Business founders experience conflicting passions

Starting a business while working for someone else can only lead to conflicting passions, posts Sinead Geraghty, founder of Dublin based Stowaway. Speaking at the recent DkIT DCU New Frontiers Programme 5 Year Showcase event , Sinead outlined the difficulties she experienced choosing between the passion she felt in her job and the desire to create her own successful business. 

Attempting to do both, Sinead changed to a four day work week to try and push her business forward but found that she still "took work home". Realising that she would never get her business idea off the ground, which is ironic really as Stowaway makes use of otherwise unused ceiling space to store bicycles in apartments, she took the decision to leave the day job taking up an offer to join the New Frontiers Programme in DCU/DkIT. A whirlwind 5 months later the prototype is finished and Stowaway will be launched on crowd-funding platform Kickstarter in the coming days.

Richard McManus also a panel member spoke experienced a different type of conflict when setting up his business Cara Mara. After been made redundant Richard wanted to build his own business rather than return to employment. Having always enjoyed the traditional seaweed bath experience common in the west of Ireland Richard wanted to offer this relaxing and healing experience to athletes, body beautiful and work busy clients in their own home. However his desire was not met with the same excitement or passion by Richard's family. In fact his elderly mother would often ask him when he was going to get a "real job". Undeterred, and with the support of the New Frontiers Programme, Richard set about building sales and growing the business. Along the way his "greatest critic" became his greatest advocate and is now fully behind his chosen career path.

These are just two of the stories shared at the Dublin City University / Dundalk Institute of Technology’s New Frontiers Programme Showcase 2015 which reviewed the results of the first five years of their collaboration in enterprise development programmes. The results are quite impressive, 160 entrepreneurs explored the commercial feasibility of their business opportunities, 64 of whom received six months of intensive supports to build their business plan. To date over 90 are employed in ventures created during the programme and export their products to 59 countries across the globe.

Keynote speakers at the event included: Denis Cummins, President Dundalk Institute of Technology, Professor Regina Connolly, Deputy Vice President Research and Innovation, DCU and Mr Paschal McGuire, Enterprise Ireland’s Director of Entrepreneurship Border Region.

As well as providing an opportunity to showcase their businesses to programme participants past and present, the event encouraged networking at every opportunity. InterTrade Ireland conducted one to one "fireside chats" for participants who wished to explore their venture capital readiness. 

Further information on the New Frontiers Programme delivered by DCU and DkIT can be found by visiting https://www.dcu.ie/invent/training-opportunities.shtml, www.rdc.ie or www.newfrontiers.ie