Social Sciences Research Centre Conference 2016 / ILAS, NUI Galway / 20th October 2016

1. Growing Galway’s
Startup Community
@JohnBreslin
@Tech_Innovate @NUIGalway
@PorterShed @GalwayCity
@StartupGalway
Guillom at commons.wikimedia

2. We learned from...
• “Startup Communities” by Brad Feld
• All about the Boulder, CO ecosystem
– Slightly larger than Galway, 100k people
– One of most entrepreneurial cities in US
– I was there two weeks ago…
alecperkins at flickr

3. The Boulder Thesis
1. Entrepreneurs must lead the startup
community
2. The leaders must have a long-term
commitment
3. The startup community must be
inclusive of anyone who wants to
participate in it
4. The startup community must have
continual activities that engage the
entire entrepreneurial stack
Molas at commons.wikimedia

4. Participants
Entrepreneurs
Government
Universities
Investors
Mentors
Service Providers
Large Companies
Leaders and Feeders
HM Marsh at British Library's Picturing Canada

5. Activities and events
• Office Hours:
officehours.ie
• Boulder Denver New
Tech Meetup: Startup
Galway Tech Meetup
• Boulder
StartupDigest: Galway
StartupDigest
• Startup Weekend
(three so far in
Galway)
• Boulder Beta: Demo
Bar / Galway Beta
• Boulder Open Coffee
Club: Galway Open
Coffee (needs reboot)
• Ignite Boulder: Ignite
Galway (needs reboot)
• CU New Venture
Challenge: ?
• Boulder Startup Week:
?
• Entrepreneurs
Foundation of CO: ?
• Young Entrepreneurs
Organization: ?
Geraldshields11 at commons.wikimedia

6. Startup Galway
• Startup Galway
Tech Meetups
– Pat Phelan, Dermot
Berkery, Declan
Ganley, Iseult Ward,
Paul Kenny,
Christopher Byrne,
Sean O’Sullivan,
Siobhan Maughan,
Bob Rosenberg,
Gareth Keane,
Mareese Keane
• Startup Galway
Tech Workshops
• Startup Galway
Pitching Meetups
Me

7. New spaces in Galway
• SuperPixel Labs coworking spaces
• Bank of Ireland Workbench
coworking space
• Bank of Ireland startlab
• Galway City Innovation District
– PorterShed coworking space (2016)
– PorterShed accelerator (2017)
flynn_nrg at flickr

8. PorterShed
David Ruffles

9. NUI Galway
• Entrepreneurship Society
• Blackstone LaunchPad
– Supporting undergraduate
entrepreneurship
• BioInnovate, TechInnovate, more…
toms at flickr

10. TechInnovate
Aengus McMahon

11. Tech ecosystems
Me at bit.ly/galwaytechmap

12. Me at bit.ly/medtechmap

13. Me at github.com/techinnovate/galwaymarineinnomap

14. Me at bit.ly/galwaystartupguide

15. Let’s build it!
• Our Startup Galway website tagline
is “building an entrepreneurial
ecosystem in Galway”
• Building a website is not enough
– Build it and they won’t necessarily come
• We need life in the ecosystem,
through commitment, participation,
and continual activities
Mayqel at commons.wikimedia