niamh - thinking out loud

15 May 2012

Thank You Note's Composed For You!

The ever entertaining and energetic Michael Thurber just blew my mind yet again! He's working with AT&T on an ad campaign where he and his band are composing personal Thank You songs for AT&T's 2million Facebook fans.

Hurry along to this site and make yours now.

10 May 2012

Thank You Mom!

A beautiful video brought to you just in time for Mothers Day, featuring Reggie Watts, by my very skilled and big hearted friends Barry Pousman and Michael Marantz of http://thanksfa.com/

Even though mothers day in Ireland was a few months ago, i'll definitely be sending this to Mammy Hughes!

Family Love Mom Mothers Day Thank You Video
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7 May 2012

Act Like A Big Company on a Shoestring Budget by @MPD and @Askgerber

Love to see collaborations like this!

Sandboxer Scott Gerber and friend of Sandbox Mark Peter Davis come together on inc.com to share their knowledge and experience in building businesses on a shoestring budget. Only disappointment is inc.com doesn't have an embed link for the video - so you can watch it by clicking here.

3 May 2012

Be A Do'er!

YES - Making it happen!

Lots of great memories from the Global Summit in this video. Can't wait to see more.

p.s. skip to 0.43seconds

2 May 2012

Life Is About The People You Meet....

.... and the things you create with them!

This line from the now famous Holstee manifesto is near and dear to me from before it was ever printed, tumblr'd, posterous'd, youtube'd, translated into spanish or even put together with the rest of the inspiring words surrounding it in the Holstee manifesto.

Spring / Summer 2007, I was studying in Germany, struggling with the language but too stubborn to really acknowledge the fact. As part of my course, European business and German, I had to complete a six month internship wherever I wanted as long as it was a german speaking country. In true Niamh fashion, I was a very relaxed about finding an internship and while my peers had found theirs already six months in advance, I was approaching the time to begin an internship and didn't really have one lined up. I miraculously ended up in Hamburg and luckily my friend Dave was also there for his internship. Dave was working at Xing, the german competitor of LinkedIn. Given that I was working with a small company of 3 people, I often joined Dave at his work parties and became an honorary Xing intern of sorts. At this time, I had no idea that socializing with Dave and his colleagues would influence my life in a way beyond my imagination.

Dave introduced me to his swiss colleague Fabian, a cool guy who definitely knew how to party and although we didn't exchange much conversation, Fabian had a presence that I gravitated towards. Like Dave, I knew he was someone I should stay in touch with. It was really only when I graduated and moved to London that I got to know Fabian more. Fabian moved to New York to study at Columbia University and Dave was also in NYC working at a digital agency, so they developed a stronger friendship that soon evolved into a business partnership when they co-founded Holstee. While I was living in London, Fabian co-founded an organization for young entrepreneurs called Sandbox which I became a "member" of. I think I was one of the first girls in the community and honestly I was completely bewildered as to why I was invited, because at the time, I didn't look at myself as an entrepreneur but I guess the guys saw something in me that I didn't really believe yet.

After being a member of Sandbox a few months, attending local events and exchanging conversations online with other members around the world, I travelled to the U.S. for a holiday with Dave, Fabian and Dave's brother Mike. When I returned to London, where I was working for my Dads business, I felt energized and ready to take on the world. I knew that for one reason or another I had to make the move to New York and felt compelled to surround myself with people like Dave, Fabian and Mike. If I was ever going to make my mark in the world, I needed to be around people who would push me. It was probably one of the most difficult decisions I had to make given the responsibility I had to my family business but despite some challenges along the way, to this day I know it was right.

Since then, I've been living in NYC almost 3 years. When I moved here, I never expected so many challenges (never setbacks ;-) to catch me by surprise nor did I expect so many opportunities to land in my lap. Without having a job I moved to NYC and with Fabians encouragement I immersed myself in the NY Sandbox community, working together with him to organize events and build the community here. Meanwhile professionally...a few bankrupt companies, mean collleagues, completely broke days and a good few job hunts later Fabian has consistently been there to point me in the right direction, tell me to "calm down" (hate it when he tells me that) and be the hand on my back pushing me to bulldoze forward. Through him and all that I do now as a result, I'm surrounded by even more incredible people on a daily basis.

The reason I'm writing this post today, is because it's Fabians 30th birthday. I recently spoke at an Architalks event in Dublin where I told some of this story. Archietalks is hosted by another dear friend, John Egan, who I would never have met had it not been for Fabian in my life and had we not worked on building Sandbox NY together. Literally 5minutes before speaking to 100+ people at the Archietalks event, I ask John, what am I supposed to be talking about and he said, tell your story and how you got to where you are today. Without any prior planning I started talking and out came a story of how I got to where I am today featuring Fabian very much at the forefront as one of my key mentors and hopefully lifelong friends. Moral of the story: Life really is about the people you meet and the things you create with them.

Happy birthday Fabian, here's wishing I can influence someone as much as you have me.

30 Apr 2012

Sarah & Phil Kay(e) "An Origin Story"

Absolutely incredible story of how two beautifully inspiring people came to meet and have now taken full advantage of destiny. Can't wait to see you both back in NYC soon!

13 Apr 2012

TEDxWallStreet - Rahaf Harfoush on Micro Influence, Entrepreneurship & The Future of Protest

"I believe that in every protest there is an economic opportunity. Every protest is pretty much a consumer segment that's telling you that there is some unmet need that they're not getting...what if we made protest something good? What if instead of taking something out of the system, what if we put something back in? This is where entrepreneurs come in..."

Absolutely brilliant TEDx Talk by my dear friend, mentor and idol Rahaf Harfoush! As I preprare for a pitch next week I'm taking notes and tips from Rahaf - this is definitely one of the best TED talks i've ever watched - all bias aside ;-) !!

10 Apr 2012

#MakeItCount: "One who makes no mistakes, makes nothing at all"! Giacamo Casanova

Beautiful video and nice reminder that "You only live once, but if you do it right once is enough" - Mae West.

Via Max Ostrove

6 Apr 2012

Exciting Day - Folio is in Beta!

Absolutely delighted to announce that the Folio app is officially in Beta! Yahoooo!

Cillian, Simon, Rui, Eric and Avi have worked tirelessly to make this a reality and she's just a pure beauty. There are still lots of exciting add-ons and releases to come but right now, this is a sweet beginning!

So if you haven't already, register on Folio to get access to the beta and start uploading your digital content for sale or purchase the digital content you need! Those of you who have registered, you can expect your beta invite in the coming days.....

Definitely share your feedback - let us know what you love, what you want to see more or less of and how we can continue to build a product that makes sense for you!

5 Apr 2012

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland + SWOYP

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland are hosting a very unique event in the Science Gallery at Trinity College on April 18th. They invited 6 social entrepreneurs from around the world to share stories of struggles and success in Social Entrepreneurship.

I'm truly honoured to be speaking on the panel representing So Whats On Your Plate?!, together with my idols and sandbox sisters Melissa Richer, Tara Yip Bannicq, Kyra Maya Philips and Kalsoom Lakhani.

For more details on the event click here: https://sandboxgirls.eventbrite.ie/

Special thanks to John Egan of Archipelago and Darren Ryan from Social Entrepreneurs of Ireland who are the forces behind the event in the first place!

**Update

150 tickets for this event sold out in less than 35minutes!! Absolutely thrilled and a little nervous.