Contributor Profile
Niamh Bushnell
Said goodbye to 16 years in NYC to become the first Dublin Commissioner for Startups. Loving it! CoFounder IDIRUS, angel investor. @NiamhBushnell
Articles written by this contributor:
Notes from the Commish: 20,000 Startups?
When I read about the 20,000 new startups in Ireland in 2016 and saw all the positive social media surrounding the announcement, I felt more …
Richie Power: Saving Cinema From the Edge of the World
Ritchie Power co-founded Showtime Analytics in 2014, aiming to save the cinema industry. In late 2016, Yueke, a subsidiary of Chinas Alibaba Pictures, …
Notes From The Commish: Not a Swan Song
Over the last few months many of you have been asking about the plan for this Office in 2017 and today Im delighted …
Notes From The Commish: Now That’s an Ecosystem!
I love the broad brief of my role as Startup Commissioner but after two days at the IoT World conference here in Dublin …
Notes for the Commish: Friendship and Empowerment
It feels almost like a luxury to talk about the UK and Brexit in the aftermath of the recent US election, but when …
Notes from the Commish: Let Them Know You Are Irish
When my colleague Sarah asked the guy sharing our taxi in Berlin this Summer where he was from he responded: I was in …
Notes from the Commish: T & C Repeat After Me
Irish Startups, your time is almost up to speak out. There’s less than a week to go to Budget Day and many of …
John Ason: Angel Investor Extraordinaire
John Ason has been an angel investor for the past 20 years. Previously, he worked for over 25 years at AT&T, both as an engineer and developing the companys international business. During that time he worked on bleeding edge technology, the perfect backdrop for his future career as an angel investor. John was in Dublin earlier this summer and sat down with Niamh Bushnell to discuss what interests him as an investor, the Dublin-based companies he is excited about and the advice he has for would-be investors.
Notes From The Commish: A Great Idea
Sometimes realizations dawn on you quickly, sometimes slowly and sometimes it takes someone else’s clear thinking to help you see what’s likely been …
Notes From The Commish: Apple, Intel and Ireland
Earlier this week Intel, based in Ireland since 1989, bought Irish company Movidius, a world leader in machine vision technology, for north of $350M. …
Notes From The Commish: A Country Sure Of Itself
As we head into the Labor Day weekend here in the US, Im preparing my goodbyes to in-laws and the beach and packing …
Notes from the Commish: Innovation Anthem
My piece in last Sunday’s Independent: Anticipation. That was the name of the Guinness ad that burst onto our tv screens in the summer of …
Notes from the Commish: Lines and Dots
A couple of years ago, I lost an important client for my startup because I asked them to sign an NDA. The relationship …
Cathal Gaffney: From Losing a Garda Job to Winning an Oscar Nomination
Co-founder and CEO of Brown Bag Films Cathal Gaffney talks to the Dublin Commissioner for Startups Niamh Bushnell. Dublin-based Brown Bag Films is …
Notes From The Commish: Love at First Sight
TechIreland was a whole week old yesterday. In its first 7 days in beta it had 2,753 visitors from 38 countries, and they …
Notes From The Commish: It’s Time for TechIreland
Today were delighted to announce the launch, in beta, of TechIreland.org, the first-ever database of innovation companies in Ireland. Company by company, sector by …
Notes From The Commish: Thanks to Brexit
UK based startups are reeling from Brexit. More than 80% of them wanted to remain in Europe before the vote, and now they’re …
Rory ONeill: The Bliss of Dublin
Niamh Bushnell, Dublin Commissioner for Startups, talks with Rory ONeill, also known as Dr Panti Bliss, our beloved Queen of Ireland, about his love of Dublin, the change our Fair City has seen and its creative future.
Notes From The Commish: Growth Day in Dublin. Remain Day in the UK.
This Wednesday, June 22nd, were hosting the Newstalk SaaS Bootcamp Growth Day. 8 of the companies who participated in the 6-month bootcamp will present at the …
Fergus Gloster: An Irishman in SaaS-land
When Irishman Fergus Gloster speaks rooms fall silent. He delivers powerful, unvarnished truths about sales lead times, the cost of customer acquisition and …
Notes From The Commish: An Open Letter to the Minister
Dear Minister Mitchell O’Connor, Congratulations on your new post as Minister for Jobs, Enterprise, and Innovation. I was excited to hear your early …
Múirne Laffans Digital RTÉ: A Story Worth Telling
Múirne Laffan, Chief Digital Officer of RTÉ, talks to Dublin Commissioner for Startups, Niamh Bushnell about all things RTÉ.
Notes From The Commish: At The Office This Week
Whats up at the Dublin Startup Commissioner's office this week? Well, let's see... Editors, Data Analysts, and Divers.
