BUSINESS
Q&A with Barry Downes (TSSG)
28-06-2010
by ElectricNews.net
Barry Downes has helped create 11 startups in just five years. We asked him to tell us the secret to creating a successful startup in Ireland.
Barry Downes is the Executive Director of the Innovation and Commercial division of the TSSG and Executive Director of the Centre for Converged Services (3CS). His startup successes include FeedHenry and Zolkc.
Q: What do you consider the main ingredient for creating a winning company?
A: The key element that all startups must have is to create value for the customer. The more value a company can create, the better chance it will have of surviving. At the Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (TSSG) we undertake research and development, which give us ideas and inspiration to create new companies, and the starting point is always the end customer. We always ask the question, how is this technology going to create value for customers in the marketplace? It’s a process of constantly searching for where a company can add the most value. Then of course, you need great people and great back up to start on the road of making a great business.
Q: Should Irish entrepreneurs wait for the recession to end before beginning a startup?
A: No, the environment for creating startups in Ireland at the moment is rich. Despite the recession, there’s a wealth of advice, resources and funding an entrepreneur can tap into across the country. There’s an abundance of people that companies can work with on a research and development basis with great support by many organisations including Enterprise Ireland. My advice to anyone starting a company in Ireland would be:
1. First, make contact with Enterprise Ireland and review your concept with them. Enterprise Ireland development advisors can really help entrepreneurs.
2. Next, look at what resources are available in third-level organisations. There are world-renowned experts on most technologies in universities and research centres here in Ireland.
3. It’s also important to understand the market and customers. Businesses that create real value for customers have a higher success rate.
4. For financing, make contact with organisations such as HBan and Enterprise Ireland. They can advise on where to get funding and who to trade with, both in Ireland and abroad.
Q: What do you think is the "key quality" that every entrepreneur needs?
A: Being part of a startup involves lots of long days and long nights so you have to have a passion for what you are doing. It’s a tough road and a long journey so you’ve got to love what you are doing to have commitment. You have to be passionate about the product and how it will contribute to your customer. Of course, in a recessionary environment, you have to be resilient as well. In early startup phases, you have to be able to work with limited resources and certainly limited financial resources. But, if you love the idea of creating new products and services that will have a lasting benefit for people, it will take you through the hard times. For me, I get great satisfaction when I see people using the products and services I’ve helped create.
Q: What’s your personal motivation?
A: I've always loved technology. I love what it can do to help people. Whether it helps individuals communicate more effectively or whether telecoms services can create utilities for people. Services like Zolkc (www.zolkc.com) provide an e-tourism solution that gives visitors to historical locations content and images on a handheld device via GPS positioning. I love seeing how unique technologies such as these solve problems for customers and that’s why I like being in the technology business. But why startups? I personally believe that startups create economic growth in the economy. Tech startups can create high value growth in any part of Ireland. My motivation also comes from the economic development aspect. I want to see Ireland having the best companies in the world. Taking advanced research and building on this is a great way to create high tech, high growth Irish companies that have a powerful impact on Irish society and beyond.
Q: What’s up next for you?
A: I would love to continue working with advanced researchers and individuals to create the next wave of innovative technology companies coming out of Ireland. My goal is to create a cluster of companies that will help add to the high tech reputation of Waterford, the Southeast region and beyond. A part of this is to attract more entrepreneurs to the area to accomplish more research and development. Another part is to cooperate with other organisations in Ireland and Europe and leverage each other’s skills. The ultimate goal is to create an environment that makes it easier to create startups that will make Ireland a truly international high-tech hotbed.
About Barry Downes
Barry Downes is the Founder and President of FeedHenry and has worked in the IT and telecoms industry for over 20 years. Over the course of his career, Barry has held executive positions in product development in the US and Europe. Today, Barry is the Executive Director of the Innovation and Commercial division for TSSG, one of the leading telecoms R&D centres worldwide. He is also the Executive Director of the Centre for Converged Services (3CS), a specialised applied research centre focusing on convergence technologies and services. In this role Barry built and guided the organisation that has taken FeedHenry from a research concept through to a fully developed business with a mature live operational platform, key significant customer wins and generating revenue. Barry is a serial academic entrepreneur and has over the past five years with the TSSG and 3CS created 11 new start-ups. In 2007, he accepted the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Award for Informatics for the TSSG. Barry holds a BSc. in Applied Computing from WIT and an MBA from Smurfit (UCD).
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