<p>In the first episodes of Irish Startup Nation we will be hosting Irish startup founders who are making a name for themselves on the world stage.  Hear their stories and advice on how to overcome many of the challenges faced by early-stage ventures.</p>

Bringing you top Irish startup founders from around the world, inspiring you to take the leap into your own startup adventure.

Irish Startup Nation

Richard Barrett, co-founder of the Cork-based startup taking the sports-media space by storm, Pundit Arena, shares the nine steps that helped them grow to over 1 million monthly users.

Episode 005: Nine Steps to 1 Million Monthly Users with Richard Barrett of Pundit Arena

Shane McQuillan, a software engineer from Co. Monaghan, now in Silicon Valley, gives us the back story on his startup, Contect, a mobile concussion detection app. Building on his exposure to technology commercialization during his undergraduate in DCU, Shane was a driving force behind the team that took this novel approach to concussion detection from a research project, and developed it into a marketable product.  He shares with us a brief overview of the key milestones of his journey, including several sources of funding, and also some of the barriers which the company faced, offering his advice on how best to overcome some of the major challenges that many startups encounter.

Shane shares how he created a startup "Contect" around a novel concussion detection app for your phone

Episode 004: Mobile Concussion Detection with Shane McQuillan

Listed as one of the Irish Independent's "30 under 30 shaping Ireland's future" as well as having her startup included in the "Top 20 Female Startup Companies in Ireland," Jayne Ronayne shares her journey and some of the lessons learned during her journey to starting and growing KonnectAgain, an exciting new startup focused on alumni relations, based in Dublin and San Francisco. 

Jayne Ronayne, co-founder and CEO of KonnectAgain

Episode 003: Harnessing the Power of the Alumni Network

Finn shares his experience with launching quickly to get real feedback from real customers as soon as possible.  He introduces us to several of his past and present projects, the most recent being BeamBox, a novel solution to help the hospitality industry supercharge their marketing.  The company is currently crowdfunding for equity over at seedrs.com, so you too can be an owner of his venture.

Finn Pegler, CMO of BeamBox

Episode 002: Finn Pegler - Ready, Fire...Aim

In this episode Ciaran Murphy, a 2013 UCC graduate, shares his experience of going abroad as a Naughton Fellow to the University of Notre Dame’s Masters of Entrepreneurship, before joining the Glen Dimplex graduate development programme. Check out the podcast to hear about how Irish graduates are commercializing new technology at the university and the unique ties between Ireland and one of the top universities in the States.