Episodes

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with James Robson, Founder and CEO of Fund Onion, a UK commercial finance brokerage evolving into an investment bank for small and medium-sized businesses. James shares the full arc of the business, from a failed comparison platform built on a WordPress site with almost no capital, through a pivot into brokerage, to becoming one of the largest players in unsecured lending for its niche. He talks about why Fund Onion has nev...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Mark McCarthy, Founder of How You Doing, a new app built to help people with their mental health and get the help they need. Drawing on seven years of frontline experience with An Garda Síochána, Mark explains why he wanted to bridge the gap between people struggling in silence and the friends and family who would want to help. He talks about the app's features, including a positive news feed, daily mood journaling, tru...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Eoin, Co-founder and CEO of Trace. Eoin shares how a problem he watched his college friends struggle with, burning through AI subscription credits within hours because of inefficient prompting, turned into a company tackling the same issue at enterprise scale. He talks about bootstrapping Trace alongside a part-time job and a degree at UCC, recruiting his co-founder by physically tracking him down in a Cork shop, and wh...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Stas Levitan, Founder and CEO of Lightsight AI, a full-stack AI search platform that covers both the technical and analytics sides of winning visibility in AI search. Stas shares the story of bootstrapping Lightsight AI to over 150 clients within its first year, growing almost entirely through referrals and community trust with near-zero marketing spend. He talks about why he recommends founders avoid chasing funding to...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Emma Meehan, Founder and CEO of KinetikIQ, a software platform using the 3D scanning technology built into iPhone and iPad Pro devices to deliver real-time, lab-grade exercise analysis for professional sports teams, physiotherapists, universities, and personal trainers. Emma shares the reality of funding a deep tech company in Ireland as a solo, first-time female founder, navigating New Frontiers, Enterprise Ireland gran...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Ben Barrett, Co-Founder of Nomad, an AI adoption and software company he started while still in college. Ben shares the full arc of Nomad's journey, from burning through their first €3,000 in savings on a product nobody asked for, to hitting €40,000 in monthly revenue less than two years later on a two-times monthly growth trajectory. He talks about the discipline of building on customer money, why they deliberately avoi...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Mark Swaine, who spent 3 years as product lead at Elkstone VC and now founder of Swaine Partners. Mark shares his perspective from both sides of the table, having spent three years on the investor firm side and now working with regulated financial institutions on AI-native implementation. He talks about the harsh realities facing AI startups today, why so many wrapper products lack defensibility, and what founders get w...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Ankur Arora, Co-Founder of Montro.io. Ankur shares the story behind Montro.io, a Dublin-based, EU-native AI and SaaS governance platform that helps mid-sized companies discover every tool and AI application in use across their organisation and map it against frameworks like the EU AI Act, DORA, NIS2, and GDPR. He talks about bootstrapping the business to date through founder sweat equity, why he and his co-founder del...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Sanket Agarwal, Co-Founder of Fleek. Sanket shares the story behind Fleek, a marketplace solving the inventory problem for the secondhand fashion supply chain, an idea that began while helping his mother-in-law grow her own resale business. He talks about going through Y Combinator, raising funding from Andreessen Horowitz and HV Capital, and why strategic investors who understand your industry matter more than the size...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip speaks with Sean Mullaney, Founder & CEO of Seapoint. Sean shares the story behind Seapoint, an all-in-one financial platform built specifically for startup founders who are drowning in spreadsheets, scattered receipts and fragmented bank accounts. He talks about raising a $3 million pre-seed and a $7.5 million seed round, why he built a network of 40 angel investors not just for capital but as brand ambassadors, and why the first year o...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Daria Berman, CEO and Co-Founder of Fuss. Daria shares the story behind Fuss, a mobile app and social platform helping people spend more meaningful time offline by solving two very real problems, cognitive overload and loneliness. She talks about what it was like to fundraise in London as a first-time founder with no network, why chasing institutional VC funding almost cost her everything, and how finding angel investor...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip speaks with Aleksandrina Ikonomova, exited founder, startup mentor and angel investor. Aleksandrina brings a rare combination of perspectives to the conversation, she has built and exited her own companies, works with VC portfolio startups on turning around underperformance, and invests her own capital into early stage founders. She shares what she really looks for when investing, why the best founders are defined by their relationship w...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Niall Moran, Fractional CTO and Startup Advisor. Niall brings over 20 years of experience across software development, go-to-market strategy, and startup advisory, having worked with the likes of Google and Microsoft before going out on his own. He shares what it really looks like to build in the age of AI, why defensibility has completely changed for startups, and the most common mistakes he sees founders make when tak...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Darragh Gaffney, Business Lead Ireland at Leyton. Darragh shares how Leyton helps startups and scaling companies unlock funding they didn't know was available to them, particularly through Ireland's R&D tax credit scheme. He talks about the importance of choosing the right funding mechanism at the right time, why good governance and documentation matter more than founders realise, and what separates the startups that sc...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Ross Keating, Co-Founder of Overpath. Ross shares the story behind Overpath, an AI-powered revenue execution platform built to help sales reps work smarter without switching between tools. He talks about raising a VC-led pre-seed round, why speed of execution matters more than ever in AI, and what it really takes to build a founding team that investors will back. They also discuss the difference between bootstrapping an...