Notes from The Commish: Intercom’s Soul
Were in Berlin at the moment, piggybacking on the Inside Intercom World Tour, to talk about Dublin and the events were bringing to the …
Notes From The Commish: Hype And Substance
Theres been some recent discussion in the Irish media about startups and whether the government should be run like one. Governments are not businesses and probably shouldnt be run like a business.
Notes From The Commish: Fear Of The New
There are long lines of students outside the US Embassy in Dublin these days, waiting for their J1 visa interviews and the chance to spend the summer working in the States. 20, 30, 40 people at a time in the queue. Theyre eager, impatient, and maybe a little sleepy-headed.
Notes From The Commish: Dublin’s New Concierge
For over a year now this office has participated in organizing itineraries to Dublin for visiting journalists, investors, governments, corporations and international startups. Weve learned a lot from this work, namely...
Notes From The Commish: A New Era
Ciara OBrien of the Irish Times tweeted me an article yesterday about Estonias rise as a tech hub. "More competition" she noted, and shes right, but Ireland easily holds its own against startup hubs in Estonia, the Baltics, and across Europe for that matter.
Notes From The Commish: The People’s Republic Of Tech
This months 1st Friday Brekkie was on April 1st so we played an April Fools joke. After an engaging presentation on Built in Cork by its founder Donal Cahalane, we announced that since the Cork tech scene was on fire the Dublin Commissioner for Startups office was moving to Cork!
The Commish Writes: Your Speaking Notes
You may not be joining us in Austin but you travel, you talk, you engage people and you too can be a great ambassador for Dublin.
Notes From The Commish: Dublin Makes Me
On Friday March 11th, Dublin Makes Me, a series of remarkable events to celebrate Dublin as a city of creativity and innovation, will launch at South by South West (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.
Notes From The Commish: Space MatchMakers
Through the course of our work at this office, weve found a consistent problem faced by Dublin startups office space. With that in mind, weve decided to play matchmaker and connect those with spare capacity, with those that need it.
Notes From The Commish: The Essentials – Brekkie, Traction and Travel
Startups come to the office looking for advice on many things, but three recurring themes are space, recruitment and funding.
Notes From The Commish: The Roots of Ambition
The non-news of last week for me was the revelation that less than 3 per cent of VC money went into female founder …
Notes From The Commish: Creating Global Connections
Back in May 2014 while prepping for my Commissioner interview I asked Shane Reiser of Startup Genome why Dublin wasnt ranked as a …
Notes From The Commish: The Might Of Mentors
MFS, our Mentoring for Scale experiment is now 8 sessions old and working really well. 10 mentors and 10 scaling companies, 2 hours …
Phorests Ronan Perceval: Going The Distance
The Big Read, sponsored by Vodafone: Dublin’s Commissioner for Startups Niamh Bushnell talks to Ronan Perceval, Founder and CEO of Dublin-based software success …
Notes From The Commish: Funding With Caution
When Peter Connor asked me to write the foreword to Bullets updated guide to government funding for startups I was initially a little …
Notes From The Commish: Our Next Big Opportunity
Irish startups are global companies, Sean Blanchfield told me in his warm, matter of fact way when we bumped into each other on …
Notes From The Commish: And The Winners Are
Im delighted to announce the participants for our Newstalk Saas Bootcamp, run in conjunction with Gary Leyden and his great team at the …
WP Engines Heather Brunner: Lone Star State Of Tech
In the coming weeks, well be speaking with a choice selection of the global tech luminaries who visited Dublin for Web Summit 2015. …
Notes From The Commish: Hey Dublin
Hey Dublin, heres an idea for you: Instead of hosting Web Summit in 2016, lets headline it. Instead of being subsumed by the …
Twilio’s Jeff Lawson: A Unicorn Speaks
Twilio Co-Founder and CEO Jeff Lawson is in Dublin today, to speak at the closing day of Web Summit. Founded in 2007, Twilio …
AdRoll’s Adam Berke: “Dublin has been a big success for us.”
AdRoll is a global leader in retargeting, with over 15,000 active advertisers around the world. Established in San Francisco in 2007, the company’s …
Notes From The Commish: Fast Global Friends
Dublin Commissioner for Startups Niamh Bushnell writes from Hong Kong: Following an impressive tour of PCHs facilities in Shenzhen, Niamh Given and I …
HealthXL’s Martin Kelly: We Care A Lot
HealthXL CEO Martin Kelly talks to Dublin Commissioner for Startups Niamh Bushnell. The Big Read, sponsored by Vodafone. Founded in Dublin, HealthXL connects …
Jules Coleman: Hassle Are Cleaning Up
The Big Read, sponsored by Vodafone: Leixlip native Jules Coleman is the Co-Founder and CEO of London-based home cleaning service Hassle. Coleman co-founded …
Notes From The Commish: Announcing #HostAStartup
Today were excited to launch Host a Startup in partnership with Web Summit. As our StartupDublinHosts.com website explains: Host a Startup is an …
Notes From The Commish: Speaking About Year 2
I spoke at the launch of the Startup Gathering on Monday. I started by explaining that what I love most about the Gathering …
Notes From The Commish: The Icing On The Cake
So, how will the tech ecosystem in Ireland be affected by the loss of Web Summit? The FT reporter asked me on the …
Notes From The Commish: Tel Aviv Tales # 2
Why they double down on data… Last Monday in hot, dusty Tel Aviv I met the team behind Startup Nation Central (SNC), a …
Notes From The Commish: Chief Scientist, I’m Impressed.
