ChannelSight CEO and co-founder John Beckett (pictured) has a few different claims to fame, one being that he designed and built Ryanair’s online booking engine when he was only 17.
Beckett went on to set up BuyIreland.com, which sold one-foot plots of Irish land to delighted Americans. In 2013, to helped set up ChannelSight, which last year secured €3.3m in a funding round led by Nauta Capital.
Beckett (34) started his first tech business while still in school and holding down a part-time job with Gateway. Since then, the Dublin entrepreneur has been involved as founder or investor in a number of other tech startups.
ChannelSight’s co-founders are Kieran Dundon, another seasoned entrepreneur, and Niall O’Gorman, who left Mondelez recently to join the venture.
Located on O’Connell Street in Dublin, ChannelSight provides a digital ‘Buy Now’ button and service for websites and social media pages, using a plugin that links up with retail partners stocking the product mentioned.
In Association with
“At the same time, we capture valuable data about which content is driving sales for specific products at specific retailers,” Beckett explains.
Fresh Thinking
ChannelSight’s first customer was Philips and the company has gone on to sign up a range of other brand partners, among them Oreo, Cadbury, Siemens and Veet. “There are other companies that provide ‘Buy Now’ technology but in May we were recognised by Gartner as a ‘cool vendor’ in the digital marketing space due to our innovation and fresh thinking,” says Beckett.
The startup employs 43 people in Ireland, the UK, Romania and Greece. ChannelSight uses a SaaS model, with monthly recurring fees for clients based on how many brands and retailers they’re connecting to.
“We work with thousands of retailers globally so we can plug brands straight into our network. We’re currently providing the service in 45 markets, and where we’re not working with a particular retailer we can usually get live in just a couple of days,” says Beckett.
The ChannelSight founders spent six months building a viable product and Beckett recommends that early stage entrepreneurs focus on securing customers rather than perfecting their product.
“For consumer products, running a campaign on Kickstarter is a great way to get a lot of very good feedback and insight very quickly, while also gaining publicity,” he adds.
“For ideas that involve selling to business, using your network or LinkedIn to find relevant people that you can talk to is effective. My experience is that if you are trying to solve a problem that people have, they’ll usually appreciate this and give you feedback on what they want. Beware though – people will often tell you something is amazing but then not choose to buy it when it’s built.”
Tax Incentives
Beckett believes the government could be doing more to make entrepreneurs want to do business in Ireland. “The UK offers significantly more attractive tax incentives by having a lower marginal tax rate and also making it easier to give stock options and incentivising risk taking by enabling a tax-free gain on exit.
“I will reinvest gains I make in another venture, so paying very high tax rates on any exit just reduces the amount I can reinvest, and incentivises me to set up outside Ireland, which is frustrating and extremely short-sighted on the part of the government.”
