The Entrepreneur Experiment

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...

What doesn’t disappear in a recession? Money. What disappears is confidence — and that’s where opportunity lives. In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary sits down with Ray Ryan, founder of The Noledge Group, for a wide-ranging, founder-first conversation on staying relevant through decades of tech change — from mainframes, to PCs, to cloud… and now AI, agents, and wearables. Ray shar...

In this weekend’s Mentor Moment, Charlene Flanagan and Niamh Ryan - the founders of Ella & Jo - share a refreshing take on what success really means. Instead of chasing someone else’s version of the win, they talk about defining success for yourself: freedom, family time, building from the west of Ireland, and creating a legacy by bringing a brand from “nothing” to customers in over 50 countries....

In this brand-new Masterclass Special, Gary Fox sits down with Diarmuid Corcoran of Chartered Capital to unpack the money questions Irish founders avoid - until it’s too late. They talk openly about why money can still feel like a “dirty word” in Ireland, why founders can be brilliant at making money but hesitant to manage it, and how wealth often compounds simply because of maths. Diarmuid breaks...

In this Mentor Moment, Keilidh Cashell shares the exact moment her career pivoted - she left her job on the makeup counter with plans to build a weekend client business… and instead, brands started reaching out with paid opportunities straight away. Keilidh breaks down how she stayed true to her values, learned the realities of the influencer industry, and why trust and long-term partnerships matt...

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Spencer Matthews - founder of CleanCo, endurance adventurer, and the definition of a modern founder operating across business, body and brain. Spencer shares the real story behind his identity shift: from heavy drinking and coasting, to building extreme discipline through endurance challenges, and channeling that same intensit...

Welcome back to The Entrepreneur Experiment for 2026 - and Season 28 kicks off with a special format: an Ask Me Anything Q&A. Gary answers the most “juicy” questions sent in over Christmas (LinkedIn, Instagram, and the newsletter), covering everything from taking the podcast global, to the tools and team behind the scenes, to why he’s doubling down on founder-led brands in the age of AI. You’ll al...

Recorded live at The Sugar Club, this special edition of The Entrepreneur Experiment brings three standout Irish founders on stage for an honest, high-energy conversation about building modern businesses in public. Aine Kennedy, founder of The Smooth Company and newly crowned EY Entrepreneur of the Year, shares how she launched her first product with no budget, built everything herself, with the h...

How do you build a powerful business network when you’re starting with no members, no brand, and no shortcuts? In this Mentor Moment, Trevor McFarlane, founder and CEO of EMIR, shares how he built one of the Middle East’s most influential private CEO networks — starting with a single event, a lot of nerve, and an obsession with trust and curation. Trevor explains why optics matter, how credibility...

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox welcomes back Matthew Coffey, co-founder of Squid, Ireland and the UK’s largest local loyalty network with 550,000+ users and nearly 2,000 independent businesses. What began as a simple tap-for-coffee reward app has evolved into a powerful loyalty and payments infrastructure - and now Squid has launched Wave, a universal points currency desc...

What happens when a founder opens the company’s books to every single staff member — salaries, P&L, everything? In this episode, Eoin Cantwell, founder of Fitt Meals, shares the bold move that transformed his culture, boosted performance, and created true ownership across his team. Eoin opens up about: why he embraced full financial transparency with staff how he teaches the “why” behind decisions...

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Jac Dunne, CEO of Dimply, an AI-powered financial experience platform that’s quietly reshaping how banks, insurers and wealth managers serve their customers. After almost three decades in legacy finance, Jac made a bold move in her mid-50s into regtech and then fintech, “bookending” her career by building the kind of technolog...

Forget the corporate polished front - authenticity wins every time. Conor McHugh, founder of Alchemy Search, shares why building a personal brand has been key to his success in Dubai, how honesty drives relationships, and why you should never pretend to be bigger than you are. 🎙️ For the full episode (412) of The Entrepreneur Experiment, listen to Conor’s full story on reputation, relationships, a...

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary sits down with Laura Dowling — “The Fabulous Pharmacist” — a pharmacist, founder, educator, entertainer, and one of Ireland’s most recognisable health voices. From 20 years behind the pharmacy counter to running a fast-growing wellness brand stocked in 1,500+ stores, Laura shares the real story behind Fabu Wellness: the failures, the stolen idea...

How does a schoolteacher from Connemara end up buying his own airline? In this Mentor Moment, Pádraig Ó Céidigh, former owner of Aer Arann, shares how instinct and courage led him to take one of the boldest entrepreneurial leaps in Irish business — remortgaging his home to keep a vital island service alive. 🎙️ Listen to the full conversation in Episode 408 of The Entrepreneur Experiment to hear Pá...

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary sits down with Mark Breen, co-founder of Safe Events Global, the Irish team behind some of the world’s most ambitious events - from Dublin Zoo’s Wild Lights to Formula 1 in Qatar and mega-city festival sites across the Middle East. Mark shares the real, behind-the-scenes story of how a student “helping people up at a Frames gig” turned into runn...

When opportunity knocks, sometimes the smartest move is to just say yes and figure it out later. Richard Fitzgerald, founder of Augustus Media - the company behind Lovin’ Dubai, Lovin’ Saudi and more — reveals how 100 days of relentless work and curiosity helped him build one of the Middle East’s leading media companies from scratch. 🎙️ Hear the full conversation in Episode 407 of The Entrepreneur...

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Ryan Casey, the founder of C11 Recovery — one of Ireland’s fastest-growing performance and recovery brands. From spending his days as an electrician to working with Rory McIlroy, Manchester City, Munster Rugby, and the DP World Tour, Ryan’s journey is a masterclass in turning grit into global growth. In just three years, he’s...

From his parents’ house to supplying the world’s top athletes, Greg Bradley’s journey is pure entrepreneurial grit. In this Mentor Moment, the founder of BLK BOX shares how he went from teaching himself manufacturing to building a global fitness equipment brand trusted by Premier League clubs. 🎙️ Go back to Episode 406 of The Entrepreneur Experiment to hear Greg’s full story, including the setback...