With must-see European tech capitals like Berlin and London already ticked off the list, I landed early last Sunday morning into Tel Aviv …
Pivotal Labs’ Kevin Olsen: “Were Trying To Change The Way The World Builds Software.”
The Big Read, sponsored by Vodafone. Pivotal Labs Director Kevin Olsen talks to Dublin Commissioner for Startups Niamh Bushnell. Currently based in Dogpatch …
NetHope: How NGOs Are Using Tech For Change
The Big Read, powered by Vodafone. David Goodman of NetHope talks to Dublin Commissioner for Startups Niamh Bushnell. NetHope members from across the …
Notes From The Commish: Navigating New York
Weve just come to the end of another interesting pilot here at the Commissioners office a three month New York virtual accelerator, …
Notes From The Commish: Why Ireland Needs SEIS
On July 10th, the 40 plus members of the Dublin Startup Leaders Group, which I founded, formally responded to a Department of Finance …
CarTrawler’s Bobby Healy: Driving Dublin Travel Tech
CarTrawler CTO Bobby Healy talks to Dublin Commissioner for Startups Niamh Bushnell. Established in 2004, CarTrawler are one of Ireland’s most successful Travel …
Bill McKiernan: The Chairman Of The Board
Online commerce pioneer Bill McKiernan talks to Dublin Commissioner for Startups Niamh Bushnell. Irish-American entrepreneur William (Bill) McKiernan is president of WSM Capital, …
Notes From The Commish: What I Learned As A Founder
I spoke at the wonderful InspireFest last week as part of the Founder series and offered up 10 lessons from my …
Straight Shooter: Enda Talks Tech
I met Taoiseach Enda Kenny in his office in Government Buildings. He was warm and casual and funny as usual. He told me …
Notes From The Commish: We (The People) Speak Dublin Tech and Party!
This Friday, June 26th, after a three month period of gestation, our publication Dublin Globe launches officially to the world. It all started …
Inside Eamon Leonard: Tracing The Roots Of Dublin Tech
The Big Read, powered by Vodafone: Eamon Leonard is a founder, an advisor to startups, an angel investor, and a tech community organiser. …
John Flynn: Tales From A VC Veteran
John Flynn is currently the chairman of the Irish Venture Capital Association. The Big Read, powered by Vodafone. Flynn is also the Managing …
Declan Ryan Talks Tech, Tax And Dublin: “We’re Lucky to Be Here”
The second part of our exclusive interview with entrepreneur Declan Ryan. Declan Ryan is the founder and Managing Partner of Irelandia Aviation, one …
Why Dublin? The Dublin Data Initiative Gets Into Gear
The launch of the Dublin Data Initiative marks the next critical evolution of Dublins startup ecosystem. A taskforce featuring Startup Genome, Dublins Startup …
Declan Ryan: If we focus on the things that were good at, then we can lead.
Entrepreneur Declan Ryan talks to the Dublin Commissioner for Startups Niamh Bushnell. Declan Ryan is the Founder and Managing Partner of Irelandia Aviation, …
Notes From The Commish: Introducing The DSSI (Dublin Startup Space Initiative)
From the desk of the Dublin Commissioner For Startups: Patrick Walsh and Edel Flynn, both entrepreneurs and founders of coworking spaces here in …
Notes From The Commish: Wonderful Women Speak Up!
From the desk of the Dublin Commissioner For Startups: A simple idea occurred to me over the weekend. I was thinking about how …
‘There’s an illusion that entrepreneurs need to work 80 hours a week. I don’t believe that’ – Seán Brett, Steeltech Sheds
There’s one simple rule Seán Brett likes to live by: business should always be fun. Its a simple mantra, but its hard to …
Notes from the Commish: 20,000 Startups?
When I read about the 20,000 new startups in Ireland in 2016 and saw all the positive social media surrounding the announcement, I felt more …
Toolbox: How To Hire In A Super-Hot Tech Market
Theres a new reality in tech recruitment in Dublin. More employers are making more offers to the (largely) same pool of candidates. Developers …