Digital Irish Podcast

Digital Irish celebrates Irish innovation and the Irish startup ecosystem — connecting founders, investors, and innovators across Ireland, the diaspora, and beyond. Each episode features candid conversations with VCs, entrepreneurs, innovators, and business leaders sharing the real story behind building companies: the setbacks, the playbooks, and the lessons you don't find in press releases. Whether you're plugged into the Irish startup scene or part of the Irish community abroad, Digital Irish is your window into one of the world's most connected startup communities.

Digital Irish Podcast is a business podcast hosted by Digital Irish, with 90 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Digital Irish hosts Digital Irish Podcast, a business show with 90 episodes published.

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  Digital Irish Podcast

  The 12-Hour Flight Test: Backing the Right Founders with Fergal Mullen

  Aug 11, 202646 min

  Fergal Mullen left Ireland at 18 on an athletics scholarship and has spent 25 years in venture — first inside a NASDAQ-listed consultancy, then at Highland Capital Partners in Boston, before spinning out its European arm in 2012 to co-found Highland Europe. The firm now manages close to €4 billion, sees around 3,000 companies a year, and invests in seven or eight. Very few people can tell founders what happens on the other side of the table with that much of a funnel behind them. In this conversation, we get into: What “coachable founder” actually means — and why the softest criterion on Highland Europe’s list is the one that decides. The bar for a growth-stage cheque: €10M+ revenue, 50%+ growth, and unit economics that treat investors’ capital with respect. Why Highland Europe scrapped the Monday partner pitch and meets founders at their own offices — and what they read from how you treat your team. The pitch that won an investment without a single slide. How the firm separates foundational AI businesses from wrappers a single model release could erase. If you’re an Irish founder — raising now or a few years out — this episode is a look at exactly what the other side of the table is checking for. Fergal Mullen is a co-founder and Partner at Highland Europe, the growth-stage technology investment firm based in London and Geneva. Prior to founding Highland Europe, Fergal was a Partner at Highland Capital Partners, where he launched the firm’s European investment program in 2007. Over the course of his career, Fergal has been involved with a number of leading technology companies, including Coremetrics (acquired by IBM), GlassesDirect (acquired by Essilor), Wooga (acquired by Playtika), Finanzcheck (acquired by Scout24), Privalia (acquired by Veepee), PhotoBox (acquired by Exponent Private Equity and Electra Partners), He has also been involved with VistaPrint (NASDAQ IPO), AMCS Group (acquired by EQT), and Nexthink (acquired by Vista Equity Partners). Earlier in his career, Fergal was a founding partner of RSA Ventures, the corporate venture arm of RSA Security. Before that, he was a founder and Senior Vice President of Cambridge Technology Partners (NASDAQ: CATP), where he served on the firm’s Global Executive Committee. Fergal attended Harvard Business School where he earned his MBA and Brown University where he earned a BSc in Electrical Engineering and a BA in Business Economics. Highland Europe is a growth-stage technology investment firm with offices in London and Geneva. Founded in 2012, the firm backs European software and consumer internet companies that have established product-market fit — typically €10 million or more in revenue, growing 50%+ — with cheques of €30–70 million. Highland Europe has backed close to 100 companies, holds around 60 in its current portfolio, and manages nearly €4 billion across six funds. Want to get in contact with the Digital Irish team? Email us at podcast@digitalirish.com About Fergal MullenAbout Highland Europe

