The second episode of a six part series where I will interview young entrepreneurs in Ireland and get their insights into what it is like to launch a business in Ireland.

Conor goes through what he learned from launching a business at 19 years of age, how his course has given him a unique view when targeting customers and what you should do if you are thinking of going for it.

Along with Conor, his friend Conor McGowan have launched WattSpot. As students with the constant problem of their phones dying while on the move, Nolan brainstormed a product that could allow people to charge their phones without their charger on hand. After coming up with a product that could fix this problem they set out to make everyone’s day a little bit easier and partnered with places like Insomnia, the Shelbourne Hotel and Student Unions around the country. Since gaining a decent marketshare the WattSpot team look forward to the next phase of charging- Wireless charging. Listen to hear it all here.

If you find yourself stranded without a charged phone check out WattSpot for the nearest charging bank near you.
http://wattspot.ie/

TREP TALK:
If you want to get in touch with Jack you can get in touch through any social media or check out his business O’Kale Krisps.

https://www.instagram.com/jackparsons...
https://medium.com/@jackparsons
http://www.okalekrisps.com/

Don’t forget to subscribe for future episodes.

So I’ve set up a podcast called Trep Talk. I plan to run a six part series where I interview Irish entrepreneurs young and old to learn from their experience and hopefully there is a few people who would be interested in listening to their climb as much as myself. Rough and ready but we’re going to try improve each week. Done is better than perfect.

So week one, I interview Danielle Winckworth of White & Green. Link Below.

She tells us about the ups and downs of running one of the world’s first organic fairtrade cotton bedding products companies along with her sister and mother. Check it out here (After you listen of course).

If you enjoyed it, hated it or have something to add please reach out and say hello. I always want to hear from like minded individuals. Twitter:jackparsons_17 Instagram: jackparsons_17

If you want to follow my own start up O’Kale on our journey follow us here:

Twitter: Okalekrisps Instagram: Okale_krisps Facebook: Okalekrisps

Jack Parsons is on a mission to offer consumers a tasty alternative to traditional snacks with the launch of his organic O’Kale Krisps brand, writes Joanna Kiernan

Last September, when the majority of other final year university students started battening down the hatches for their last few months before life ‘the real world’, Jack Parsons (21) launched his O’Kale Krisps, tasty crisp snacks made from organic kale.

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The idea for O’Kale Krisps took root four years ago, when Parsons’s younger sister Sally made kale crisps to enter in a local entrepreneurial competition. It grew when Parsons saw the popularity of kale snacks during his J1 travels in the USA.

“I went to New York for the summer and I started seeing kale crisps everywhere,” Parsons said. “I suppose I always had the interest in them since Sally won that competition, so I started tasting what was out there and noticing the huge market for them in the US.

“They had kale crisps everywhere, but none of them really compared to the taste of the ones that we had made at home, so that, coupled with the fact that you can’t really get kale crisps in Ireland at scale, led me to think ‘why not give it a go?’”

From next summer, Parsons, who is currently studying Business and Law at UCD, hopes to grow the O’Kale Krisps business exponentially. While his peers are discussing their career options, Parsons is busy creating his own.

“I am in my final year so I am just trying to get it done,” Parsons said. “I always knew I was going to start a business, it was just a matter of when, not if and I always had the idea in mind that I would have a job set up for myself by the time I finished college.

“I have messed around with a few other ideas throughout college, but this has a lot of things going for it; the fact that it is super healthy and the health trend is growing, everything seemed to meet at the right time and so far so good.”

Parsons seized an opportunity to launch O’Kale Krisps in September when it arose.

“I was working with another startup, which was running an event in Dublin. They couldn’t pay us, but they had one exhibition space free, so I told them would work for free if they gave me that exhibition space — that is what I used to launch O’Kale Krisps,” Parsons said.

“I had 10 or 11 days to put everything together and just launch it, so it was a case of jumping in the deep end. I am kind of going back now and figuring things out as we go along.”

O’Kale Krisps, which are made using local organic kale from Beechlawn Organic Farm beside Parsons’s home place in Ballinasloe, Co Galway and other fresh natural ingredients, have quickly become a hit.

“There was a lot of trial and error at the beginning and we got a lot of feedback on the recipe, but the one we have nailed down now, our number one flavour is doing really well and we have two more flavours in development at the minute, which are pretty close to going to retail,” Parsons said. We try and keep all of the ingredients wholesome and limit the amount of powders and processed stuff we put into it, to keep everything as healthy as possible.

