mulley, Start-Up Programme Manager at UCC Innovation.

Damien shares what it really looks like to support early-stage founders coming straight out of university, the funding routes available to student startups, and what separates the founders who make progress from those who stay stuck. They discuss the importance of getting paying customers early, how to pitch to investors, and why communication might be the most underrated skill in any founding team.

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Hi, welcome to the Founders and
Funding podcast.

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I'm your host, Philip Smith.
On the podcast, I'll be

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interviewing founders,
investors, startup advisors on

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how to fund the journey of your
startup and some tips and advice

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they have for you along the way.
This podcast is sponsored by

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Perfect Technologies and
Leighton.

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Enjoy the episode.
Hi, Damien, welcome to the

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Founders and Funding podcast.
Thank you, nice to be here.

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It's nice to have you here,
Damien, to kick us off.

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Could you tell me a bit about
your company and your role?

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Yeah, I'm, I work for UCC
Innovation.

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So I'm startup program manager
for UCC Innovation.

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And one of the programs I work
on is Ignite.

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So we're an incubation program
for recent graduates from any

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Irish university, and we have
recent graduates and also on

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campus we have UH students who
have maybe business ideas and we

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help them to maybe turn it into
reality.

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Fantastic and Damon, just for
listeners who might not be

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familiar, what is UCC?
UCC is University College Cork,

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so it's one of the the oldest
universities in Ireland and it

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would have maybe about 25,000
students on various programs

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full time and part time
undergraduate and postgraduate.

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And there might be in the region
about 3000 staff that supports

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those students and we're based
in Cork.

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I've not mentioned I'm from Cork
yet.

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Now imagine I'm from Cork.
That's very important when

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you're from Cork, it has to be
it.

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Is you have to get it in the
first sentence.

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Yeah, If I was from Cork, I'd
I'd be doing that as well.

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And and what does average day
look like right now for you?

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So for me, we every every couple
of months we bring new startups

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onto our program.
So this week actually we brought

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a couple of new starts onto the
program.

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So it was all start for them.
So an average day for me would

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be coordinating with trainers,
with workshop facilitators, with

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guest speakers and then working
with our existing startups and

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our new startups on getting
their ideas into shape and turn

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them into reality.
And this week as well is a very

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packed week because as well as
you start starting the program,

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we have our awards and showcase
on Thursday.

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So we're coordinating that we'll
have a couple of 100 people

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seeing our startups pitch and
there is an award show as well

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for best business plan and best
idea.

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So it's every day is is quite
different.

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Tuesdays and Wednesdays would be
where all the workshops and

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guest speakers come in.
And then the rest of the days

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would be again coordinating with
the startups and coordinating

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with trainers and speakers and
mentors and investors.

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Fantastic.
That sounds really exciting.

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And is there, I suppose, do you
find, I was thinking here in

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terms of the steps that have
been found at the university?

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Is it mostly from undergrad or
postgrad students?

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Is a combination of all the
above?

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So what we we get is we get
students that might have just

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graduated, they've been working
an idea maybe in second and

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third year and 4th year.
Sometimes it's a project if

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they're doing a post grad.
So they could be doing, say a

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master's and it might come from
that.

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And sometimes it's from people
that might have graduated a

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couple of years back and they,
they've gone into industry.

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But there was always something,
I guess kind of nudging at them

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in their brain.
And then say over Christmas or

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over an Easter, they go, you
know what, I'm going to take

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that leap now.
I've been in the industry.

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I've got this idea.
I think now is the time to do

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it.
And so they come in to us and we

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we have a couple of meetings and
then we might recommend them

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joining the program.
And then they pitch the idea to

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a panel of our advisors and our
mentors.

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We might invite them to come
onto the program then.

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So we see, we see sometimes the
journey of an undergraduate and

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as they graduate, then they
might want to join the program.

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Or sometimes people have heard
of us through careers offices or

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just from friends and family,
and they can come onto the

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program too.
Yeah, it's just really

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interesting.
Just it really excites me that

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university kind of start up
scene and find out how it works,

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because I've seen a lot of great
serfs coming from, from

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universities and I regret myself
not having taken that

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opportunity at the time.
But it's good to hear a lot of a

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lot of students are.
And how has UCC helped startups

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with how to fund their their
journey?

