DIGITALWORLD
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person they always dealt with continuously. So if a hostel owner rang Joanne, they knew Joanne because Joanne did their training, Joanne handled any issues they had with bookings. “It’s about personal relationships. It’s like
the Japanese carmakers who have one per- son build the entire car, while Ford had a guy who just knew door handles. So we de- cided we would have individuals who were friends of the hostels, who dealt with their issues throughout the relationship. “We also built our own bespoke CRMsys-
tem. Looking at the business, if we wanted to we could have simply decided we’re not responsible if the hostel turned out to be a hell hole, theweb user reads the reviews and makes their decision, we only facilitated it. Butwe still cared andwemade sure the hos- tels responded to the feedback.”
PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL, REALISE YOUR POTENTIAL Anyone who has worked on a web project of any description would know just how time- consuming and intricate a project can be. Nolan’s personal style has been to immerse himself in as many aspects of a project as possible. He is not known for suffering fools and his attention to detail is legendary. “Yeah, first of all I’m a tech guy and that
can be unforgiving. I don’t believe in the word no. When a developer says no, that something can’t be done, that’s like a red rag to me. Of course it can be done. “When we were writing Coretime we
wrote our own AJAX before anybody else because we wanted to change the way punters could input information via browsers. “I’ma perfectionist, and I’ve been accused of being direct. I
don’t think that’s a bad thing,” he stresses, adding that if some- thing is bad, he’ll say it’s bad. The thing that annoys himmore than anything is when peo-
plewith potential aren’t reaching that potential. “Tome that is such a waste,” he says, admitting that he’smore likely to have a problemwith someone who is good but underperforms than someone who is just plain bad at their job. “That said I don’t think there was a better person for giving
plaudits to people who did good stuff.” Nolan describes his new project,Worky, as LinkedIn for or-
dinary people. “I was always frustrated with the recruitment process and people paying a recruiter a ton of money just to find someone in their rolodex,” he says. “When I think aboutWorky I think about an ordinary person
who isn’t a business development manager or a high-profile exec. Look – a software developer works with two or three
‘I likewhat I do. I like the internet industry.You knowwhat?The web industry has the potential to save Ireland’
other guys and rarely meets customers, they don’t have a network. In fact 90pc of people don’t have the connections that LinkedIn claims they have. I asked people at a conference recently if they paid for their use of LinkedIn, two people put up their hand. I asked thenwho used LinkedIn and didn’t pay, 800 people put up their hands. “I think in about five years’ time the so-
cial networking platformyouwork onwon’t matter. You can go to Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook today but it is time consuming. In five years that won’tmatter. “We’re working on something brilliant
and new withWorky that might have a se- cret sauce that will deliver us a huge re- turn. Social networks in my opinion are missing something magical.” There are many budding entrepreneurs
out therewhowould love to enjoy the same levels of success Nolan has enjoyed. So what are his perspectives on building aweb business? “There are two types ofweb busi- nesses – there’s doing business on the web and then there’s being in the web business. Doing business on the web means selling something like flights or hotel rooms or t- shirts. Being in the web business means building the tools and services to do busi- ness like e-commerce applications. “The problem is there are lots of good
ideas out there that aren’t necessarily busi- ness models. Freemium is for people with deep pockets and it won’t be very long be- fore there’s a big clear out.
“I think people starting out need to realise that having a cus-
tomer willing to pay real money for something is the essence of commerce. Theworld eats food,wears jeans and drives cars. Only 1pc of people’s earnings are actually spent on stuff like iTunes or free apps with a premium element to it. So what if someone creates the 50th version of a photo sharing app? “The businesses thatmakemoneywill always be valuedwell.
Hostelworld had a 65pcmarginwhen Iwas the boss. Thatwas themost profitable online company at the time when we were in the top 25 in terms of market cap for internet businesses. “There’s a huge market to be the buyer and the seller and
the connector of people who spend money.Why would you go through the pain of producing something that won’t make money?” On his success to date, Nolan makes one last point: “It’s no
mystery. I like what I do. I like the internet industry. You know what? The web industry has the potential to save Ireland. “But you can’t wait for governments or to fill in forms to
start businesses. You just start them. None of you have any time to waste.”
Issue 3 Autumn/Winter 2011 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 57
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