The Entrepreneur Experiment

In this Mentor Moment, Bobby Kerr - former Dragon and former CEO of Insomnia Coffee - shares the strategic lessons that helped scale Insomnia from a small coffee business into a recognised national brand. Bobby breaks down why underfunding was one of his biggest early mistakes, how letting go of ego helped him choose the right brand name and structure, and why partnerships with companies like Spar...

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Conor Moules, founder and CEO of Barespace, the company building a true operating system for hair and beauty salons. Conor’s journey is anything but traditional. He left school at 16 to become a hairdresser, moved to Australia during the recession, found his way into door-to-door sales, then business intelligence, location int...

In this Mentor Moment, award-winning journalist and entrepreneur Áine Kerr shares one of the most powerful career lessons you can hear early in life: it doesn’t have to be this or that. From teaching to journalism, startups to global tech platforms, Áine reflects on what she calls a “squiggly career” - and how the threadline only becomes clear when you look back. This conversation is a reminder th...

In this milestone Episode 500 of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox turns the microphone on himself for a special AMA, reflecting on the experiments, decisions and hard-earned lessons that shaped the podcast from a side project into one of Ireland’s leading founder platforms. Gary shares how the podcast began in 2019 as a literal experiment while he was running Host Butlers, his Airbnb manageme...

In this Mentor Moment, Fran Quilty, founder of Conjura, breaks down one of the biggest shifts happening in business right now: the move from AI answering questions… to AI actually taking action. Fran explains “agentic AI” in a way that finally makes sense — from AI identifying risks in your business, to making pricing decisions, changing campaigns, and automating workflows across platforms without...

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Brian Lee, the entrepreneur behind Freshly Chopped and founder of TRYKA, Ireland’s inclusive hybrid fitness race league. After building one of Ireland’s most recognisable healthy food brands, Brian has turned his attention to the booming world of fitness racing — but with a very different philosophy. TRYKA is not built only fo...

In this Mentor Moment, Ciara Troy, founder of Oishii Sushi, shares a simple founder advantage that most people avoid: getting closer to the customer voice, not further away from it. Instead of over-engineering a five-year plan, Ciara focused on relentless iteration - testing, listening, refining, and letting real demand guide the next move. It’s a practical reminder that traction often comes from...

What does it take to make a plan at 16 - and still be executing on it at 32? Ashley McDonnell saw a Christian Dior exhibition in London as a teenager and decided she was going to work for Dior. She didn't know French. She'd never lived abroad. She had no connections in luxury. Six years later, she was walking into LVMH headquarters on Avenue Montaigne in Paris. Now she's back building in Ireland —...

In this Mentor Moment, Paul Buckley shares the messy, real start of what became a serious founder journey - not from a polished “masterplan,” but from a place of pressure, responsibility, and learning fast. Paul is the entrepreneur behind EPS Group Australia (which he built and exited) and now C2O Group, and he’s a great example of how leadership is often forged in the moments you didn’t choose: w...

What if the reason your business isn't scaling is that you're aiming 10% higher when you should be aiming 10x? Sean Mullaney has been a founder three times, led engineering at Google X's moonshot factory, scaled Zalando from €1bn to €10bn, and is now building Seapoint - the business bank designed from the ground up for founders. In this episode, he unpacks the systems, mindsets, and decisions behi...

A reminder that big breaks often come from proactive moves: ask, show up, build relationships, and make it easy for the right people to say yes. Rory also shows what matters after the moment hits - capturing it, repurposing it, and using it to build momentum, not just hype. Listen back to the full episode, Episode 443 - and subscribe/follow so you don’t miss the next episode. *Our Sponsors * Nostr...

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Anthony Kelly - entrepreneur, co-founder of Glofox, and co-founder of WellFest - for a wide-ranging conversation on building in the health and wellness space long before it became mainstream. From spotting the early signals in boutique fitness and turning that into a global software company, to building one of Ireland’s best-k...