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How have they opened that part
of the journey for startups?

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So there's there's, there's a
couple of things actually.

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So 1 is we have two programs
during the year for, for

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existing students on the grads
and post grads called Startup

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Lab.
And at the end of startup Lab,

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we actually have prize money to
help you with your startup idea.

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So there's Dash.
Then there's also we run a

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student award program.
So there's 10 to €15,000 in

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prize money for, again, best
idea, best start up idea.

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So you get funding that way.
We encourage people then to

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apply for the Enterprise Ireland
Student Startup Awards as well.

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That can be another way of
funding it.

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We also encourage people to get
their idea and get selling.

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So the most important thing
really for a startup is revenue.

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I mean, an idea is great and
iterating out and iterating on

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it is great, but it's, it's
getting funding to and then we

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are supported by the local
enterprise offices here in Cork.

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And so they have various funding
routes from feasibility studies

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to priming grants to maybe
expansion grants.

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And we work with the startups
and the local enterprise offices

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to get funding that way.
And then there's additional

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funding from, say, Angel
investors, and we work with

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them.
And there are then private

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investors that come to our
events, like the showcase that

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we're having this week.
And then sometimes some of the

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people that have been on the
Ignite program end up becoming

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high potential startups with
Enterprise Ireland.

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So an example recently would be
Dura Bell America.

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Sullivan was on the date
program.

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He was a postgraduate doing a
PhD.

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The idea came from there,
finished postgraduate, finished

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a PhD, came to Ignite, worked
with Ignite, got various funding

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routes there and eventually then
worked with Enterprise Ireland.

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So there is, I guess, a lot of
funding routes.

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And also we really encourage
students and startups to just

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enter all the various startup
competitions that are out there.

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There's loads there and these
can be all nice little bits of

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money to keep you going and keep
you motivated.

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And it's also good if you don't
win the prize.

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It's a very good way of
networking and you can find

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partners, customers or potential
investors there.

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Yeah, I I really like that.
I think it's great to introduce

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uh, students and uh, founders to
local offices, enterprise

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relevant and diverse mechanisms
and grants there.

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But I think there is, there is a
really kind of unique

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opportunity, uh, for students to
look at those, umm, or say those

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kind of hackathons and those,
uh, prizes and the kind of

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those, uh, targeted, umm, grants
and loans for them as well,

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which uh, only they can avail
of.

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Uh, but I think it's, there's a
lot, there's a lot of, I think

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students and founders don't know
where to start.

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So I think UCC is really kind of
sounds like they're really

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filling that kind of gap of
educate and showing them where

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to go.
We do, we actually give specific

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kind of other seminars and
modules and all the ways that

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you can get money for your start
up idea.

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And we we have a fantastic bunch
of students at the moment that

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as you said are going to the
hackathons, they're going to the

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Hackathon Europe.
They've been winning

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competitions locally in Cork, in
Ireland and in Europe as well.

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And there's there's something I
think has changed in the past

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couple of years.
I do think it's the influence of

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maybe quarter Dojo and other
programs that we're actually

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seeing the effects of that now
where students are coming in and

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they have that start mentality
even before they come to UCC.

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And so they have a running
start.

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And so we've seen first years
doing very well at the moment in

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second years and that starts to
feed into Ignite as well.

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So there's, there's a lot of
stuff happening and I think

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there's a lot of students taking
that leap and just trying stuff

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out.
And so it's, it's probably

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easier, especially with funding
from the likes of Amazon and

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other companies as well and say
Claude where you give them

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tokens or giving hosting.
So it's much easier to become a

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startup and then just pitch and
win all those prizes.

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Yeah, I've seen, you know,
companies get more involved, but

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it is great like it seems like
the founders getting younger and

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younger and the other starting
earlier and there's a much more

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kind of a entrepreneurship
driven culture I think that's

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happening at.
But you know, UCC is no small

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part of that to to be pushing
that forward.

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And I suppose more generally,
Damon, what is the best way to

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fund a startup sharing in your
opinion?

