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.

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 realization that so many CVs suffer a similar fate that got Stephen Quinn wondering if there wasn’t a better way to organise the world of recruitment – and, he says, ‘bring an old-world industry to life’. Stephen is the CEO of Jobbio and established the company with his brother John Quinn in 2013. His idea was a digital platform that enables people to apply privately to companies they want to work for – with what Jobbio calls a ‘live bioâ

Half way down Dawson Street, nestled away in an old Georgian building, is the Design House – a thriving hub of creativity. The Design House was founded by Irish fashion designer, Bebhinn Flood. It’s the creative home to several in-house designers. With design and retail under the one roof, it’s like buying straight from the studios. The hallways host a gallery of art. Over 60 designers, mostly Irish, sell their creations here. Cutting-edge fashion, jewellery, bridal, vintage and a variety of crafts all in the one beautiful Georgian building. Not to mention the authentic Italian café in the basement, which has just