“Big companies make big mistakes” Ken Cahill, CEO at SilverCloud Health, tells us during our discussion in this month’s videocast.
Born and raised in Dublin, we learn of Ken’s passion for both technology and business in his early career. Having held senior roles early on in several multinationals including Dell, HP and Gateway as well as founding the recruitment and candidate software company ‘Candidates Direct’, Ken, like so many people on Irish soil, would find his career trajectory abruptly changed with The Great Recession. We learn of his resiliency during this period, his opportunities with the National Digital Research Centre and how his risk-taking attitude against a ‘Big Companies advice’ would lead to his position within SilverCloud, the world’s leading digital mental health platform.
Jim Joyce, CEO at HealthBeacon, had one destination in mind growing up in Boston: Wall Street. With a well known stock-broker father and a teenage admiration for Gordon Gekko, Jim’s sights were set. That was until he tried stockbroking (listen to the videocast to find out more!). Not deterred, Jim left for the green pastures of Ireland to complete his MBA in the mid-nineties and decided the best opportunities lay in Pharmaceuticals or Technology or a combination of both. So how did Jim first become connected with a Pharma company? “[Schering Plough] accidentally hired an American” Jim laughs as he details how he got his first role within the company with a little bit of his American moxie during an Irish recruitment drive. It was this boldness that would drive Jim to eventually go out on his own to found the innovative companies ‘Point of Care’ and ‘HealthBeacon’.
During the videocast, we dive into a number of areas with both, including:
- Ken and Jim’s views on selling into the Irish, UK and US markets. What are the key differences and similarities they have experienced?
- Is Ireland one of the hardest markets in the world to enter and how do you crack it?
- What did an EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence) role mean to Ken?
- And how have both men’s companies adapted and changed in a Covid-19 world and how do they see the future of the industry?