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Fenu Health - A thriving, multi-award winning equine health business with a worldwide customer base founded by the Madden sisters at Loreto College, Dublin. Image: Annie and Kate Madden.

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Fenu Health: From School Room to Startup

Secondary school is a time to hang out with your friends, do some study and grow as a person. But two teenage sisters at Loreto College on Stephen’s Green in Dublin have also found the time to found and develop Fenu Health, a thriving, multi-award winning equine health business with a worldwide customer base. Annie and Kate Madden, aged 15 and 16, are the eldest of four children. Annie is in third year and Kate is in fifth year. They live in Summerhill, Co Meath, with their parents and younger brother and sister. “We grew up with horses for sport, not business, and we’ve been riding since we

three colourful tubs of nobó ice-cream sit on a wooden table

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How Dublin Works: Nobó ice-cream

Dublin company Nobó launched its ‘Frozen Goodness’ dairy-free and gluten-free ice-cream almost ten years ago. Since then, it’s won a bunch of prestigious awards and is distributed nationwide. You’ll also find it in stores across the UK, at a handful of Canadian markets and in Kibsons in Dubai. A few years into their startup journey, Dublin.ie spoke to the husband and wife team behind the Nobó brand – Rachel and Brian Nolan. Here’s what they had to say about their startup experience. Innovating an age-old cuisine Nobó isn’t just a marketing gimmick. Its recipes are a real innovation. “Definitely, it is in terms of the ing

sean bryan of cut & sew sit on a barber chair with his arms folded

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Cutting A Fine Figure: The success of Cut & Sew

Barbershop culture is on the rise in Dublin. Barbershops are becoming cultural hotspots. Places you can go not only for a haircut, but for music, design or even a whiskey. By taking the best of New York’s barbershops and adding a touch of creativity and an Irish welcome, Sean Bryan of Cut & Sew has built his business from one chair in the basement of a record shop to four stores around Dublin city. And he isn’t finished yet. Dublin.ie caught up with Sean to hear about the story behind his success. Starting Cut & Sew barbers Sean left school after third year and started a carpentry apprenticeship. However, that didn’t work out, so he turned his h

Salvatore Fanara and Rosanna Fiorenza of travelling languages

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Talking business with Travelling Languages

Creating an immersive English language course Travelling Languages is a Dublin-based language school, which helps English and Italian language learners quickly improve their proficiency. By combining lessons with tourist activities, Travelling Languages creates a completely immersive language programme. These experiences help students master the language and enjoy unique experiences. We chatted with founders Salvatore Fanara and Rosanna Fiorenza about starting their innovative business. But first, romance. From Turin to Dublin He was an engineer from southern Sicily. She was a banker from Turin. It was 2006. “We met in Turin a few weeks

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How Dublin Works: The Guinness Enterprise Centre

The Guinness Enterprise Centre, on Taylor’s Lane in the heart of Dublin’s Liberties, is managed by Dublin Business Innovation Centre and has been named the no.1 university associated business incubation centre in the world. In the first of two articles about the GEC, Dublin.ie talks to Eamonn Sayers, the centre’s manager since 2011. Dublin.ie: I’m an entrepreneur. I’ve got an idea. What can the GEC do for me here? Eamonn Sayers: The first step here is that we’ll try and put you in front of an entrepreneur who’s in the same industry. We’ll say have a chat with this person, see what they’re thinking. If you’ve identified your target market, again we’ll say we know someone here who’s in the same market and they’ll have a coffee with you too. Dublin.ie: Then what happens? Eamonn Sayers: Our role here is to help your company grow and scale. We help to make it become better and we help to make you a better entrepreneur. We create an environment and a community and a sense of belonging that makes entrepreneurs very comfortable, makes them enjoy the fact that this is their office, this is their workplace, so that both the entrepreneur and their teams are in the best place to grow their businesses.

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How Dublin Works: The Fumbally Exchange

Co-working that went from pop-up to permanent The Fumbally Exchange began as part of the pop-up space revolution that took Dublin by storm a few years ago. Its name came from its first temporary location, which was on Fumbally Lane – right next to the well-known Fumbally Café. Today, however, the Fumbally Exchange has a permanent home in the freshly refurbished Argus House in the popular Blackpitts area of Dublin 8. It has even expanded to a second location in Waterford. So what exactly is the Fumbally Exchange?

a black and white portrait photo of stephen quinn

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How Dublin Works: Stephen Quinn, Jobbio

In that famous TV ad for Donegal Catch, the hapless trawlerman’s recipe ideas are kept “on file… In a filing cabinet”. And that’s exactly where they’re going to stay. It was the realisation that so many CVs suffer a similar fate that got Stephen Quinn wondering if there was a better way to organise the world of recruitment – and, as he puts it, “bring an old-world industry to life”. In conversation with Jobbio’s Stephen Quinn Stephen is the CEO of recruitment platform Jobbio. He established the company with his brother John Quinn back

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NovaUCD: Cool Ideas, Hot Tech

It’s an economic truth, universally acknowledged, that innovation is at the core of most successful businesses. Being innovative, however, is easier said than done. That’s why incubation centres are so necessary. Ireland proudly boasts nine university incubation centres, six university bio incubation centres and 15 Institute of Technology incubation centres. And they all contribute to making Dublin one of the world’s most exciting locations for both research and development – and in which to

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How Dublin Works: DCU Alpha

If you’re not entirely sure what the Internet of Things (IoT) is, or if you haven’t even heard of it yet, that’s alright. Essentially, the IoT is a connection of devices to the internet, whether that’s your washing machine or your house alarm and everything will be ‘talking’ to the other. On a micro level, that might mean that your alarm clock will tell your coffee machine that it’s time to start brewing a pot when you get up; on a macro level the possibilities are infinite, including making cities smarter.

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