Ireland's scale-up problem: Cork's Dan Kiely on building the next €100m giants

The Cork investor speaks about the end of the 24/7 hustle culture, his AI suspicions and mental health in Ireland.

Dan Kiely: 'I'm a very proud Irish feminist, which I worked for so long in areas where, I suppose, female voices were not necessarily heard.' Picture: Chani Anderson

For Dan Kiely, who went through blood, sweat and tears with his wife Linda to build the €150m Cork company VoxPro, it is surprising to hear him welcome the end of the 24/7 hustle culture amongst the new generation of Irish business founders and startups.

The sale of VoxPro to Canadian company Telus back in 2017 was one of the largest exits by Irish founders and set the Kielys on a new path as early-stage investors.

Their current investment vehicle Masv (pronounced Massive), has recently brought in heavy hitters like former PayPal executive Louise Phelan to help scale small and growing businesses into future $100m giants, something many firms in Ireland struggle to achieve, Kiely said.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, he said after VoxPro, he went from being a full-time CEO to a consultant overnight. “I didn't have a strategic approach to investing, which I do now,” he said.

“I started to make some investments really, but because I didn't have a proper team around me, I didn't have the support system I do now and so I made a lot of mistakes along the way.” 

However, one of the early-stage investments he did make was a €250,000 check to legal startup Johnson Hana after a chance meeting with founder Dan Fox. “He said to me ‘I'm a barrister by profession... but I also had a number-one single in a boy band.' I said, 'OK, I don't need to hear anymore. I've never heard that combination before. So I don't care what you do—I'm going to write a cheque right here and now.” 

The investment ultimately paid off richly when Johnson Hana was acquired by US firm Eudia earlier this year for $50m. That experience, which included weekly phone calls with Fox made the exit all the sweeter. “I had no involvement in his business day-to-day. I made it clear that wasn't going to be the thing. But to see them come out the other side of it was a joy.” Through Masv, the Kielys and their team are targeting other startups but have set loftier goals. Their portfolio is impressive and includes Bobby Healy’s drone delivery company Manna, customer service firm Solidroad and has backed the Cork-founded sanitary products firm Riley.

Having worked with a new generation of company founders, he said their change in approach is refreshing. “The 24/7 hustle is dying out – and that’s a good thing. In our time, to reach the numbers we reached at VoxPro, I literally worked 24/7. I didn’t have a personal life. My wife worked in the business too, but we were on seven days a week. My whole life became the company.” 

“I won’t lie – I have issues with my mental health from that period. I didn’t have any hobbies. Work was my hobby, work was my life, work was everything.” 

“I was heavily reliant on caffeine, sleeping medication, and alcohol at times just to function – to work a 10-hour day and then go entertain clients in the evening.” “One of the things I'm seeing now is that there's a trend away from this 24/7 culture because you don't need that.” 

However, it is not all rosy in the garden for Irish startups. Building out his team at Masv with the likes of Phelan and Dave McCadden, the investment firm aims to address a major issue Kiely sees in the growth of Irish companies.

“Ireland doesn’t have a startup problem. We have a scale-up problem – that’s the real issue.”

“We’re brilliant at getting companies to 10 people, but we’re terrible at getting them from 10 to 100 people. We just don’t think that way here.” “You get to 10 people, you go for an Enterprise Ireland grant money, and a lot of founders think ‘that’s it – mission accomplished’. That’s the benchmark in Ireland, and it shouldn’t be.” 

That means the $50m exit secured by Johnson Hana is not sufficient with Masv eyeing bigger deals. “If you don’t have a vision and a credible plan to get your business to a €100m-plus valuation, we’re the wrong investors.” 

“We want to see that you have the belief, and then we come in and help you build the team that will actually execute and get you there.” Dan and Linda Kiely currently divide their time between Cork, Portugal and Los Angeles and encourage startups and founders to spread their wings.

“If your biggest market is the United States, you have no business being in Ireland. I told the Solidroad founders: ‘You have no business staying here.’ Three or four months later both founders were living in San Francisco.” “You get things done quicker in San Francisco. You land a big US client there, it’s worth tens of millions. Here the decision always goes back to the mothership in California anyway.” 

Dan remained tight-lipped on any possible exits in 2026 but said they were planning a change in how they invest.

“In 2026, we’re pivoting. Writing fewer but bigger cheques to more later-stage companies because that’s where the real scaling muscle is needed – and that’s where we can add the most value.” Masv also continues to target female founders where possible, stemming from his experience in male-dominated industries, where he observed systemic barriers to women's entrepreneurial success.

"I'm a very proud Irish feminist, which I worked for so long in areas where, I suppose, female voices were not necessarily heard. And it's more difficult to succeed in business when it's more difficult for women to ask for money, which is crazy today."

Masv has no particular area of focus, but Kiely admits it's difficult to avoid AI, but he remains circumspect.

"There's a lot of FOMO investing in AI. The investor community in Ireland is very small, and you sometimes hear ‘Did you hear such a person has invested in this? Or I need to be in that too’. That's not necessarily smart money. That's kind of following the herd."

“I'm very sceptical about actually using the term [AI] because it's like if you remember back in the day, every company was saying ‘We're digital now’ or cloud computing, but that said, we are investing in a number of AI companies, provided we believe what the AI actually does that's unique within the company."

Along with building Masv, Kiely said he hopes to be able to speak more next year on a project related to wellness and mental health.

“I’m actively looking at doing something myself in that area, although it’s at an early stage and my wife has told me I’m mad to even think about starting something new.”

“If you were having a drink with your mates five or six years ago and brought up mental health, people would have laughed. It’s different now, which is good," he said, adding that it is no longer necessary to destroy yourself to build a big company.