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Nir Eyal — bestselling author of Hooked, Indistractable, and Beyond Belief - for a masterclass on the psychology of belief, persistence, and entrepreneurial thinking. Together, they explore why success is so often less about intelligence, resources, or talent, and more about what you believe is possible. Drawing on psychology,...

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Jennie and Lisa, the founders of Gigi, the women’s health brand rethinking hormonal support through premium, evidence-led supplements. From working as registered nutritional therapists to building a fast-growing consumer brand, Jennie and Lisa share how their clinical experience led them to spot a major gap in the market: wome...

A premium-brand lesson you can steal in any industry: pricing that isn’t just maths. Alan shares how pricing can be communication, positioning, and part of the customer journey. He shows how the “moment of pause” or consideration can actually work in your favour when the product delivers and the experience educates. Listen back to the full episode, Episode 441 now for the full conversation with Al...

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Ken Rideout for a conversation that goes far beyond endurance sport. Yes, they talk about marathons, HYROX, discipline, and what it really feels like to stand on a start line ready to compete — but this episode is really about identity, effort, masculinity, parenting, business ambition, and the mindset required to keep going w...

In this Mentor Moment, Gerry Hussey shares a simple but powerful way to visualise success that founders can actually put into practice. Instead of vague “future goals,” Gerry breaks it down into outcomes, daily process enablers, and identity — becoming the person who already lives the life you’re working towards. You’ll hear his step-by-step exercise to map what you want, identify the habits that...

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Eoin Cluskey, founder and head baker of Bread 41, the Dublin bakery business built on craft, care, and real food. From leaving school early and training as a carpenter to finding his calling in kitchens abroad, Eoin shares the winding road that led him back to Ireland to build one of the country’s most loved bakery brands. Bre...

In this Mentor Moment, Lorraine Heskin — founder of Gourmet Food Parlour — takes us back to 2006, right in the heart of the Celtic Tiger, when she made the leap from a stable job into the unknown to build her own café brand. Lorraine shares how she approached brand-building from day one, why finding a location was the hardest part (and why she refused to pay key money), and the magic of opening th...

Andrea Reynolds, Founder & CEO of Swoop, joins Gary to break down what founders actually need to know about funding, cash flow and building a business that lasts. Andrea started Swoop after becoming deeply frustrated by how hard it was for business owners to access grants, loans and funding quickly. What began as anger at a broken system became a fintech platform helping businesses access cash fas...

In this Mentor Moment, Anthony Gallagher, founder of Petstop, Ireland’s leading Independent Pet Retailer, shares what he’s proudest of after decades in business: the people who stayed. From team members who have been with him for nearly 30 years to multi-generational families now working across the business, Anthony reflects on why great companies are built by investing in people, staying close to...

Will Meara is the founder behind Bingo Loco — the 3-hour bingo rave that sells chaos as an experience and somehow turns strangers into mates in the space of one night. In this episode, Will breaks down how Bingo Loco went from a scrappy experiment in Dublin to a global live-experience machine — running roughly 2,000 events a year, active in around 270+ cities, with a team of ~276 people and ~200+...

In this Mentor Moment, Rory King - founder of Rory’s Travel Club - breaks down the content engine behind building a simple, low-cost membership business at scale. He shares how they publish across multiple platforms every day, the split between posts that convert (offers), posts that build trust (reviews/testimonials), and posts that drive engagement (questions, entertainment), plus why “value fir...

In this episode, Gary sits down with Dr Caitriona Ryan and Dr Niki Ralph, co-founders of the Institute of Dermatologists in Dublin, to unpack how they built a modern “centre of excellence” model in Irish private care - combining medical dermatology, cosmetic dermatology, skincare, and a growing surgical pathway under one roof. They share the realities of scaling a high-trust healthcare business (s...

In this bite-sized Mentor Moment, Seán Brett shares the raw, real start of his entrepreneurial journey - leaving school at 14 after being misunderstood for dyslexia and ADHD, and turning that experience into creativity, resilience, and a relentless drive to build a better life. Seán breaks down why “non-traditional” beginnings can become an advantage, how early selling teaches you more than any cl...