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For me, I think it's it's
bootstrapping, it's seeing all

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the resources out there and use
as much as possible.

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Say for example, Ignite, when
someone starts in the program,

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there's a stipend is when you
start off, there's a stipend

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sale of €5000 to to help you.
You've got desk space as well in

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UCC.
So you're not paying rent,

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you're not paying electricity.
You've got your, your free

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Internet connection and UCC,
Bing University has really good

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Internet connections.
So all those small little costs,

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I guess are out of the way.
And then we do encourage as

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quickly as possible to get
paying customers because that

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validates you.
It gets you used to dealing with

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money and expenses.
We, we give workshops and

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seminars around financial
projections and looking after

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your money.
And when we then put you in

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front of VCs or investors, they
can see that you're earning

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money and you couldn't, you can
actually make money.

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And then the local enterprise
offices as well, like that whole

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idea that you can actually
generate revenue.

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I mean, sometimes people have an
idea and they're working on the

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idea and they're, they're two
years into it and they're still

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working on the idea.
There's a maybe a fear of

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actually open armed jumping in,
seeing what's going to happen.

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But once I think you start
generating even a small bit of

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revenue, like two or three
paying customers, we have

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someone on the program, they're
only on the program a couple of

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months at this stage and they've
already got paying customers and

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it's great validation for
themselves and paying customers.

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Sometimes they love startups and
they advocate strongly for you.

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So some of those paying
customers get you more paying

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customers.
And once again, there's there's

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money coming in.
It becomes easier maybe for

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investors to happily give you
funding or invest in you.

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Yeah, I really agree with that.
I think and a lot of fun

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founders kind of waited for the
perfect time before they, you

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know, they want to take on
customers, they want to go to

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market.
But I think if you can get some

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early customers and especially
if those customers understand

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that these are students or it's
a young company, it's a startup

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and you know, often with these
software's, you know, the price

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point isn't allowed either.
So I think it's good to see, you

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know, getting those initial
customers was good to see

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companies going to taking a bit
of a risk or even a small risk

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on these setups to support them.
And particularly if Irish

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companies can do that, I think
it's very important.

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I'd agree.
And we, we've had guest speakers

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in so say Becky Popova from
everywhere English and she was

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saying to our startups that use
the fact that you're a startup

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and you're just starting it in a
way you, they're more forgiving,

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they're more patient with you.
And people love the underdog,

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Irish people, Irish culture
loves the underdog.

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And they'll back you the back,
the small company way more.

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As they said, they're more
forgiving than maybe a

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professional outfit that might
have boogie software.

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If you have boogie software,
they'll, they're going look,

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you're, you're new, you're going
to fix it.

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That's OK.
So huge advantages of, of being

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a startup and getting something
that's not perfect, but again,

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done is better than perfect.
Just get it out there.

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Paying customers will, because
you're paying will give you good

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strong feedback and that helps
you out as well to make a better

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product.
And they're there in a way.

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They're advocates for you.
It's fantastic.

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Yeah, I think if more syrups can
do that, I think would be a

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great thing for them.
And to look at the phone in

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Teams Epidemic, what are the
best skills you've seen from new

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founders that's maybe helping
them to be successful?

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I actually think it's
resilience.

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It's being able to listen.
Umm, this whole idea of getting

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out of the office, getting out
of the building is really

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important.
Going out and meeting people,

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being able to be curious.
Umm, what we do in Ignite is we,

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we have alumni come in every
couple of weeks and give a guest

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talk.
And what the alumni, they always

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say is talk to more people.
If they had their time again, it

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would be get out of the office
more, talk to more people and

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just listen and being able to
modify their idea.

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I think some people go in and
they, they have a strong idea to

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have a strong idea of what the
solution is and they're not

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willing to make any changes.
But if you're open to making

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changes once you have informed
data, then that's that's the

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best quality.
It's resilience as being

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curious, open to other ideas and
then making those changes.

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And then speed is the other
thing.

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It's get it out there as I was
like, I'm probably repeating

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myself too much, but it's it's
execution of an idea and getting

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it out and then making
modifications to it.

