BRIDGE

Maynooth University
Alumni Profile
Andrew Parish, BSc 1991
The
Startup
Addict
Entrepreneur, Mentor, Investor, Director, Connector.
There are many titles that could rightfully describe
Maynooth Alumnus Andrew Parish (BSc, 1991), but
the most apt might very well be “Startup Addict.”
Whether it’s a jet-setting tour of business incubators across the
United States or nurturing the brainchild of the next budding
tech genius through Enterprise Ireland’s mentorship programme,
Andrew is deeply embedded in Ireland’s—and indeed, the global—
startup scene.
He’s got his hand in international venture capital, efforts to attract
FDI to Ireland, and perhaps closest to his heart, helping new indigenous
tech endeavours navigate the byzantine journey from concept
to startup to SME to the next investor-ready industry “disruptor.”
As Vice Chairman at Startup Ireland—a new not-for-profit aimed
at making Ireland “a global startup hub by 2020”—and an Inward
Investment Consultant at Connect Ireland—a partnership with
IDA that provides financial rewards for FDI referrals based on jobs
that result from the connection—Andrew has much to say about all
things related to Ireland’s startup landscape. The country is slowly
dragging itself out of an uncertain economic period, he says, but
Ireland’s tech community has been anything but stagnant.
“Ireland is a great place to start a business, with excellent technology
coming out of our universities, numerous sources of seed
capital, and ambitious entrepreneurs with global mindsets,” he said.
Yet, there is much more Ireland must do to capitalise on the brilliant
ideas taking root at Irish universities, incubators, labs and
home offices. There’s a gap to be filled in helping small companies
that re-locate to Ireland connect with like-minded business and
potential partners, Andrew says, and it’s also still difficult to attract
large scale capital within Ireland. “We need to move from being a
country where it’s good to start a business to a country where it’s
good to start, scale and succeed.”
He should know. Andrew himself has dealt with both rapid success—and
precipitous demise—as an entrepreneur himself.
In 2007, having successfully founded and built a technology
consulting business, Andrew found himself taking over a fledgling
ocean energy business called Wavebob. The company, while
founded on promising technology, was struggling with patent
issues, staffing problems, and basic cash flow. Andrew came in
and turned things around. Before long, he’d set up a U.S. office in
Annapolis, Maryland and secured funding from Enterprise Ireland,
Sustainable Energy Ireland, and the US Department of Energy. He’d
also raised €15 million from blue-chip companies like Vattenfall,
Abengoa, Lockheed-Martin and Chevron, as well as Irish companies
ESB and Bord Gáis. The technology had been tested in Galway
Bay and the sky looked to be the limit for Wavebob.
US Energy Secretary Steven Chu even visited the company’s office
in the Maynooth Business Park, complete with armed Secret Service
officers manning the rooftops.
Then, like many a Celtic Tiger story, the collapse hit. In 2010-11,
Andrew was desperately trying to raise an additional €15M, but
A Powerhouse
for Research
Maynooth University leaps ahead on major research metrics
In recent years, Maynooth University has become a powerhouse of
research and scholarship that is internationally recognised for its
academic expertise in its priority areas – leading to the delivery of
value and visible societal impact.
The University’s six research priorities are built on its established
strengths, address priorities on the national research agenda, and
tackle major challenges that face Irish society:
1. People, Place and Environment
2. Social and Economic Transformations
3. Human Health
4. Mathematics, Communications and Computation
5. Humanities in Practice: Sources Resources and Discourses
6. Human Cultures, Experience and Creativity