Liam Darling: Liam Darling along with Andrew Dunne founded Kidspotter in 2006. Kidspotter is a company which makes wrist-worn devices to locate children in busy outdoor and indoor areas, such as theme parks and shopping centres. The company sells its product to park operators and shopping centres who can then offer it to visitors
What’s unique about your business?
The first thing is that we have built an indoor and outdoor tracker for children.
There are products on the market which can locate people outside, but we do both.
The second is that we have a fantastic team of engineers with a weird techie-sales mix. They are a detailed, focused, gregarious people who can chat to people in the theme park environment in everyday language.
What was the best piece of business advice you’ve ever received?
There’s no such thing as a bad meeting, whether it’s with suppliers or potential customers. You might think, “there’s no point going out to meet that guy”, but there might be something small you’ll learn from that meeting.
A standard piece of advice is one we got along the way when spoken to about our product: “Boys, it’ll take you twice as long to build it and cost you twice as much.”
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in business?
Fundraising has been a difficult thing for us. We started at a difficult time in the economy and we set about raising money to survive rather than thrive. When we ran short of money we had to fundraise again.
And your major success to date?
We got a group of investors together who didn’t just bring money but time and experience.
Who do you most admire in business and why?
Henry Ford. The guy was completely different to everyone else. He doubled the salaries of his employees and the best people flocked to him. He was an innovator with a social conscience.
Based on your experience in the downturn, are the banks in Ireland open for business to SMEs?
I don’t think so. A mindset has to change within the banks. They don’t really understand intellectual property and they don’t really understand potential. They still seem to be licking their wounds from the property crash.
What one piece of advice would you give to the Government to help stimulate the economy?
There is really good support with the likes of Enterprise Ireland which have been fantastic to us. But while they are great at supporting the great idea, there needs to be a focus on the great execution of it. There are a lot of older guys in Ireland who have been around the block and could help lend their experience on selling products and growing a business.
What’s been the biggest challenge you have had to face?
Trying to maintain a focus on the business while fundraising. Doing fundraising takes a lot of energy and you can take your eye off the ball.
How do you see the short-term future for your business?
Fantastic, based on our current growth and contracts coming down the line. We have contracts with Parques Reunidos, the second biggest theme park operator in the world, SeaWorld Entertainment, the fifth biggest theme park operator in the world, and we’re about to sign with the Westfield Group, the biggest owners of shopping centres in the world.
What’s your business worth and would you sell it?
We’re estimated to be worth €5 million. There’s not a chance wed sell it right now. We have put in all this hard work and we’re at a tipping point now where the product is awesome and the customer base growing. We’d be nuts to sell. But the future is different. If there was a big enough cheque, we’d consider anything.
In conversation with
JUDITH CROSBIE
