BOI Workbench Launch / Bank of Ireland, Mainguard Street, Galway / 12th August 2015

1. Startup Community
What Galway can do next
@JohnBreslin
@NUIGalway @Boards @StartupGalway @GalwayCity
Guillom at commons.wikimedia

2. We learned from...
• “Startup Communities” by Brad Feld
• All about the Boulder, CO ecosystem
– Slightly larger than Galway, 100k people
– One of most entrepreneurial cities in US
alecperkins at flickr

3. The Boulder Thesis
1. Entrepreneurs must lead the startup
community
2. The leaders must have a long-term
commitment
3. The startup community must be
inclusive of anyone who wants to
participate in it
4. The startup community must have
continual activities that engage the
entire entrepreneurial stack
Molas at commons.wikimedia

4. Participants
Entrepreneurs
Government
Universities
Investors
Mentors
Service Providers
Large Companies
Leaders and Feeders
HM Marsh at British Library's Picturing Canada

5. Activities and events
• Young Entrepreneurs
Organization: JCI
• Office Hours:
officehours.ie
• Boulder Denver New
Tech Meetup: Startup
Galway Tech Meetup
• Boulder
StartupDigest: Galway
StartupDigest
• Startup Weekend:
Next one being
planned for October
2015
• Boulder Open Coffee
Club: Galway Open
Coffee (needs reboot)
• Ignite Boulder: Ignite
Galway (needs reboot)
• Boulder Beta: Demo
Bar (needs reboot)
• CU New Venture
Challenge: ?
• Boulder Startup
Week: ?
• Entrepreneurs
Foundation of CO: ?
Geraldshields11 at commons.wikimedia

6. Startup Galway
• Startup Galway Tech
Meetups
– Pat Phelan, Dermot
Berkery, Declan
Ganley, Iseult Ward,
Paul Kenny,
Christopher Byrne,
Sean O’Sullivan
• Startup Galway Tech
Workshops
• Startup Galway
Pitching Meetups
• Galway Startup
Weekend 2014
– 38 students and 32
non-students
registered to take
part
– 30 out of 70 people
pitched ideas
– 12 teams
– Top two teams led by
women
– All teams had a
student member

7. New spaces in Galway
• SuperPixel Labs coworking space
• Bank of Ireland Workbench
coworking space
• PorterShed coworking space
(commencing works this month)
• Accelerator (later this year)
flynn_nrg at flickr

8. NUI Galway
• Blackstone LaunchPad announced
– Supporting undergraduate
entrepreneurship, over €1M
• Entrepreneurship Society created
• Need an alumni mentor network
toms at flickr

9. Parallel universes
• Whole parallel ecosystems around
the medtech and creative industries
Me at bit.ly/galwaytechmap

10. Me at bit.ly/medtechmap

11. Let’s build it!
• Our Startup Galway website tagline
is “building an entrepreneurial
ecosystem in Galway”
• Building a website is not enough
– Build it and they won’t necessarily come
• We need life in the ecosystem,
through commitment, participation,
and continual activities
Mayqel at commons.wikimedia

12. Startup Gathering
• Get involved in Galway’s day!
– Run an open event on October 9
– Add your startup company or resource
to the Startup Map of Ireland
– Volunteer to help out on the day
• http://startupireland.ie/startupgathering
Hiku2 at commons.wikimedia