That Great Business Show

Conall Ó'Móráin
  • 5.0 (1)
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That Great Business Show with Conall Ó Móráin - officially Ireland's TOP Business Podcast, UCD Smurfit's Business Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 2d ago

    E313: Six people. €10 BILLION traded. Now MartEye is taking on America. With a little help from Portershed

    SIX people. More than 120 marts. Over €10 BILLION worth of livestock and related products traded through their platform. And now they’re taking on America. How on earth does a team that small build something that big? Conall Ó Móráin meets Ciarán Feeney and Margaret Monaghan of MartEye, alongside Mary Rodgers, CEO of Galway’s PorterShed—the startup hub helping ambitious businesses make the connections to grow. When Covid shut the marts, MartEye had TWO WEEKS to build a working product. Customers needed it. Customers paid. And they’ve been building ever since. Today, farmers can bid from their children’s football matches. A buyer in New York can buy cattle for a farm in Tipperary. And an unexpected enquiry from Missouri has opened the door to America’s sale barns. Margaret’s first American trip? Turkeys, the Amish community and a table full of hunting rifles. Not quite the welcome she’d imagined. We get into: • Getting customers paying before the product was “fully baked”. • The American opportunity: roughly 1,100 sale barns, according to Ciarán. • Why MartEye has declined approaches from industry investors. • The reality of supporting customers at THREE in the morning. • Why PorterShed protects its engineers—and makes introductions count. • The microphone mistake that broadcast Margaret into an Italian auction. • And selling Michael O’Leary’s pedigree Angus cattle. Customers. Cash. Control. And an Irish business with its eyes on a much bigger market. Brought to you by De Facto Shaving Oil—the world’s best shaving oil. Not beard oil. SHAVING oil. https://defactoshave.com They back us. You back them, please. Follow That Great Business Show. Subscribe, share and build the tribe. Find all episodes at www.ThatGreatBusinessShow.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    E313: Six people. €10 BILLION traded. Now MartEye is taking on America. With a little help from Portershed

  2. Sep 25

    E312 Failed College. Blew 25 Grand. Came Home With 80p. Now He Owns Republic of Work | Frank Brennan

    Frank Brennan failed his way through three years of mechanical engineering. His words, not ours. So he went to Australia, took a 100%-commission door-to-door sales job, learned to survive 50 rejections a day, saved 25 grand — and then spent the lot travelling. He arrived home in Cork with 80p in his pocket. Excellent financial planning. Then he walked into an empty building on Cork's South Mall where a man was planning an innovation hub. There was no proper Wi-Fi. No desks. No team. No coffee dock. But there were 14 tonnes of IKEA furniture arriving the following morning. Frank's response? “I'll start tomorrow.” That business became Republic of Work. The early years were brutal. Start-ups, Frank discovered, don't necessarily have any money. EY arriving looking for space for 30 people gave the business breathing room. Today Frank owns Republic of Work, has expanded it by another 7,500 sq ft and says one of the world's biggest gaming companies has taken its fifth floor on a two-year deal. We talk sales, rejection, risk, remote working, Cork, community, the future of the office, why Irish businesspeople insist everything is “flying” when it absolutely isn't — and the person Frank would ultimately most like to hire. His wife. That Great Business Show — Real Business. Real lessons. That Great Business Show is backed by our great pals at De Facto Shaving Oil, made in Mayo and sold to the world. Find all episodes at www.ThatGreatBusinessShow.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    E312 Failed College. Blew 25 Grand. Came Home With 80p. Now He Owns Republic of Work | Frank Brennan

  3. Sep 21

    E311 That Great Business Show- €130,000 Short of Becoming a Pilot. So He Built a €1m+ Business | Erik Jentetics

    EP 311: €130,000 Short of Becoming a Pilot. So He Built a €1m+ Business | Erik Jentetics He was €130,000 short of becoming a pilot. So Erik Jentetics decided to become a businessman. He was 17. He and two school friends started by Googling how to buy a domain. They put €6,000 between them into Grafton Digital, knocked on doors looking for customers and, in one early pitch, confidently told a prospective client that yes, of course they charged VAT. They walked out and had to find out what VAT actually was. Then came the less funny bit. At 19, Covid hit a business heavily exposed to hospitality. Contracts disappeared. Erik had to help lay off more than eight people. Then a whiteboard session changed the company. Web development was producing the best revenue per employee. They dropped much of the rest, hired three students to cold-call businesses and, at their peak, were taking about 50 website orders a week. Then they moved into apps. Then software. By late 2022/early 2023, Grafton Digital had passed €1 million in gross revenue. At 25, Erik bought a 39-year-old Irish technology business. Now 26, with more than 50 people across his businesses, he wants to buy more Irish technology companies. His particular target: smaller, family-owned businesses whose founders are looking for an exit. There's New York too. Erik explains why Grafton's first American expansion actually damaged its Irish business, why Irish executives need to “cut the blarney” when selling in the US, how he finances acquisitions, and why he doesn't want to raise an enormous fund and lose control. He also says some of New York's most influential and wealthy families invested in him last year — and reveals that Grafton Digital has just signed a two-year digital transformation deal with a US corporation with more than 3,000 retail outlets, with another major airline customer announcement to come. And his Hire in a Heartbeat? John D. Rockefeller. At 26. Of course it is. That Great Business Show, Episode 311. Real Business. Real lessons. Brought to you by De Facto Shaving Oil, made in Mayo and sold worldwide. No foam. No nonsense. Just a few drops and shave. Find all episodes at www.ThatGreatBusinessShow.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    E311 That Great Business Show- €130,000 Short of Becoming a Pilot. So He Built a €1m+ Business | Erik Jentetics

