How To Foster indigenous innovation in Ireland in 2020, Liz McCarthy, Scale Ireland

Entrepreneurs Call for High-growth Irish Startups to be Prioritised, we spoke to Liz McCarthy, Scale Ireland to learn more.

An open letter to the members of the next Government from over 50 of Ireland’s most successful entrepreneurs has called for high-growth, innovation-led business to be given greater priority. The letter, whose signatories include Intercom founder Des Traynor and Peter Coppinger, the co-founder of Cork-based Teamwork, acknowledges that the existing taxation-led policy for foreign multinational has been a runaway success but says policy failings have hampered the development of indigenous startups.

What is your background briefly?

I originally studied Public Policy in NUI Galway and later went on to do a Masters in Local Economic Development at the LSE in London. Professionally I’ve spent most of my working life in startups, and many, many hours volunteering in community development in Kerry where I’m from.

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

Looking back it does, but at the time it was an illogical path in many ways. Happily in my current role the experience I’ve built up is standing to me.

Some of things I’ve done that are most helpful to me now include my startup experience and work as a volunteer.

Being an early employee in a fast growing startup brings a lot of opportunities to learn about different parts of business which you don’t always get in a large corporate. In my current role as I build the organisation I need to be agile, engaging with senior decision makers in one moment, quickly followed by being more hands on with marketing or operations. My startup experience gives me an excellent background for this type of work.

Secondly, my voluntary experience is standing to me today. While living in rural Ireland during the recession I set up several festivals, and was an active Tidy Towns member. This community development experience helped me get my job at Dogpatch Labs, which helped immerse me in the global startup community, leading ultimately to where I am today.

Innovation insights with Liz McCarthy, Scale Ireland

1 min pitch for what you are doing now?

Scale Ireland is providing the bridge between the startup ecosystem and government. Our mission is to inform policy change and secure a coherent policy environment that enables Ireland’s innovation-driven startups to succeed and scale.

Right now we are calling on political leaders to prioritise startups within enterprise policy as they seek election and form a new government. Over 70 founders and startup leaders have signed up to date, and it’s gaining real momentum.

Ireland needs ambition from political leaders for indigenous innovation. As #GE2020 approaches let's put startups on the agenda.

Irish founders like @destraynor @ScanlonPatricia have signed this Open Letter #GE2020

Follow their lead & sign your name: https://t.co/gPL6zcvELm pic.twitter.com/1Mn1KXwNxU

— Scale Ireland (@ScaleIreland) January 28, 2020

Why did you get involved with this initiative?

I am passionate about fostering sustainable local economic development across the country, particularly in regional towns and rural areas. As technology is advancing exponentially, startups provide a major opportunity for people to turn their own idea and expertise into a global business. This can be done from anywhere, be it Killorglin or Tramore, given the right policy environment.

As a small, open knowledge economy I believe that Ireland has a real opportunity to foster a world-class startup ecosystem. But we need the right policy environment for this to happen.

Scale Ireland exists to inform policy change so we can foster indigenous innovation alongside continuing to attract FDI.

Tell us more about this  & why it is important?

In the words of An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, “Entrepreneurs and the self-employed are the lifeblood of our society and economy.” However the indigenous enterprise base has major structural issues because it has not had sufficient focus from political leaders over many years.

High-growth startups are increasingly struggling to scale, and various bodies including the Irish Tax Institute, IBEC and others have been calling for policy change for many years.

Now founders of Irish startups right across the country are calling for change, because the country is falling quickly behind its European neighbours as a place to scale an innovation-driven business.

Over 70 of Ireland’s most successful entrepreneurs have signed an Open Letter to political leaders calling for high-growth, innovation-led business to be given greater priority.  The letter, whose signatories include Intercom founder Des Traynor and Dr Patricia Scanlon founder of Soapbox Labs, calls on politicians to have a greater level of ambition for our indigenous economy to mirror the success we have had with FDI

We are ultimately taking the time to engage on this because by creating the right conditions to support startups to scale, we can catch up on our European neighbours and foster the development of our own home-grown multinationals of the future.

How can people find out more about you personally & your work?

Best places to find me are Twitter https://twitter.com/LizMacKerry and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-mccarthy-ireland/. Always happy to chat about anything startups, enterprise policy or sustainable community development.

Learned about the incredible scaling journey @brightflaghq today @dogpatchlabs #firstfridays.
*Keys to success along the way:
Irish & professional network; @Frontlinevc provided huge value.
*Would have done sooner:
hire Marketing & Customer Success earlier. pic.twitter.com/R9ZgQgoAa5

— Liz McCarthy (@LizMacKerry) December 6, 2019

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