Kickoff Sessions

Neal Schaffer is a digital marketing expert, podcast host, author, and lecturer in areas of digital and social media marketing. Neal is a guest lecturer to executives at Rutgers Business School, the Irish Management Institute, and the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland. Some areas of expertise include influencer marketing, social selling, digital transformation of sales and marketing, social media...

Darragh Lucey is cofounder of Yooni , alongside his best friend and business partner Nathan Mayes . Yooni is a machine learning career guidance tool which simplifies the university course searching process. The youthful and vibrant platform uses machine learning, Yooni's Assessment Tool and Yooni Fit that enables students to discover their best-fit university courses. Darragh is also the foun...

Paddy Ryder is cofounder of Covid Interns , a social enterprise established to connect businesses with university students and graduates to help combat the commercial challenges of Covid-19. Paddy is a recent graduate from Trinity College Dublin and currently pursuing a masters in Finance & Accounting in Imperial College London . Covid Interns has placed over 300 students into internships by s...

Colin Bryar joined Amazon in 1998, four years after its founding and spent the next 12 years as part of Amazon's senior leadership team as Amazon grew from a domestic seller of books to a global, multi-dimensional powerhouse and innovator. Colin served as Vice President at Amazon, and for two years was Chief of Staff to Jeff Bezos working directly with him advising on technical and business a...

Simon Ree is a best selling author, options trader and senior finance and investment professional with over 28 years of experience with leading global investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Citibank, and Credit Suisse. He has significant experience across all major asset classes in areas of equities, derivatives and fixed income. Other specialties of Simon include asset allocation, wealth manag...

Ernest Cantillon is co-founder of Kinsale Spirit Co and director of both Electric and Sober Lane . He has over 10 years’ experience in the hospitality and beverage sector and previously the president of the Cork Business Association. Kinsale Gin , owned by Kinsale Spirit Co was awarded Gin of The Year, Gin Producer of The Year, and a Double Gold at the highly prestigious Bartender Spirits Awards i...

Bernard Walsh is head of pensions and investments at Bank of Ireland Investment Markets. Bernard has worked in pensions and investment-related roles in Bank of Ireland for over 15 years. Before that, he worked with Ulster Bank Markets and Barclays Bank. Our conversation focused on deconstructing the different elements of pensions and investments. Looking at the benefits of starting a pension schem...

Nick Leeson is CEO of Bull & Bear Capital and former derivatives trader notorious for the collapse of Barings Bank, the United Kingdom's oldest merchant bank. Nick was the “Rogue Trader” who made fraudulent, unauthorized and speculative trades, and his actions led directly to the 1995 collapse of the bank, for which he was sentenced to prison in Singapore. 🎙️ Podcast University: https://b...

From a small town in Canada to CEO of a hedge fund and former member of NY Federal Reserve Investor Advisory Committee, Garth Friesen has unique insights into financial markets as a successful trader. Garth is currently CEO of III Capital , a hedge fund management company specializing in fixed-income and credit. Garth has served as a member for five years on the esteemed New York Federal Reserve’s...

In this session, I break down five lessons learned after working from home for over a year. Remote working has previously been scrutinized for its inefficiencies before coronavirus. Now, one year later, everyone has adapted to a new way of working. This episode discusses how to build a healthy routine that increases both productivity and engagement. Most importantly, how to take sufficient steps t...

Alan Carroll is back on Kickoff Sessions to provide a comprehensive overview of mortgages and property investing. Alan is a bank manager in Bank of Ireland with almost 20 years’ experience in finance and banking. He is both a chartered and professional banker from University College Dublin and offers a wealth of knowledge in personal finance and financial planning. Check out my first episode here...

Gary Fox is host of The Entrepreneur Experiment podcast where he interviews some of Ireland’s leading entrepreneurs to discover how they experiment with growing their business. Gary is also the founder of HostButlers , which caters for everything a host requires to provide a 5-star service to clients. HostButlers takes care of property listings, guest communications, check-ins, property cleanings,...

