The Entrepreneur Experiment

In this Mentor Moment, Bobby Kerr - former Dragon and former CEO of Insomnia Coffee - shares the strategic lessons that helped scale Insomnia from a small coffee business into a recognised national brand.

Bobby breaks down why underfunding was one of his biggest early mistakes, how letting go of ego helped him choose the right brand name and structure, and why partnerships with companies like Spar, Easons, Penneys, and Meadows & Byrne became key routes to growth.

This is a practical lesson in playing the long game, building multiple revenue streams, and making the kind of strategic decisions that give a business more ways to survive and scale.

Listen back to the full conversation in Episode 439 of The Entrepreneur Experiment - and subscribe/follow so you don’t miss the next Mentor Moment.

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In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Conor Moules, founder and CEO of Barespace, the company building a true operating system for hair and beauty salons.

Conor’s journey is anything but traditional. He left school at 16 to become a hairdresser, moved to Australia during the recession, found his way into door-to-door sales, then business intelligence, location intelligence, and eventually the Irish startup world through Bamboo. After helping turn Bamboo around during Covid, Conor used that hard-earned reputation to unlock the next chapter: Barespace.

What started as a deep understanding of salon life has become a fast-growing software company solving one of the industry’s biggest problems: salon owners are expected to be creative experts, managers, marketers, employers, finance teams and operators - all while still working on the floor. Barespace was built to change that.

In this conversation, Conor shares how he and co-founder Glenn Baker profiled 173 salons, raised €750,000 from the very customers they wanted to serve, and went on to raise almost €4.9 million in total. This is a story about resilience, customer obsession, reputation, and what happens when you build with the industry, not just for it.

Show Notes

In this episode, we cover:

🔥 Why Conor left school at 16 and started out as a hairdresser in Peter Mark
💬 The unexpected lessons hairdressing taught him about listening, trust and human connection
🇦🇺 Moving to Australia during the recession and finding his feet in door-to-door sales
📊 How business intelligence and location data opened his eyes to the power of systems
🚀 The chance meeting with Luke Mackey that brought Conor into Bamboo
🧱 Why rebuilding Bamboo during Covid became the proving ground for Barespace
💡 The problem Conor and Glenn saw inside hair and beauty salons
✂️ Why salon owners are often expected to run the business and be the best person on the floor
🧾 How marketplaces can damage salon margins and weaken customer ownership
🔍 Why they profiled 173 salons before building the product
💰 How Barespace raised €750,000 from salon owners when traditional fundraising wasn’t working
📈 Processing €4.7 million in turnover in year one and growing from there
🧠 Why Conor believes founders need to ask for help earlier
🌙 The role of visualisation, daydreaming and belief in building a company
🔑 Why reputation, patience and obsession can become a founder’s greatest assets

Pull Quote

“The mission was never to get rich out of Bamboo. It was to unlock the gates to be able to walk in with Barespace.” - Conor Moules

Links & Resources

Barespace — the operating system for salons and barbers: barespace.io (https://barespace.io/)

Enterprise Ireland — mentioned as part of the Barespace funding journey: enterprise-ireland.com (https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/)

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In this Mentor Moment, award-winning journalist and entrepreneur Áine Kerr shares one of the most powerful career lessons you can hear early in life: it doesn’t have to be this or that. From teaching to journalism, startups to global tech platforms, Áine reflects on what she calls a “squiggly career” - and how the threadline only becomes clear when you look back.

This conversation is a reminder that curiosity, purpose, and following what genuinely energises you can often lead to a far more meaningful path than trying to force a perfectly linear plan. It’s especially powerful for anyone feeling pressure to “have it all figured out.”

Listen back to the full conversation in Episode 438 of The Entrepreneur Experiment - and subscribe/follow so you don’t miss the next Mentor Moment.

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In this milestone Episode 500 of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox turns the microphone on himself for a special AMA, reflecting on the experiments, decisions and hard-earned lessons that shaped the podcast from a side project into one of Ireland’s leading founder platforms.

Gary shares how the podcast began in 2019 as a literal experiment while he was running Host Butlers, his Airbnb management business, and how a plan to test multiple businesses turned into something far bigger. From buying and renovating a barge to remove rent pressure, to shutting down his property business, going all in on podcasting, building a team, launching live events and redefining success around body, business, brain and family, this episode is a rare look behind the scenes of the journey.

He answers listener questions on the most difficult interviews he’s ever done, the moment the podcast became a business, the biggest belief he’s changed about entrepreneurship, how young founders can earn a seat at the table, why AI won’t replace great human connection, and what the next 500 episodes could look like.

If you’re building something of your own, this is a powerful reminder that consistency compounds, clarity often comes through action, and the best experiments can change your entire life.

Show Notes

In this episode, Gary covers:

🔥 How The Entrepreneur Experiment started as a real experiment in 2019
🚀 Why Gary originally planned to build multiple businesses alongside Host Butlers
🏠 The barge experiment that changed Gary’s personal and business life
🎙️ The moment podcasting shifted from side project to serious business
💡 Why consistency may be the biggest lesson from 500 episodes
📈 The danger of building a business at the expense of your health, family and relationships
🧠 Why founders need to think in decades, not weeks
🪑 How first-time founders can earn a seat at the table
🤖 Gary’s take on AI, coaching, mentorship and the future of wellness
🌍 The vision for the next stage of The Entrepreneur Experiment: global guests, live events, personal experiments and founder performance
💬 Why success now means building an exceptional business and an exceptional life

Links & Resources

- Subscribe to Gary’s newsletter for upcoming retreats, live events and behind-the-scenes updates: https://www.mrgaryfox.com/subscribe-1
- Follow Gary on Instagram for more stories from the barge experiment and the podcast journey: https://www.instagram.com/mrgaryfox/
- Follow The Entrepreneur Experiment:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/entrepreneurexperiment/
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- Check out The Wellness Script, launched by Lauren as part of the wider EE media ecosystem: https://wellnessscriptpod.com/

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In this Mentor Moment, Fran Quilty, founder of Conjura, breaks down one of the biggest shifts happening in business right now: the move from AI answering questions… to AI actually taking action.

Fran explains “agentic AI” in a way that finally makes sense — from AI identifying risks in your business, to making pricing decisions, changing campaigns, and automating workflows across platforms without constant human input. But beyond the tech, this conversation is really about removing friction, making better decisions faster, and understanding where modern businesses are heading next.

If AI still feels abstract or overhyped to you, this is the episode that makes it practical.

Listen back to the full conversation in Episode 437 of The Entrepreneur Experiment — and subscribe/follow so you don’t miss the next episode.

*Our Sponsors *
Nostra: https://bit.ly/nostra26
Azure: https://bit.ly/azure26 

Follow The Entrepreneur Experiment:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/entrepreneurexperiment/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@entrepreneurexperiment