  4. Sep 9

    E310: Six figures in debt. She cut €27,000 in ONE year. Now she says she's worth seven figures. Plus: Skin Formulas goes global

    Six figures in debt. Then Kel Galavan did something fairly extreme. She put her family through a No Spend Year and cut their annual outgoings by €27,000. Today, Mrs Smart Money says she has a seven-figure net worth. Naturally, I wanted to know how. Where did the money actually come from? How much difference did the No Spend Year make? Why can intelligent people earn very good salaries and still have absolutely no idea where their money goes? And why does Ireland remain so uncomfortable talking about investing? Then Kel drops something else into the conversation. She's building a personal-finance app in Ireland that she believes can eventually be rolled out across Europe — and this one, she says, will need funding. Also back at the table is Geraldine Jones of Skin Formulas. When Geraldine joined us five years ago, Skin Formulas was bootstrapped and she was thinking about Britain and perhaps outside investment. She never took the investment. Instead, she kept control. Today there are 170+ stockists, a flagship store in Nenagh, a 2,500 sq ft warehouse, B Corp certification, manufacturing relationships in Britain, Korea and Turkey, European expansion underway — and Dublin Airport is next. Oh, and Geraldine has just recruited someone who was selling for Trinny Woodall. Not a bad five years. The common denominator? Both women came through ACORNS, the extraordinary programme for female entrepreneurs in rural Ireland. Applications for ACORNS 12 close 18 September 2026. And, inevitably, we finish with Hire in a Heartbeat. Geraldine wants Emma Grede. Kel wants…her husband. She eventually even tells me his name. Kel Galavan — Mrs Smart Money Geraldine Jones — Skin Formulas That Great Business Show with Conall Ó Móráin. Made in Ireland. Listened to everywhere. With thanks to our magnificent supporters at De Facto Shaving Oil — made in Mayo, sold worldwide. No foam. No nonsense. Find all episodes at www.ThatGreatBusinessShow.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    E310: Six figures in debt. She cut €27,000 in ONE year. Now she says she's worth seven figures. Plus: Skin Formulas goes global

  5. Sep 4

    E309 That Great Business Show - Kidnapped. His parents never knew. Until now. Vince Lawson, CMO, Biotiful

    E309 That Great Business Show with Conall O Morain I thought the kidnapping was the revelation. Then I asked about his family. After our interview, Vince Lawson told me he had never told his parents. His children hadn’t been told either. Almost none of his work colleagues knew. In Episode 309 of That Great Business Show, he describes being bundled into a van in Tanzania, threatened with machetes and driven into the darkness. He explains how patchy Swahili and a conversation about football helped change the atmosphere. Then we get down to business. Vince’s career includes Fever-Tree, itsu and now Biotiful Gut Health, where he is Chief Marketing Officer. We discuss: • Twice the price. Half the size. Why customers still bought. • The difference between a passing fad and a business with staying power. • Wellness overload—and the opportunity in making things simpler. • Why customers saying something matters doesn’t mean they’ll buy it. • Biotiful’s plans for growth in Ireland. Plus British roller-skating medals, six years completing a three-year degree, and Hire in a Heartbeat. Supported by De Facto Shaving Oil, made in Mayo: defactoshave.com. Find all episodes at www.ThatGreatBusinessShow.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    E309 That Great Business Show - Kidnapped. His parents never knew. Until now. Vince Lawson, CMO, Biotiful

  6. Aug 18

    E308 That Great Business Show - He Lost 9 Hours a Year Looking for Scissors. So He Went to Toyota. | Frank Olden