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 mos...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Richard Blythman, Founder & CEO of Naptha AI. Richard shares his journey building Naptha AI, from predicting the rise of AI agents before MCP was even mainstream, to the hard lessons of fundraising, pivoting, and finding product-market fit in one of the fastest-moving spaces in tech. They discuss what it really takes to build in AI, why the old rules of startups are changing fast, and how founders need to think differen...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Roger Courtney, Founder & CEO of Sunstone. Roger shares his journey building Sunstone, the challenges of scaling a company, and what it takes to turn an idea into a growing business. They discuss funding, growth strategy, and the realities founders face as they navigate early-stage decisions and making the right calls as a founder.

In this episode, Alister Esam shares with Philip what really drives successful startup investing, from spotting patterns across hundreds of deals to why traction matters more than ideas. We discuss founder traits, funding trade-offs, and the reality behind 10x returns and failed investments.

In this episode, Adriana Ignat (COO of Pulsate and Founder of VEKT AI) unpacks what it actually looks like to build a startup alongside a full-time executive role. From late nights and weekend sprints to creative ways of funding a business without chasing big VC rounds, she shares a candid view on discipline, trade-offs, and redefining success as a founder.

On this episode Philip speaks with Alan Costello, Partner at Resolve Partners, about what founders should focus on when building and funding a startup. They discuss customer discovery, building real traction, and how founders can find the right early investors. A practical conversation on why customer insight should come before capital.

In this episode of Founders and Funding, Philip speaks with Oscar Williams - VC investor, climate tech specialist and deep tech mentor. They explore funding strategies for hard tech startups, mixed capital stacks, what investors really look for in founders, and why raising capital is more like a marriage than a fling. A must-listen for founders navigating early-stage fundraising.

After exiting his advertising business, Michael Nissim became an angel investor backing early-stage startups across sectors. In this episode, Michael shares what he really looks for before investing — why founder resilience matters more than the business model, why he prefers founders who bootstrap first, and how startups should tailor their pitch to different types of investors. If you’re raising capital (or planning to), this is a practical look at funding from the investor’s side of the...

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip chats with Simon Gray, Founder and former CEO of Boost Drinks. Simon shares how he built Boost from a small wholesale operation in 2001 into a nationally recognised energy drinks brand, without taking on external investment, before selling the business to AG Barr (makers of IRN-BRU) in 2022. They discuss building a product that customers come back for (not just hype), why cash flow beats vanity sales, when funding acts as an accelerator...