Gorey’s Hatch Lab is home to an innovative cluster of start-ups, multinationals and remote workers, the latter of whom include tech industry veteran Tony Mulqueen who has found a way to both transform his working life but also help emerging companies.
There are few people in the Irish software industry who don’t know Tony Mulqueen, an integral player in the growth story of many indigenous and multinational software companies in Ireland from Isocor to Critical Path, System Dynamics and today, IBM.
Mulqueen is based at the Hatch Lab in Gorey, the innovation hub developed in partnership between Bank of Ireland and Wexford County Council. Hatch Lab just recently celebrated its second anniversary and has become a vibrant hub for start-ups, multinationals and co-working.
“I like meeting people and helping them along”
The presence of Hatch Lab in Gorey has given Mulqueen the best of both worlds; the ability to work locally rather than drive two hours each way to Cork daily; but also work in the kind of professional environment that lets him flourish as well as sharing his experience and knowledge with young tech founders.
“From the perspective of a remote worker, Hatch Lab offers a fantastically vibrant and alive community for anybody like me who has a strong industry background [going back 30 years] and professionals like myself can get an enormous reward through mentoring people coming up.”
A wealth of experience and insight
Mulqueen says he draws upon his immense experience working at companies like IBM and System Dynamics to help young companies coming up.
“I attend start-up pitches, give lectures, help founders to apply for state funding and I can help critique their pitches and fine-tune them. I must have spent 50pc of my career with smaller, start-up companies so I know what it takes.
“The huge thing for me about coming to Hatch was before that I was working from home rather than commuting but even though I might have worked with dozens of people during the day, I hadn’t met a single person.
“Hatch Lab has been transformational for me because I like meeting people and helping them along. I’m also a writer, so its congenial and collegial surroundings create the perfect work environment.
“It’s important to create that separation between the home environment and work so that you can relax more.”
Main image: Tech industry veteran Tony Mulqueen. Photo: Konrad Ano/flashstudio.ie
Written by John Kennedy (john.kennedy3@boi.com)
Published: 23 October, 2019