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Oh, I think it's good.
You know, I think it's important

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to make that message clear
because I think a lot of startup

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founders, umm, they are that
they're not, they're not trying

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to, you know, as you put it,
they're kind of done as better

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than perfect.
They're trying to achieve

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perfection.
The perfection doesn't exist and

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you can end up chasing your tail
for years doing that.

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And I'm getting that, you know,
get no one speaking to nobody.

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So I think it's a very important
highlight that.

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No, we, we, we actually, we have
like a performance coach who

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actually works with say GA teams
and sports teams and works with

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our startups.
And it's the idea again around

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resilience and blockers.
And a big thing is just getting

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people to be, I guess, more,
more liquid in what they're

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doing and not just keeping the
original idea and not making any

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changes to it.
So we, we're always working with

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our guys through that and we, we
see almost like moments every

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now and again in the problem or
someone goes, yeah, look, I had

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this idea and I wasn't, I wasn't
changing my idea.

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I was not going to change.
But from listening to other

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people and just thinking about
it more, I've now moved on to a

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different space or I've pivoted
ever so slightly.

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And there's so much delight when
people have that like just I

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guess self reflection piece and
the energy that that's created

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as a result of that means people
start moving faster and getting

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out there again and getting
paying customers.

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Yeah, I think it's a it's a bit
of a self fulfilling prophecy.

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If you can get yourself out,
dispute to customers, get the

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feedback, umm, you know, make
kind of makes you want to move

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faster and move forward and not,
uh, not start when it shows

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perfection as well.
And how can companies attract

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investors effectively, do you
think, Damien?

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This is this is the the
communications thing.

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It's it's having less than 10
sides talking about the problem,

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talking about the solution that
you're creating and talking

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about the market.
Like what investors want to know

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is OK, are you exciting the
problem?

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They probably all know the
problem.

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When you go to and go, yeah,
yeah, there is a problem.

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What is your solution?
What is unique, your unique

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solution and, and how are we
going to go around creating that

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solution?
And then how are we going to

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scale it?
So a lot of it is investors want

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to know how you think, how you
plan, how you execute and can

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00:17:10,319 --> 00:17:14,599
they back that person And you,
you see it with, with pivots

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00:17:14,599 --> 00:17:17,200
happening that investors will
stay with the company even if

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they change the original
solution.

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They're, they're backing people
and they're backing, I guess the

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00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:30,040
mentality of the people or the,
the resilience that's built in,

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00:17:30,120 --> 00:17:34,200
in those people.
So you have to be able to

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clearly explain in a single
PowerPoint slide maybe what the

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problem is, what your solution
is going to be.

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And then it's why you should
back me in particular compared

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to other people.
And that's about how well you

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00:17:49,080 --> 00:17:52,640
understand the problem where
you're going to go to by

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creating the solution.
And then how are you going to

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make money out of it as well?
I, I, again, we go back to the,

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the money and the funding thing.
But sometimes that's where

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people let themselves down is
fantastic.

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You're creating a solution, but
where are you going to get the

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money?
Is, is someone going to pay for

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it?
How are you going to, to get

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people to pay for it?
And again, what the return for

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00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:19,880
the investors are going to be?
Yeah, I think, I think he said

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00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:23,080
something interesting there as
well about umm, when founders

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00:18:23,080 --> 00:18:25,560
are, you know, they're pitching
to talk about why me or other

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00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:27,200
people.
I think that's actually, I think

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00:18:27,200 --> 00:18:29,480
often they give a bit of ACV
kind of, but they don't actually

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00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:32,760
say why me or other people or
why am I the person to fix this

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00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:34,960
problem.
I think that's umm, you know,

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00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:36,960
showing their resilience and
showing their qualities.

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00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:39,680
I think is, uh, is what
something investors not going to

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00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:40,920
say enough?
Yeah.

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00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:44,040
And it, it does come down to
communication skills.

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00:18:44,080 --> 00:18:47,720
And sometimes it can be quite
hard for people because they

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00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:52,000
could be quite introverted and
again, they just want to code,

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00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:53,480
they don't want to talk to
people.