Aidan Corbett is CEO and co-founder of Wayflyer , an Irish eCommerce revenue-based financing and marketing analytics platform that recently raised $10.2M in seed capital funding. Founded in 2019 by Aidan and Jack Pierse , Wayflyer enables eCommerce brands to meet their potential by providing them with affordable capital up to $5M for advertising and inventory. For eCommerce companies, this is an i...

Part two of this mini series focuses on ten business ideas to generate an income online from unskilled to specialized. Part one explains three rational reasons to start a side business now . Each business ideas has been selected based on low barriers to entry, almost zero upfront costs and opportunity to scale over time. Whether you are looking to start a side business, unfortunately lost your job...

In this solo session, I outline three rational reasons to start a side business in 2021. I provide a detailed justification for each point, from both a personal and economic perspective and identify solutions to some of the blockers that have restricted people from starting ventures. Whether you are looking to start a side business, unfortunately lost your job due to coronavirus, or you are just b...

Mark Randall is a market veteran with over 40 years’ experience as a frontline broker for financial and commodities markets at a major investment bank. He has worked as a futures trader to institutional clients, the first technical analyst of NatWest and part of the first team within NatWest to understand and teach applications of options trading. Mark subsequently went on to become the director o...

Subir Chowdhury is a bestselling author, business management consultant and CEO of ASI Consulting Group , a global leader in strategic initiatives, quality consulting, and training. Under Subir’s leadership, ASI Consulting Group have helped hundreds of clients around the world save billions of dollars and increase revenues. Subir has worked with many organizations, large and small, across various...

Samson Williams is a senior economist at Milky Way Economy , anthropologist and co-host of The Space Economy. By the process of crowdfunding, Samson helps businesses and start-ups leverage RegCF ($5M) and RegA+ ($75M) capital raising to fuel growth in the space economy and other industries. Samson is the author of the book: ‘Blockchain & The Space Economy’ and an adjunct professor at Columbia...

Alan Carroll is a bank manager in Bank of Ireland with almost 20 years’ experience in finance and banking. He is both a chartered and professional banker from University College Dublin and offers a wealth of knowledge in personal finance and financial planning. We discuss all things personal finance from creating a savings strategy and understanding cashflows to designing an investment approach th...

Jason Sio is CEO and founder of Lizuna , an eCommerce fraud and risk analytical system integrated with Shopify . Jason graduated from the University of Hawaii with a BA in Japanese language studies and quickly relocated to Japan where he started his first company offering customers from overseas access to Japanese digital content. Since 2018, Lizuna was selected to be a part of 500 Startup Kobe pr...

In this solo sessions I break down the different avenues you can take in your career and some of the motives behind decision making. I discuss what it truly means to follow a “passion” and analyze if this is a real possibility for regular people like you and I. Lastly, I take a look into what we can do to navigate our own path and relinquish ourselves from the societal pressures of conformity. Tim...

Shane Finn is an ultra-marathon and endurance athlete, host of the Pushing Limits Podcast, charity fundraiser, and online coach at Shane Finn Training . Shane has completed numerous races in his career such as running 12 marathons in 12 days, 24 marathons in 24 days, triathlons and ironman events all around the world. Most notably, cycling and running across USA from San Francisco to New York in j...

Darren Marble is a serial entrepreneur and a leading expert in new forms of finance. Darren is co-founder of Crush Capital , CEO of Issuance and previously the CEO of CrowdfundX . He is the creator of the Going Public television series, enabling retail investors to access IPOs and other financial products which were previously reserved for accredited investors. Darren is the co-founder of the Crow...

Emily Clements is a neuroscientist and PhD candidate in neuroimaging, focusing on the research in Neuroscience of Entrepreneurship in Kings College London . Emily has a background in cognitive neuroscience and utilizing computational models to better understand peoples decision-making processes. Kings College launched its first ever collaboration between the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology &am...

A solo session focusing on restructuring your training and nutrition during lockdown. Not only are restrictions more challenging for everyone but adjusting your physical routine can be difficult without the necessary equipment. I detail where you can buy affordable, versatile equipment which can be delivered to you quickly. I break down how to emulate your regular training pattern at home and what...