aperspeck

[aperspeck]

Blending Traditional Irish Music with Entrepreneurship.

This week I find myself sharing my passion about two things that on the surface feel very different but make very natural compadres to me.

There’s a world of people who really want to start their own business and are unsure of how.

My work bringing Founder Institute to Dublin is aimed at making those first steps far simpler.

I don’t want people to worry about how, I want them to focus on what.

Th…

[aperspeck]

Which customer to focus on - the biggest decision every start-up has to make ASAP.

Which customer to focus on – the biggest decision every start-up has to make ASAP.

TLDR:Choose one customer persona, learn who influences them, then influence the influencer.

It was my great pleasure to attend NDRC’s second investor day of 2016 yesterday when no less than twenty brand new companies were showcased.

Each start-up is a business built around opportunities spotted because of deep domain knowledge.

Whether it was lessons learned about problems with agricultural…

[aperspeck]

'The top five skills on Linkedin were invented in the past five years." Julie Spillane, Accenture at FutureScope

Not only was Snow Furnace involved in arranging the FutureScope conference, we were also involved in filming and editing the entire event and now beginning today we’re at the centre of sharing that content.

FutureScope on the day was the most focused information sharing session I’ve ever attended and I’ve been to lots of conferences.

This was because FutureScope had a clear and simple agenda…

[aperspeck]

Apple or Anglo? Attracting foreign companies to Ireland has done us a lot of good. Apple or Anglo Irish Bank, who would you choose?

[aperspeck]

The World Is Getting Flatter Some people hate the fact that the internet is eating everything but it’s unavoidable. The world is getting flatter everyday and it’s because of this thing called the internet.

[aperspeck]

This took me twenty years to learn and I'm sharing it in 600 words. It’s bizarre to say that it took me almost twenty years to fully appreciate the difference between the creative and business worlds.

[aperspeck]

Commodore 64 Flashback!

We’ve just published a piece on the FutureScope blog that opened up a flood of memories.

Stripe’s Head Of EU Operations Don O’Leary namechecked the Commodore 64 as his favourite piece of hardware ever.

We were a Spectrum and later Amstrad household but my classmate Dermot Salmon and we spent many hours playing Mission Impossible on the C64 in his house!

Amazing when you look back at how much the…

[aperspeck]

What would you do with access to Ryanair's 100m customers?

That’s the question Ryanair CTO John Phelan will be asking at #FutureScope on May 31st and the question that we’re asking today on Twitter and our blog:

Please forward this to all you know who you think would do great things with access to those 100m customers!

I know I’m not the only one paying close attention to Ryanair.

Over the past 18 months they have confounded everyone by discovering…

[aperspeck]

What’s so great about FutureScope?

FutureScope is a not-for-profit Irish focused tech conference with a clear mission – creating new opportunities.

I’m delighted to be on board as their managing editor as they are a Snow Furnace client.

The power behind FutureScope is Dublin BIC, who have been tirelessly  assisting Irish tech businesses for 25+ years.

Dublin BIC have been beavering away providing mentoring, advice, office space…

[aperspeck]

The Road Not Taken 2016 is a very important centenary. It was one hundred years ago that ‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost was published.

[aperspeck]

Business As Storytelling? Discovering how a whole raft of the world’s hottest software companies are using content to drive sales was like walking into a dark room and finding a light switch.

[aperspeck]

"Europe with it's eyes open or a Europe with it's eyes closed to mercy?"

“Europe with it’s eyes open or a Europe with it’s eyes closed to mercy?”

My review of U2’s last night in Dublin has just gone live on U2.com.

A determination to do more for refugees was my personal takeaway.

#refugeeswelcome

[aperspeck]

Danny Meyer Interview

The biggest thrill for me about writing is the cool people you get to spend time with.

Thanks to Dublinglobe.com and the US Embassy here in Dublin I recently got to interview Danny Meyer, one of the world’s top restauranteurs.

What really impressed me about Danny was his amazing outlook and attitude which I hope comes across in this piece.

[aperspeck]

#U2ie The Boys Are Back In Town

#U2ie The Boys Are Back In Town

My review of U2’s Dublin show last night has just gone live on U2.com

[aperspeck]

Irish at Web Summit Round-Up

Irish at Web Summit Round-Up

Now that the dust has settled it’s a good time to see who benefited from Web Summit and how.

Over the three days (and nights) of Web Summit I kept tabs on a host of companies including Tribal VC, DAQRI, Intercom, NewsWhip, CurrencyFair, Pundit Arena, Videodoc, Bizimply, Soapbox Labs, ChannelSight, Ragsbox, Playertek, Cubic Telecom, Firmwave, laundr.ie, Fourpaws, Sasta Fitness, OpenWifi,…

[aperspeck]

Top 11 Things I Learnt From Gay Byrne

Top 11 Things I Learnt From Gay Byrne

1. The project is bigger than the individual. 2. Data drives insights. 3. Mistakes provide gold. 4. No is never an acceptable response. 5. Nothing happens in less than five minutes. 6. Everything matters 7. Not letting your colleagues down is crucial. 8. The camera will always find you. 9. Navel gazing is boring. 10.Think big. 11. Crying at work is ok. 12. Disagreeing with the boss is fine.

[aperspeck]

Block Party - Europe's biggest blockchain hack

Block Party – Europe’s biggest blockchain hack

A blockchain is a distributed database that can be added to but never taken from.

The blocks in the chain are records which detail exactly what changes were made to the database and in what order. Bitcoin is the best-known use of blockchain. The blockchain database structure makes it ideal for sharing or trading sensitive and valuable data.

Last weekend, Europe’s largest blockchain hackathon to…