DYLAN COLLINSExecutive chairman of Fight My Monster and ambassador for Enterprise Ireland
When we spoke a couple of years ago, you were developing a game for 'Playboy'. Now you've turned your attention to a younger market?I'm executive chairman of Fight My Monsters, a rapidly growing free-to-play online trading card game for 8-12-year-old boys. It launched last year and has already attracted over half a million users. We're now developing a Fight My Monsters television series with Brown Bag Films.
Meanwhile the game itself is morphing into a sort of pre-teen social network.Yes, it started out as a trading card-based game. But what's happening is that more and more of our players are spending more and more of their time playing the game.
What are the advantages of being able to reach such a young age group online?Well, this is a generation that has had access to the internet since before they could walk. They grew up in a world of iPads and touch screens. They walk up to a TV, try to swipe at the screen and walk away in disgust when they can't. This is a generation that will, basically, destroy the internet and invent it all over again.
But aren't the things that kids embrace at 10 and 11 years old precisely the things they reject at 13 or 14?That's true. But what we're finding is that as they get older, these kids are not migrating to the platforms their older siblings are using. They're not on Facebook. They're not on email. They're not on Twitter. So being able to engage with them is quite a powerful thing.
Is Fight My Monster a safe environment for kids?It is a very, very safe environment. Accounts have to be verified by the user's parents. There's also a dedicated parents' centre, where we log all activity on the account: who their friends are, what chat messages they're sending and how they're scoring in mini-games compared to other kids.
Some of the YouTube fan walk-throughs are narrated by what sounds like a 40-year-old man. You might want to check what his story is?Ha ha. It's okay, he's one of our community managers.
On a corporate level, Twitter recently joined Google and Facebook in locating their European headquarters in Ireland. Is the tech sector immune from what's happening elsewhere in the economy?It's not. But what you have are two distinct trends coexisting alongside each other. On the one hand, you have probably the biggest economic recession since the 1930s. But at the same time, you've got everything that was once physical and retail migrating to online.
In October, you were named by Richard Bruton as an ambassador for Enterprise Ireland. What does the role involve, what's your message and who are you taking it to?We've got a country full of talented people and we've got some decent internet start-ups. But unless the birth rate doubles for some crazy, Viagra-fuelled reason, what we really need to do is to convince more start-ups from other countries to relocate here. Enterprise Ireland has launched a fund aimed at doing exactly that. Part of that strategy was to bring outside people in – entrepreneurs, company founders – hence my appointment.
How much money are we talking about here?It's a €10m fund, so obviously it's not going to change everything overnight. But what we're doing is putting the feelers out there. We're saying to people, you know what, if you're an internet start-up, Ireland is where you should be. If you're willing to base your business here, we're willing to invest.
I'm speaking to you on a UK number. Is your own start-up based in Ireland?Fight My Monster is based in the UK. But I split my time between London and Dublin. I have investments in both countries. The point of an international ambassador is that it should be someone with international experience. Because I spend a lot of time in Europe and the UK, it makes sense for me to look after that market. We'll be appointing one or two more ambassadors in the next few months.
I notice that you continue to blog regularly, despite all of the various things you have going on. Why do you take the time to do that?I think it's very important for the start-up community to have access to as many points of view as possible about the investment environment. Also, I probably sleep a lot less than the average human being.
And finally, as a Government appointed ambassador working abroad, do you have diplomatic immunity and, if so, have you committed any interesting crimes lately?You know what, I've been waiting for my diplomatic pouch to arrive and there is still no sign of it. So I haven't tested that one yet.
