From the Leaving Cert to Silicon Valley, this 17 year old is set to become Ireland's next tech star

Healthy frozen food? This is the new food revolution being led by an Irish company

On this week’s show, Brian Purcell meets the Dublin entrepreneur who is revolutionising frozen foods and bringing it back from the dead. Sam Dennigan is a grandson of the founder of Sam Dennigan and Company, a North Dublin-based firm specialising in fresh fruit and vegetables which employs 350 people, so he comes from a strong food business background. Art was his first love however, but working in the family business to make money to travel, he got the bug of business down in the Smithfield fruit and veg market and art took a back step while he set up Strong Roots. In just two years Strong Roots is now being stocked by Ocado, the world’s largest dedicated online retailer as well as Amazon Fresh, Waitrose and Tesco in the UK and he has his sights set on revenues of €100m in the next five years. “Poor quality processed frozen food has been the cheaper food for so long that the industry has been waiting for a quality alternative for a long time,” he says. “One lady customer even wrote a poem to us celebrating the availability of healthy frozen food for her now!” For more: independent.ie/podcasts/ready-business The Ready Business podcast is in association with Vodafone.

Removing Isis from its business name was the first obstacle this Irish medical firm overcame

On this week’s show, Ciara Donlon explains how her medical devices company has gone global in just three years and all from a difficult start when their original company name had Isis in its title! Ciara always dreamed of building a business of her own and in 2010, she set up a lingerie retail business in Ranelagh in Dublin but many women undergoing treatment for breast cancer came into her shop looking for a comfortable and feminine bra to wear post surgery. Theya Healthcare was born, specialising in the design and manufacture of lingerie suitable for women who have undergone breast cancer surgery, radiotherapy treatment or cosmetic surgery. Donlon describes Theya as a medical devices firm, rather than a manufacturer of garments and she has successfully developed her own proprietary blend of super-soft bamboo with business booming in the UK and around the world. "In five years time the aim is to be a global player," she says. "We’ll hopefully be serving many more niche markets and, if it all goes well, will have hit our revenue targets of €100 million.” For more: independent.ie/podcasts/ready-business The Ready Business podcast is in association with Vodafone.

Don't take no for an answer. A no will eventually become yes if you don't give up

Luke Mackey of the mobile ordering app, Bamboo, explains how his app is taking advantage of the time-poor 25-35 year old office workers who don't want to wait in line for their coffee and lunch. 'Why not save yourself an hour a week by ordering from your desk or phone?' he says and explains why their focus on the hyperlocal coffee and lunch market in is paying dividends and quickly expanding. For more: independent.ie/podcasts/ready-business

From the Leaving Cert to Silicon Valley, this 17 year old is set to become Ireland's next tech star

On this week's show, Brian Purcell meets the seventeen-year old tech prodigy who, despite facing his Leaving Cert in the next few months, has one eye already on a multi-million euro fund for his company qCrypt. His data encryption project was the 2017 winner of the BT Young Scientist Exhibition which he is now looking to commercialise and is set to be a game-changer in the data encryption industry. If the Collison brothers, Bill Gates or Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin can do it, then there's no reason why Shane Curran won't be the next tech super-star. For more: independent.ie/podcasts/ready-business The Ready Business podcast is in association with Vodafone.

Meet the Dubliner helping to shape the future of your home

On this week's show, we speak to the Dubliner who has made two 30 Under 30 Lists and for two different industries. Simon Phelan's latest venture, Hometree, in the UK, is looking to disrupt the home services industry starting with gas boilers. The potential, he says, for changing how energy in the home is delivered and received is an exciting business that promises to shake up a traditional industry now and into the future. Having raised over €3m since the start of the year Phelan and Hometree are looking to scale rapidly and he explains why digital tech is going to dominate our homes more and more. For more: independent.ie/podcasts/ready-business In association with Vodafone.