Product Innovator

Mary Ryan knows a bit about economic downturns.  When the dot.com bubble burst in 2002 she was flying high with Iona, one of Ireland’s great IT success stories. 

 However, cutbacks became a necessity for all IT firms, and she was made redundant.  It was a setback, but also an opportunity to change, to try something new. 

She had gained valuable experience as a product manager with Iona, and typified the company’s policy of encouraging young, talented, well-educated Irish staff to the top of the IT industry.  She worked on extensive and crucial software and middleware projects for massive global companies like Credit Suisse.  “It’s all about identifying the right product, finding the right customer for your product, gathering the requirements and making sure your customers are going to be happy to pay for what you’re going to build,” Mary explains. “You need to position it, to articulate what the value and benefits of the product are, and then to liaise with all the different elements of production, marketing, legal and so on to make sure it is delivered on time.”

She clearly loved her work and recalls mixed feelings when made redundant.  Her severance package gave her a little breathing space to explore what she wanted to do next.  She had been working six and seven days a week, long hours and travelling extensively.  She knew she wanted to do something for herself, and the excitement, experience and responsibility she had gained with such a cutting edge firm was something she knew she couldn’t let go of easily. 

“It was quite scary,” she says, recalling how she started up her company, Product Innovator.  “I thought I had gained the kind of experience needed to start a business.  I’d seen how you can take a product to market.  But as an entrepreneur I knew I might fail, but I felt I had to do it.  It’s terrifying when you are the product, it’s your skills on display, your knowledge and your advice.  It’s personal.” 

Her concept was to bring her skills to a new market place, initially selling her skills as a consultant.  “I was very excited at the beginning. I’d come from a company that was all about being given big responsibilities and rising to the challenge.  You get great confidence from that.”

She drew up a business plan and was accepted onto the DIT’s Hothouse programme, eventually securing an office in the Docklands Innovation Park in Dublin’s East Wall. “I’d been three months agonising over by my plans, and to get on the programme was such a validation of what I was trying to do.  I was delighted.”

Mary found she was not only able to help companies market their products much better, but she was also able to introduce them to clients, which meant everyone’s revenue grew.  Her business has now evolved considerably.  Training has become a key aspect of the business, showing clients how best to advance their products themselves.  Her courses for entrepreneurs and technology start-ups in the art of product management have recently qualified for FAS funding, and are endorsed by the British-based Institute of Learning & Management.  Mary is currently looking at an online training facility which could open her expertise up to a much bigger market than she can currently reach.  She currently employs two full-time and three part-time staff.

Networking, word of mouth and repeat business have been crucial to developing the business.  “The first night I went to a networking event I won my first client,” she says.  “I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to talk to other entrepreneurs.  I joined Dublin City Enterprise Board’s Network for Women because the tech industry is so male dominated, and most of the businesses around me here in the Innovation Park are run by men.  DCEB have great mentoring programmes and training, but I really value meeting other entrepreneurs.

“I suppose one of the things I got from it was realising how important it is to focus on what your customers get from the business you offer.  As an entrepreneur, you could just look to what you’ll gain from winning a contract.  But when you really focus on what’s in it for your customers and how you can do something positive for them, that perspective reaps huge rewards on both sides of the transaction.”

Mary has just had her second child, and so she has her work cut out for her, at home and in the office.  In December last year she was named DCEB’s Female Entrepreneur of the Year for 2008.  “I was thrilled.  I was really surprised.  It’s a great morale boost and will really help me with my marketing through 2009  - I’ve just done a radio interview and it’s great to get valuable exposure for the business.”

Mary’s top tip for entrepreneurs is perseverance. “It’s very hard when you’re starting up.  Some say the first year is the hardest, but for me it was year three -  I found it really tough: I felt I was running out of steam, I was a one-woman show employing contractors as I needed them, but I was working flat out, often servicing just one key client.  I had achieved a lot, but I needed to build stability into the revenue and the business.  So that required resolve and a renewed determination.  But that re-focus really paid off.  The business is in a much better position now.”
© 2009 Dublin City Enterprise Board. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without the permission from the D.C.E.B.

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