Day 3 - Belfast
This morning we boarded a bus and left for Belfast at 7AM. It's about a two hour drive north from Dublin across rolling green hills. Shortly after crossing the border into Northern Ireland, we quickly arrived at Catalyst, an incubator for startup companies, where our tour guide Norman gave us a brief tour of the shipyard where the Titanic was constructed. It was an impressive site to see while Norman, a physicist, dished out scientific explanations from the centrifugal pump systems to the density of water and displacement. He also talked business and gave some key takeaways from the Titanic story...use your technology properly and have a sound business model. His final words left us with an interesting comment. He explained that the old life cycle of "educate, work, retire" would soon be replaced with "educate, work, educate, work, educate, etc.". It was great to hear this from a wise man as I've chosen a path of "educate, work, educate", giving me some confidence in my decision to further my education via this program.
We were then quickly ushered into presentations on entrepreneurship. Gary Hamilton walked us through his success story of building a company and selling it after approximately 3.5 years and earning a 10x ROI for his investors. He ran us through many of the factors that led to his success and the challenges he faced. Some are mentioned in the pic below. It was an inspiring story of perseverance and dedication from an entrepreneur. One of the highlights was to have great lawyers and accountants, i.e. surround yourself with good people!
After a quick hearty lunch of beef stew and malt bread, we were off to meet with our team and the company project for the next few days. We are working with Komodo Learning, an SaaS (subscription as a service) company that assists children with mathematics education as supplementary learning. Their client base is in the U.K. and United States. Our mission is to help explore ways to boost subscription sales in the American market. We finally got to meet Ged, the CEO, and the entire Komodo team at their office in central Belfast. The next couple of hours were spent discussing details of the Komodo business model and various means of marketing, both successful and unsuccessful. The conversation was fascinating as Ged houses a wealth of entrepreneurial/business knowledge. It was like an entire business school class crammed into a couple of hours. At times, my mind began spinning off in different directions trying to digest and contemplate one particularly brilliant lesson before the next one came barreling down. Our meeting led us to a defined project scope which we will work on all day tomorrow. I'm excited to work with my team in problem-solving and, hopefully, bringing some value to Komodo over the next couple of days.
The evening ended with a group dinner at McHugh's in central Belfast. A short speech from Bryan, an angel investor, on risk-taking in business rounded out the day. He preached about the virtue of living your life to the fullest and never having regret. I got to talk to him a bit more over dinner and he is as humble as he is wise. Jan later described him to me as "content" and his demeanor exudes just that. Privately, Bryan gave me a few words of encouragement and support that lifted my fatigued spirit. Another great, albeit, exhausting day.
We were then quickly ushered into presentations on entrepreneurship. Gary Hamilton walked us through his success story of building a company and selling it after approximately 3.5 years and earning a 10x ROI for his investors. He ran us through many of the factors that led to his success and the challenges he faced. Some are mentioned in the pic below. It was an inspiring story of perseverance and dedication from an entrepreneur. One of the highlights was to have great lawyers and accountants, i.e. surround yourself with good people!
After a quick hearty lunch of beef stew and malt bread, we were off to meet with our team and the company project for the next few days. We are working with Komodo Learning, an SaaS (subscription as a service) company that assists children with mathematics education as supplementary learning. Their client base is in the U.K. and United States. Our mission is to help explore ways to boost subscription sales in the American market. We finally got to meet Ged, the CEO, and the entire Komodo team at their office in central Belfast. The next couple of hours were spent discussing details of the Komodo business model and various means of marketing, both successful and unsuccessful. The conversation was fascinating as Ged houses a wealth of entrepreneurial/business knowledge. It was like an entire business school class crammed into a couple of hours. At times, my mind began spinning off in different directions trying to digest and contemplate one particularly brilliant lesson before the next one came barreling down. Our meeting led us to a defined project scope which we will work on all day tomorrow. I'm excited to work with my team in problem-solving and, hopefully, bringing some value to Komodo over the next couple of days.
The evening ended with a group dinner at McHugh's in central Belfast. A short speech from Bryan, an angel investor, on risk-taking in business rounded out the day. He preached about the virtue of living your life to the fullest and never having regret. I got to talk to him a bit more over dinner and he is as humble as he is wise. Jan later described him to me as "content" and his demeanor exudes just that. Privately, Bryan gave me a few words of encouragement and support that lifted my fatigued spirit. Another great, albeit, exhausting day.
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