Category: David Pierce

UCD Smurfit MBA alums join European elite at the Europas!

Best of luck to fledgling company Buzzoo who take on the best in Europe at the Europas on 22nd Jan. 2013.  Buzzoo are made up of FT MBA 2012 alumns – Dave Byrne, Vishal Balasubramaniam, and David Pierce.

The Europas have been deemed the premier European awards for early, mid-, and late-stage technology start-ups, by leading investors and media. The Europas seek out the “hottest new start-ups in Europe, Middle East and Africa” and have previously recognised such household names as SoundCloud, Mind Candy, Spotify and Betfair.

Buzzoo made the shortlist for the forthcoming Europas start-up awards in Berlin on 22 January from more than 1,000 nominees that were put through the judging process.   The nominees were judged by venture capitalists from firms like Kleiner Perkins, Accel and Google Ventures, as well as founders like Bebo’s Michael Birch, Cloudflare’s Matthew Prince and YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, not to mention journalists from various tech news sites across Europe.


– Michael McDonnell, MBA Programme Manager

Networking really does matter

As part of the MBA personal and professional development programme, we recently had the privilege of learning about the essentials of networking from Kingsley Aikins and Ed Kelly of Networking Matters. Kingsley is a former President and CEO of the Worldwide Ireland Funds and during his tenure cultivated an international network that raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cultural, community and educational projects across Ireland.

Through their four-step method, and highlighting some fascinating examples, Kingsley and Ed described how networking is a continuous process of research, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship. The concept of cultivating relationships certainly raised a few eyebrows in the room, but through learning from real-life examples of patient persistence and attentive mutual respect, the rewards of such techniques became increasingly obvious.

Undoubtedly, the most challenging aspect of networking then becomes the “ask”. It is also the most important. Whether it is asking for a further contact, reference, advice or even donation, learning how to do this successfully from Kinglsey and Ed was invaluable. In closing this uniquely beneficial session, the importance of maintaining and evolving existing relationships through real and regular contact was summed up brilliantly; “A bad day on the road beats a good day in the office.” To a current MBA student however, they both sound considerably better than a long day in the library!

– David Pierce