In the past year I have seen over 1000 startup founders who are all looking for advice on how to best take their idea forward. These ideas span a variety of sectors including healthcare, fintech, crypto, consumer and enterprise. Some of the founders have deep technical domain knowledge while others…

Ignite exists to support all early stage founders. Since launching Ignite in 2011 we’ve run startup programmes across Europe — in Belfast, Manchester, London, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Dublin and Cambridge. We have met thousands of entrepreneurs who have started highly successful companies creating countless jobs and millions in revenue. …

A question we get asked a lot is “do I have to be a developer to join the programme”? The answer is a definite NO. Around half of our portfolio companies have no technical co-founders and, while sometimes coding is required for a product, a majority of the time early…

We are living in a time of huge economic uncertainty. 2020 is a year which will be talked about for generations and the stories of what was created during this period are yet to be told. Economies are cyclical and through the downturns of the past some of the most…

This morning I woke to a cold fog enveloping the hill on which I have spent the past week. As the sun rose from behind the skyscrapers and the fog began to lift until I could see the unmistakable sight of the Gateway to California. I have been fortunate to…

Few people in Northern Ireland will have heard of W Brian Arthur. Yet he is one of the most important thinkers in Silicon Valley who realised the ascent of technology would upend the economic model of diminishing returns — that is, products or companies that get ahead in a market…

Podcasts remain one of my favourite ways to consume media. The breadth and depth of content freely available to listeners is under appreciated and, with the right host and format, can be a much superior listening and learning experience. With St Patrick’s Day allowing us a nice long weekend, I…

​​This is the first in a series of short posts about the different types of content I consume to help my thinking. I am cognisant of reading in a filter bubble and would like to understand a broader landscape of material from which to learn. …