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  Digital Irish Podcast

  Investor-Market Fit: How Irish Founders Should Pick a US VC with Kieran Corbett

  Aug 4, 202639 min

  Kieran Corbett has seen the Irish startup journey from every side of the table. He started out trading futures in Dublin, began writing angel checks into early-stage Irish companies in 2015, and has kept backing them since moving to New York in 2016 — where he now invests at Studio VC, a seed-stage fund whose portfolio includes Wayflyer. That vantage point — Irish angel, US-based VC, and brother of a Wayflyer co-founder — makes him unusually well placed to explain what actually happens on the investor's side of a pitch. In this conversation, we get into: What US VCs are actually underwriting for — and why “this could be worth millions” is the wrong answer in an American pitch meeting The venture math from the inside: a 24-company fund, the power law, and where your business fits in a fund's returns How much to raise at seed ($2.5–5M) and the roadmap Kieran expects to see behind that number What Wayflyer showed investors early on that most founders don't Why AI has made a working product table stakes — and made defensibility a much harder question If you're an Irish founder with a US raise anywhere in your plans, this episode is thirty minutes of seeing your pitch from the other side of the table. About Kieran Corbett Kieran Corbett is an investor at Studio VC in New York. Originally from Cork, he began his career as a derivatives trader at Positive Equity in Dublin, where he started channelling his trading capital into angel investments in early-stage Irish companies from 2015. He moved to the US in 2016 and has continued writing angel checks into Irish startups for the past decade alongside his work in venture. He is also active in supporting Irish founders expanding to the US, including recent panel work with Enterprise Ireland in New York. About Studio VC Studio VC is a New York-based venture capital firm investing at the seed stage, with a focus on enterprise AI, fintech, and SaaS-enabled marketplaces across the US and Europe. Want to get in contact with the Digital Irish team? Email us at podcast@digitalirish.com

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  Digital Irish Podcast

  Investing From Birth: How Families Can Build Wealth Together with Niall Dennehy

  Jul 28, 202646 min

  Niall Dennehy's first bank account was opened in 1987, when his mother walked him ten metres from their front door to the credit union in Ballydesmond, Co. Cork — a branch named for Nora Herlihy, the local schoolteacher who helped found the Irish credit union movement. He still gets the statement every month. Nearly four decades on, having co-founded blockchain company AID:Tech and gone through Techstars, he's a father of four in Dublin building NestiFi: an AI-powered platform that lets whole families, wherever they've scattered, invest together in a child's future. In this conversation, we get into: The 1987 credit union account Niall still gets statements for, and how it became the blueprint for NestiFi Why the cash-stuffed-envelope economy shortchanges kids, and how a tap in the family WhatsApp chat can put relatives anywhere in the world into a child's investment account The tax reliefs most Irish parents have never heard of, including the small gift exemption worth up to €108,000 per child over 18 years from parents alone Trump accounts in the US, and Niall's lobbying push to get the Irish government to seed every newborn's account the same way What 1–2% in annual fees quietly does to 30 years of compounding, and why credit unions are best placed to win back the next generation from Revolut and Robinhood If you're a parent, a grandparent, or anyone thinking about the next generation's financial future, this episode is a practical look at how families can start compounding early. $84 trillion is expected to change hands in the US over the next 20 years; roughly €3.5 trillion in Europe by 2030 (figures Niall cites on tape). $2,500 seeded at birth plus $75/month from the wider family ≈ $40,000 by age 18 and $106,871 by age 30 (NestiFi's illustration; assumes a 7.35% average annual return compounded monthly). Niall Dennehy is the CEO and co-founder of NestiFi. Originally from Ballydesmond, Co. Cork, he co-founded AID:Tech, the blockchain company that delivered international aid transparently through digital identity, and went through Techstars in 2016. His earlier career spanned publishing, education and fintech, including roles with HP, Ericsson, LG Mobile, AIB and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He lives in Dublin with his wife and four children — the original test users for NestiFi. [Confirm bio with Niall — drafted from the recording and public sources; no formal bio provided.] NestiFi is a Dublin-headquartered, AI-powered family wealth platform that financial institutions deploy under their own brand. It lets parents, grandparents and relatives anywhere in the world contribute to a child's investment account from a link in the messaging apps families already use, with an AI advisor (“Seb”) and gamified financial literacy built in. A B2B2C play targeting credit unions and community banks on both sides of the Atlantic, NestiFi is backed by Enterprise Ireland as a High Potential Start-Up, closed a 108% oversubscribed crowdfunding round on Spark Venture Funding in July 2026, and has announced a partnership with Vyrdia, a credit union service organization whose network spans more than 30 US credit unions with $6.5 billion in combined assets. Want to get in contact with the Digital Irish team? Email us at podcast@digitalirish.com Key StatsAbout Niall DennehyAbout NestiFi

