“No one ever makes it alone.” That’s the driving thesis in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, a book exploring various stories of success.

While self-employment and entrepreneurship depend on the steady, focused vision of hardworking individuals, successful people don’t do it alone. An individual is far more likely to achieve success if she is surrounded by a supportive community and has a broad social network.

Here in Northern Ireland, a group of local startups are working together to develop an entrepreneurial culture where like-minded people connect and engage with each other to help build up the local tech and digital sectors and transform Belfast into a global leader.

Organisers of Friday Night Mashup, a recurring meet-up for entrepreneurs and investors, hope it can be an engine to drive forward a culture of support, networking, and inspiration in local business. The second of these events was held last week at the old Titanic Pump-House and Dry Dock.

I asked Aaron Taylor, one of the founders of the Mashup nights, and CEO of Belfast-based gaming tournament platform, GoPrezzo, what the organisers hoped to accomplish.

‘Mashup is to connect, engage and inspire people’

“The whole basis of the Mashup is to connect, engage and inspire people. One thing we really lack in Belfast is that community of people that want to go out and do big things. What we wanted to do was take people who maybe have a bit more experience of working in the U.S., for example, and try and leverage that to give people here the ambition and desire to do something really, really big and really, really impressive.”

“With the quality of speakers and the quality of people we have around here tonight people should leave feeling really inspired to do something really impressive in Belfast. To be based in Belfast, but to think further afield.”

Taylor wants Belfast industries to build links with Dublin, London, and America and create a global trail that allows Belfast to make its mark throughout the world. His own business, GoPrezzo, has offices not just in Belfast, but also in San Francisco and New York.

Friday Night Mashup embodies principles that research shows are key to developing a healthy and robust culture of entrepreneurship in a city. In the December issue of the American Sociological Review, that the strength of local social networks and trust plays a major role in whether a city is able to foster a culture of entrepreneurship.

If Belfast hopes to give birth to vibrant tech and digital entrepreneurship, it must nurture a culture of mutual support. As Richard Florida writes in a on The Atlantic Cities website, “Entrepreneurship of all sorts — from the creating cutting edge, high-tech enterprises to building a small business — is in fact a social process, depending upon teams of people working together and broad social networks. And community itself, the place where entrepreneurial activity happens, is a crucial part of the mix.”

The Pump House and Dry Dock serves as a symbol of Belfast’s mighty industrial past and global significance. Titanic’s dry dock was the largest dry dock ever constructed and was one of the crowning achievements of Edwardian engineering. Most of the pump house remains in its original condition, but the old boiler room has been transformed into a tourist centre and chic events venue.

On Friday night, the ambitions of modern visionaries blended with the achievements of past generations. As local investors and innovators shared wisdom and discussed the tools and applications they hope to bring into the world, I thought of the mighty ships that once were built right outside.

Catherine Morris, a Friday Night Mashup organiser and marketing manager at Taggled.t.v., told me that startups in Belfast and Northern Ireland currently have fire in their bellies. “They’re going out there and they’re really, really going for it. They’re all over the world, and we’re getting our name out there. People here aren’t scared to fail any more. Up here we’re giving it loads.”

Upstairs from the main room four different local startups demoed beta versions of their ideas hoping to catch the eye of interested investors. I interviewed Paul McConnon, a director at Inflyte, an app for music industry professionals to manage their promos. I asked him what he thought of the night and his hopes for his own business and the larger tech industry in Belfast.

‘There are a lot of industry insiders here who will understand’

“We’ve been on the go for about a year. We’ve spent a lot of time working very, very hard in the background. And we’re about ready to launch. We’re trying to solicit some feedback from industry peers and expose ourselves to possible investors. This is a good forum for that because there are a lot of industry insiders here who will understand what we are going through.”

I asked McConnon about what it’s like, as an entrepreneur, to live and work in Belfast. “I think it was more difficult in the past. There’s a definite push to try and get at this culture of trying to be entrepreneurs together. This event tonight is very much trying to sell the idea—you’re seeing people, normal people, they’re trying to tell the story of how they got involved in a business. And to see that you can if you have a good idea.”

“Northern Ireland isn’t normally seen as a place that you would go to do that, but there are a number of bodies that are trying to make it more amenable to that.”

McConnon spoke about the importance of building a wider support network for entrepreneurs in Belfast. He mentioned how important it is to receive counsel and help from people that have been through the process of starting up a business before and to be surrounded by peers who are going through the same issues.

“There is investment in Northern Ireland,” McConnan said, “but you wouldn’t know it until you went out looking for it. I wasn’t aware that there was as much until we got involved with it ourselves. I think this event is to let people know that it’s there.”

Despite the social energy in the room, while talking to people, I came to understand that the life of the innovator and entrepreneur is actually quite isolating. Friday Night Mashup isn’t just an opportunity for surface-level business networking, but for something much more personal.

When I asked Gerard McBreen, co-founder of Komodo, an application that helps kids 5-11 learn maths at home, what it’s like to run a business based in Belfast, he drew in a long breath before firing out an answer.

“The scene in Belfast really has evolved, even over the ten years I’ve been based in Northern Ireland. And it’s got more confident, it’s got bigger, and it’s got more networked.”

“And events like Friday Night Mashup really make a hell of a lot of difference. Not just in terms of opportunities to connect with other entrepreneurs, but also, the great thing about arriving in one venue for Friday night and sharing a beer, is that most entrepreneurs have very isolated lives. And it can be lonely.”

“You can’t substitute Twitter for sharing a beer with someone you’ve never met before. So I’m a massive fan, it allows us to get out of our office on Royal Avenue and get down here to meet people.”

McBreen explained that besides building personal connections, the Mashup is helpful for his business as Komodo is currently in the process of raising funds through Halo. In the room there were many people who’ve been down a similar journey from conception to fully fledged business. As with other hopeful startups in attendance, meeting peers and supportive investors will allow Komodo to get the help needed to turn its vision into a reality.

Barton Creeth | |

Barton Creeth Writer on faith and politics Belfast | Béal Feirste · bartoncreeth.com More Posts - Follow Me:



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