    Frank Olden is a pharmacist. So naturally, he went to Toyota. Why? Because he was fed up wasting time. Frank once calculated that simply looking for a pair of scissors in pharmacies was costing him about nine working hours a year. Nine hours. Looking. For. Scissors. So he started applying Toyota’s Lean principles to community pharmacy. Five small changes later? 46 hours of labour saved. And this is not really an episode about pharmacies. It is about something almost every SME does: waste time without noticing. Frank explains why some apparently busy workplaces actually achieve very little; why Toyota gives workers time every day to remove tiny pieces of friction; why standard processes matter; and why fixing a recurring problem beats repeatedly fixing the consequences. There are some particularly Irish moments too. Seven years training to become a pharmacist — and then spending your day printing labels and sticking them on boxes. And until recently, certain HSE reimbursement claims could still involve putting paperwork into an envelope, adding a stamp and posting it. We also talk about: why chaotic businesses can feel busier than productive onesthe Toyota Andon cord and the importance of fixing problems onceknocking two seconds off repetitive tasksreducing prescription waiting timesthe bank that responded to Frank's request for business finance by trying to sell him pension and income-protection productsand why the best process improvement may be ridiculously small.HIRE IN A HEARTBEAT: Ryan Tierney of Seating Matters. That Great Business Show is brought to you by De Facto Shaving Oil — the world's finest shaving oil, made in Mayo and sold worldwide. Find all episodes at www.ThatGreatBusinessShow.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    E308 That Great Business Show - He Lost 9 Hours a Year Looking for Scissors. So He Went to Toyota. | Frank Olden

  7. Aug 12

    E307 That Great Business Show She Started on Her Parents’ Kitchen Counter. Now she's aiming for Selfridges | Gráinne Mullins

    Gráinne Mullins thought 2020 was going to be her year. She had just won Young Chef of the Year. Then Covid arrived. Restaurants closed. Everything in the diary disappeared. So Gráinne went home to East Galway and started making hand-painted chocolates on her parents’ kitchen counter. That little experiment became Grá Chocolates. The first online launch sold out in just over five minutes. Actually, it did better than that. The website crashed and accidentally sold twice as much chocolate as Gráinne had made. Fast forward. Grá Chocolates now employs 18 people, with more joining at peak times. Every single chocolate is still hand-painted. And Gráinne has just set up UK distribution, now Selfridges and Harrods are firmly on the hit list. In between came one other fairly useful development. She entered the Stelios North–South Business Cooperation Awards. The application took about 15 minutes. Then came a Zoom with Stelios Haji-Ioannou himself. Then came the phone call. Grá Chocolates and Northern Ireland partner Needi won €100,000. And the money was in the bank within roughly three working days of the competition. There is €500,000 available again this year through the Stelios Awards. For the full practical detail on who qualifies, the prize structure and how to apply, listen to the Barry Sherry episode of That Great Business Show. This episode is the other half of the story: what winning actually feels like — and what it can do for a young business. Also in this episode: the Valentine’s Day disaster that ended with chocolates being hand-delivered around Irelandwhy Gráinne treats business competitions as a management exercisehow Michelin kitchens taught her how to run a companywhy she wants to move production back to rural East Galwaythe importance of Northern Ireland as an obvious first export marketand a remarkable 16-year-old employee who gets Gráinne’s Hire in a Heartbeat.That Great Business Show is brought to you by De Facto Shaving Oil — the world’s finest shaving oil, made in Mayo and sold worldwide. Find all episodes at www.ThatGreatBusinessShow.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    E307 That Great Business Show She Started on Her Parents’ Kitchen Counter. Now she's aiming for Selfridges | Gráinne Mullins

  8. Aug 10

    E306 That Great Business Show - He Spent 20 Minutes Applying. Won €100,000. Then Sold His Company. | Barry Sherry

    Twenty minutes. €100,000 cash. No equity handed over. That got our attention. Barry Sherry and his co-founder built their Monaghan-based energy business into a 20-person company working North and South. Then Barry spotted the Stelios North–South Business Cooperation Awards in his local newspaper. He reckoned they ticked the boxes. The application took about 20 minutes. Then came a Zoom. Then another Zoom — this one with Stelios Haji-Ioannou. Then, on a Saturday evening, Barry opened an email telling him they had won €100,000. And there’s another twist. Not long afterwards the company was acquired. Did winning the Stelios Award help? Barry says the eventual buyer had seen the business in the media, knew about the award and asked them about it. This is a very practical episode for any SME doing business North and South. Barry explains: exactly how they appliedwhat Stelios appeared to like about the businesswhy having a founder on each side of the border helpedwhy he sees Northern Ireland as an opportunity rather than an export markethow they built a business capable of being sold only three years after startingwhy clean management accounts made four-month due diligence possibleand the bizarre problem of people working on one side of the border being refused mortgages on the other.And there is €500,000 in cash available again in 2026. The 2026 Awards have one €150,000 Gold Award, two €100,000 Silver Awards and six €25,000 Bronze Awards. Applications close 7 September 2026, with the winners announced at Castle Leslie on 28 October. Barry’s advice? Apply. The worst they can say is no. The best they can say is €150,000. That Great Business Show is brought to you by De Facto Shaving Oil — the world’s finest shaving oil, made in Mayo, sold worldwide. Find all episodes at www.ThatGreatBusinessShow.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    E306 That Great Business Show - He Spent 20 Minutes Applying. Won €100,000. Then Sold His Company. | Barry Sherry
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About

That Great Business Show with Conall Ó Móráin - officially Ireland's TOP Business Podcast, UCD Smurfit's Business Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Conall Ó'Móráin
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    353
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Conall Ó'Móráin
  • Show Website
    That Great Business Show

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