Bobby Healy, one of Ireland's most well-known founders. Image: Manna
From Bobby Healy to Aimee Connolly, here are some entrepreneurs from home and abroad that are inspiring others to kickstart and grow their own businesses.
In the year that I’ve been writing the Start-up of the Week column, I’ve asked every single founder to name people they look up to for inspiration. The responses have been diverse: from little-known small business owners to industry heavyweights from home and abroad (such as Michael O’Leary and Elon Musk). One founder even mentioned Socrates as his inspiration.
In this year’s list, we take a closer look at some of the names that will be familiar to Irish entrepreneurs – people who are truly disrupting the industries they are working in and pioneering new business ideas.
Bobby Healy
Arguably Ireland’s most well-known entrepreneur now, Healy is the founder and CEO of Manna Drone Delivery, which was ranked as one of Ireland’s top start-ups for the third year in a row by LinkedIn. Founded in 2018, Manna is on a mission to disrupt the food delivery space using drones to eliminate the need for human drivers. With rapid expansion across Ireland, the UK and the US, it is no surprise that he was the most commonly reported inspiration among founders featured in our Start-up of the Week series this year.
“Bobby has not only normalised the use of drones in day-to-day life but has made them an essential part of the landscape,” said Julie Garland, CEO and founder of drone training and certification start-up Avtrain.
Clare Meskill
Co-founded by Meskill and Dave Calnan, Telea has been hailed by Oisin Devoy of SimpleStudy as a “brilliant example” of how a start-up can improve people’s lives. “We are lucky enough to work closely with them at the NDRC Accelerator, and their unending kindness and willingness to help others doesn’t go unnoticed,” he said.
Founded in 2020, Telea has developed a platform to better connect speech and language therapists with patients that have Parkinson’s disease. The platform lets these professionals prescribe exercises for clients, which can then be completed at home through an app on their phone or tablet. This product is designed to save time for speech therapists and reduce waitlists for patients.
Dan Hobbs
One of the youngest on this list, Hobbs is the CEO and co-founder of Protex AI, one of the start-ups we featured in Start-up of the Week this year. He founded Protex AI in Limerick two years ago with his friend Ciaran O’Mara, who he met at BT Young Scientist when they were both 12. Now based in Dogpatch Labs, Protex AI uses computer vision to identify health and safety issues, minimise injuries and make industrial workplaces safer.
Brian Kelleher of Microdoc said he respects the “single-minded dedication” and “focus” Hobbs has on building a company and catering to the needs of the customer. “[Hobbs is] also working with proprietary technology and solving difficult technical problems,” he said.
Dr Lucy O’Keefe
O’Keeffe founded Trinity College Dublin spin-out CroíValve with Dr Martin Quinn, Dr Paul Heneghan and Prof Bruce Murphy to develop a heart valve treatment device.
Tricuspid valve regurgitation, which is estimated to affect more than 550,000 people each year in the EU and US, happens when the tricuspid valve in your heart doesn’t seal shut entirely, which can cause blood to flow backwards. This can change the heart’s structure over time, leading to permanent heart damage and a variety of other problems.
Conor and James McCarthy
Founders of one of Ireland’s well-known unicorns, the McCarthy brothers have been developing digital technologies for the hospitality sector since 2015. Flipdish provides services such as online ordering for collection and delivery, on-premise QR code ordering, self-service kiosks, customer loyalty schemes and digital marketing. In January 2022, it officially became a unicorn after reaching a $1.25bn valuation following about $100m in investment led by Tencent.
“I admire Conor and James McCarthy simply because of the pace at which they grew the company from 2015 to date, making it one of the top unicorns in Ireland,” said Nipun Kathuria, co-founder of dental software start-up Smile Genius. “We learned quite a lot about how to build our product from Flipdish.”
Aimee Connolly
Connolly is one of Ireland’s most successful entrepreneurs, and her company, Sculpted by Aimee, is Ireland’s most well-known personal care products business. Founded in 2016, the company’s success was recently recognised by LinkedIn in its annual list of top Irish start-ups, in which it bagged the top spot.
The Irish make-up brand has products stocked in more than 400 stores across Ireland, including at its very own flagship store opened in Dublin this year. The business has also expanded internationally in the UK and the Middle East.
Shane Curran
At only 23, Curran is the youngest on this list, but by no means any less impressive. He is the founder of Evervault, a software company based in Dublin that provides developers with the tools needed to swiftly solve complex data security and compliance problems. The company describes itself as a platform that allows businesses to encrypt, process and share sensitive customer data “without touching it in plaintext”.
A former winner of BT Young Scientist, Curran was able to raise $3.2m seed funding in 2019, followed by $16m in Series A funding the following year.
Jordan Brompton
Fast becoming one of the most well-known entrepreneurs in the UK, Brompton is co-founder of electronics start-up Myenergi. Based in Lincolnshire, the company manufactures EV charging equipment and smart home devices.
“Jordan’s ability to innovate and lead in a challenging industry, while maintaining a strong focus on sustainability, aligns closely with our vision,” said Maebh Reynolds, co-founder and CEO of our most recent Start-up of the Week, GoPlugable.
“Her success in creating impactful, eco-friendly products is a model I aspire to emulate. Jordan’s story is a powerful example of how passion, coupled with a commitment to sustainability, can lead to remarkable achievements in the tech world.”
Sam Altman
A man who needs no introduction, Altman is in some ways the world’s entrepreneur of the year, after his success in transforming OpenAI from a known name within the tech community to nearly a household name thanks to ChatGPT.
Doppl founder Thibault Launay said that he admires Altman because he is “driven by a mission” rather than money. “He has zero shares in the company and his priority is to make an impact,” Launay told me earlier this year.
Most recently, Altman was in the news for different reasons, however, after being unexpectedly fired by the OpenAI board, only to return days later as CEO again after a board reshuffle. He has been the CEO of OpenAI since 2019. Before that, Altman was president of Y Combinator.
10 things you need to know direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of essential sci-tech news.