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00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:58,600
And sometimes This is why having
a Co founder that maybe has more

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00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:01,120
of the communication skills.
And you can, you can still be

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00:19:01,120 --> 00:19:04,600
the CTO if you want to, but
someone in the organization

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00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:07,800
needs to it.
And it's not like like a sharp

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00:19:07,800 --> 00:19:09,400
salesperson or anything like
that.

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00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:12,960
It's just someone that can
communicate things easily to

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00:19:13,360 --> 00:19:15,720
investors.
Again, I'll talk about, say,

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00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:18,480
Marco Sullivan from Nurbel when
he came in to talk to her stars

338
00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:21,800
recently and he talked about
having different slide decks for

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00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:25,040
different audiences.
And so for investors, it's

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00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:29,320
clearly explaining stuff that
investors want to know about or

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00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:32,040
say, if it's working with the
likes of Enterprise Ireland, it

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00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:34,400
could be a different slide deck,
slightly different language.

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00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:37,640
So you, you have to in a way, I
think they call it code

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00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:40,680
switching, where you, you speak
differently to different

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00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:43,320
audiences.
And you need someone in a

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00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:45,680
starter that can do that, that
can talk to the tech people,

347
00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:48,760
maybe that can talk to
investors, that can talk to

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00:19:48,760 --> 00:19:52,640
people say like the people that
run an incubator and you can

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00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:57,000
speak their language as well.
So being a, being a good

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00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:59,840
communicator, I think is, is
really, really important for

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00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:03,440
startups.
And that happens, you see, when

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00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:06,440
some people don't do well, it's
because they're not actually,

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00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:08,840
they're doing fantastic work,
but they're not able to expand

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00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:11,640
it to people.
And if people yes, get it, it's

355
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:13,560
because probably it's a
communications thing more than

356
00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:16,840
anything else.
Yeah, it's, it's kind of a sad

357
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:19,240
reality that you could fix, you
know, a huge problem with a

358
00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:20,760
great solution.
But if you can't communicate

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00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:24,240
that to people, then no one's
going to learn about it or want

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00:20:24,320 --> 00:20:27,480
to use it.
And before we finish up, Damian,

361
00:20:27,480 --> 00:20:31,160
if you to give one key piece of
advice to share on fun in a

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00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:42,240
startup, what would it be?
It would be having a so there is

363
00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:49,080
an opportunity in every
interaction you have with

364
00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:50,920
someone.
They might be an investor, but

365
00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:52,360
they might know someone that's
an investor.

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00:20:52,360 --> 00:20:54,080
They might be someone that can
buy into.

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00:20:54,480 --> 00:21:01,000
SO having a pitch ready to go if
it's speaking to someone in an

368
00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:03,560
like literally speaking to
someone in an elevator, for

369
00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:06,480
example, or bumped into someone.
Like I bumped into someone in a

370
00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:08,280
coffee shop recently and they
were asking about the Ignite

371
00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:11,720
program and they were interested
in maybe coming in and giving a

372
00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:14,600
talk.
So having a pitch deck ready to

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00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:17,640
e-mail.
So have it in a draft in like in

374
00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:20,120
your e-mail account on like so
you can access on your phone you

375
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:24,120
can send on to people or having
one or two slides ready to go.

376
00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:28,280
I think having that kind of
material is is my main tip is

377
00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:32,760
once you make a connection send
follow up straight away with

378
00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:35,560
that connection and have a slide
deck or something ready to to

379
00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:38,480
send people.
Yeah, I think that's really good

380
00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:40,760
advice.
Umm, to finish off a lot of

381
00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:43,200
great advice that you gave
Damien, uh, thanks so much for

382
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:45,160
coming on.
Uh, it was a real pleasure.

383
00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:48,880
And, uh, you're obviously doing
fantastic work at ECC and, uh,

384
00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:51,840
excited to see Errol more about
the startup start emerging from

385
00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:53,920
there.
I appreciate your time.

386
00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:55,920
Thank you, Philip.
Thanks, Damien.

387
00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:01,520
Hi, Thanks for listening to this
week's episode of the Founders

388
00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:04,000
and Funding podcast.
If you'd like to be a guest or

389
00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:06,080
have a guest suggestion, please
get in touch.

390
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:07,120
Thank you.