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  Digital Irish Podcast

  Irish Founders' Playbook for Winning the US; with Dylan Scully, Frontline Ventures

  Jul 21, 202646 min

  Dylan Scully is an early-stage investor at Frontline Ventures, a transatlantic venture fund investing in B2B tech and AI across Europe at pre-seed and seed, and in the US at Series B and beyond. Frontline’s thesis: to build a category-defining company, you need to win both Europe and the US; it’s not an either/or. In this conversation, Dylan draws on his background as a founder (Matchday) and his time at Accenture’s global innovation team to give data-backed, practical advice to Irish founders thinking about US expansion. We cover the “SaaSpocalypse” debate, what enterprise buyers actually value, the real cost of entering the US market, and what gets Frontline excited at the pitch table. Show Notes Frontline’s dual fund strategy — early stage across Europe, growth stage in the US, and why the transatlantic network matters The “SaaSpocalypse” — will enterprises build everything in-house as code costs go to zero? Dylan’s clear-eyed view on why most won’t, and why AI-native startups beat incumbents bolting on features Build vs. buy in the age of AI — why enterprises buy opinions, reliability, and a product roadmap — not just lines of code; the Donna portfolio example on AI agents sitting in front of systems of record Is now a bad time to expand to the US? — Frontline ran sentiment analysis via portfolio company Signal AI: for every 1 negative European article about the US, there were 13 positive ones The 40% rule — European B2B software companies generate ~40% of IPO revenue from the US. Flip side: US software companies generate 30–40% of IPO revenue from Europe. The interdependency is massively underestimated. Exploring the US from day one — treat it as a separate product-market fit exercise; 4–6 trips/year; the Workvivo/Zoom playbook for using European subsidiaries to get warm intros to US HQ What founders get wrong about US costs — salaries, agencies, visas, travel all add up. But founders equally underestimate the value: one homogenous market, shorter sales cycles, bigger budgets, higher ACVs The 300% rule — when pitching US VCs, weight your US revenue and users 3× higher than European equivalents. A US investor won’t be impressed by your 1,000 European customers if you have 20 in the US. What Frontline looks for — team and market account for 95%+ of the decision. Speed of learning + strong contrarian opinions backed by data are the leading indicators they watch for. Guest Bio Dylan Scully is an early-stage investor at Frontline Ventures, focused on pre-seed and seed investments in B2B tech, software, and AI across Europe. Before joining Frontline, he founded Matchday (sports fan engagement platform) and spent several years at Accenture as Commercial Strategy Lead for their global innovation team, working with C-suite clients on adopting emerging technology. Links Frontline Dylan Scully on LinkedIn Dylan’s Substack Frontline US Playbook Contact — Want to get in touch? Email podcast@digitalirish.com

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  Digital Irish Podcast

  The Honest Test: Are You Actually Ready to Raise? with Marty Loughlin, Digital Irish Venture Fund

  Jun 3, 202639 minS0

  <p>Marty Loughlin is back for round two. Where the first conversation was about why Irish founders think globally, this one's about what actually happens inside the room. Dave and Marty get into how DIVF makes decisions, what they do after the cheque is written, and some pretty blunt advice for any founder preparing to raise.</p><p>Marty Loughlin is a partner at the Digital Irish Venture Fund (DIVF), the fund built on the back of the Digital Irish Angels investment group, founded in 2016. DIVF backs Irish founders scaling globally with a particular focus on those entering the US...

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