'It was never about money': Why this Kerry multi-millionaire is pouring cash into his new startup
Jerry Kennelly, who sold his stock images company for $135m in 2008, has put €30m into Tweak.com.
IRISH ENTREPRENEUR JERRY Kennelly expects his new company Tweak.com to finally make a profit this year after investing about €30 million of his own cash into the venture.
Kennelly became one of Ireland’s wealthiest entrepreneurs after selling his Kerry-based stock photographs company, Stockbyte, to US multinational Getty Images for $135 million in 2008.
Two years later, the former photojournalist founded Tweak.com, an online service that makes it easy for small businesses to design their own marketing and advertising material.
The business has about 25 employees, with the bulk of those concentrated in its Dublin and Lisbon offices, and has secured deals with companies like WAZ NewMedia, the digital branch of WAZ MediaGroup, one of Europe’s largest publishers.
Tweak’s finances are not publicly available as it is unlimited, however it is thought that, like many tech startups, the firm has been loss-making to date.
Speaking to Fora ahead of Bord Gáis Energy’s national business conference on Wednesday, the Tralee native said he expects this trend to reverse and for the company to soon turn a profit.
“We create designs for thousands of business types, whether you are a hairdresser in Germany or a lawyer in Brazil. You no longer need to go to a graphic designer, you can design your marketing materials on a PDF form and get the benefit of lower cost printing,” he said.
“We do around 15,000 orders per day and our transactions are growing by 5% per month, we will reach profitability this year.”
Not about money
So far Kennelly has invested about €30 million of his own cash into the business. Asked why he didn’t just take the money and run after selling Stockbytes he said: “The motivation was never about money, it was about creating something and jobs and wealth always flow from a great business.
“I had a strong personal ambition to solve a problem that a lot of people don’t have access to web design, I saw it as a challenge to bring quality design tools to SMEs.”
Jerry Kennelly with the DHL Exporter of the Year award in 2003
He added: ”That is very complex and it takes time to bring something to a point where it scales fast (like with Stockbytes).”
Kennelly said that the company is planning to expand more once it becomes profitable, however he said that this will be hard to do in Ireland because of the scarcity of skilled tech staff.
“It is a real challenge. In Dublin all of the multinationals suck up all of the available talent and that’s who we’re competing with,” he said.
“It is unusual for someone in a small country to be competing with Google, Facebook and Twitter and it’s not healthy for the Irish entrepreneurial sector. It dries up supply and drives up prices massively.”
Education
Kennelly was also critical of the length of university courses focused around the software industry.
The businessman has long called for more of a focus on business in Ireland’s education system and is the co-chair of the Junior Entrepreneur Programme, an initiative aimed at promoting entrepreneurship at primary level.
Kennelly and Michael Flatley visit some junior entrepreneurs in Kerry
He said that, as well as encouraging entrepreneurship more in schools, colleges should look to get people educated faster.
“A lot of (software) developers aren’t Irish and there is a significant mismatch between education and the requirements of the entrepreneurial economy.
“There is huge attrition in computer science courses (but) they are a huge opportunity to get interesting, well-paid jobs. There have to be shorter ways of educating people,” he said.
“We need more people to take computer science courses and graduate, it is one of the safest bets in investments in education today.”