“We did a fair in Galway at the end of November and we sold out, which was incredible and on the back of that, we got into a number of health stores. Now we are getting requests from other cafes and health stores around the country asking if can we supply to them,” Parsons added.

“The interest in O’Kale is unbelievable when you think that we are only up and running a few months.”

O’Kale Krisps are stocked in a number of stores around Galway, including the Honest Kitchen in Knocknacarra, Morton’s Of Galway in Salthill, Francis Spar in Spiddal and McCambridge’s Of Galway on Shop Street.

Parsons is considering the best approach to up-scaling O’Kale’s production facilities, without damaging the ethos of the business.

“It is all still in-house and we are playing with that idea of whether we want to keep it in-house altogether because there are a lot of benefits to keeping production local and making sure all of the ingredients are local and that kind of thing,” Parsons said.

“But, at the minute we cannot meet the demand that we have production-wise, so we may have to look at a third party making the crisps for us.”

“Come May, when I finish college I am looking to really scale it up, so I am working to have a really strong foundation in place so I can springboard off that, once I have tied up these loose ends in UCD,” Parsons added.

“I am really lucky in the sense that I know exactly what I am going to do after college; I’m putting things in place now and I am on target to do it.”

For the moment, Parsons divides his time between Dublin and Galway, spending his weekends at home engaged in production and his free time during the week working on the administration side of the business

“A big thing I have found really helpful is just cold-calling people, starting a relationship and getting them to taste the product,” Parsons said. “I don’t want people to stock it if they don’t think it is of value to them, but I am keen to give people a taste of the product and show them the vision that we have at O’Kale.

“The fact that people don’t generally think of kale as very tasty is both our biggest disadvantage and our biggest advantage because the wow factor is there when people actually taste the product.

“Social media is also an incredible tool. The fact that it is essentially free is huge,” Parsons added. “Every business needs to get as much out of social media as they can and the way to do that is to engage with people and reply to comments and messages; if you care first, others will care back and that has helped to create a kind of community around us.”

Parsons was heavily engaged in sports as a child and played Gaelic for Galway and, as such, his interest in healthy food goes further than business logic.

“People feel way better when they eat well — it’s really just a rational approach to living,” Parsons said. “No matter what you are doing in life, if you improve your diet it will have incredible effects on your productivity.”

So what is the goal for O’Kale Krisps over the next few years?

“We want to be one of the top-selling healthy snack brands in Ireland in five years time,” Parsons said. “I definitely want to focus on moving into the UK market too, but I am under no illusion how hard it will be for us — 80pc of the population have never heard of O’Kale Krisps or any type of kale crisps. You can see that as a disadvantage, or you can see it as an advantage. We will be their first contact with such a product.”

info@okalekrisps.com

I thought I’d write a post about what O’Kale hopes to achieve this year. One reason I’m doing this is for the added accountability, now you know what I’ve said I’m going to do, i.e some added pressure. So here is what is going to get done in 2017:

1. Improve the packaging

As we speak, we are in the process of improving our packaging. We want to be industry leaders in every pillar of business and we see our branding and packaging as a place we can really excel. When you think about it as a small relatively unknown business, packaging may be the only contact we will have with a potential customer and the last point we can persuade a consumer to try us, then it comes down to our quality to make the want to buy it again.

2. Increase the range of products

Taste and nutrition are so important to us so we are only going to expand the range if we truly love how the products taste. Since we use seasonal produce we feel this is necessary, as we want to grow a year round business and to continue to serve our loyal customers.

3. Food Academy

The food academy is a resource run by Musgrave’s to help bring local producers to the next level and from listening to feedback from people who have done it before, it is a golden opportunity to meet entrepreneurs in the same position and offers great guidance on how to grow a food business in Ireland.

4. Expand into Dublin and around Ireland.

As mentioned before we are in a select number of stores in Galway but we are ambitious and are trying to increase our production capacity and launch into Dublin. Also for all our eager followers around Ireland who still haven’t got the opportunity to try our products, firstly thank you for your patience and support, secondly don’t worry we’re coming.

5. Launch a video series

Anyone that knows me know I have a obsession with great content. It is clear that social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, youtube, the recent introduction of twitter live video, the emergence of music.ly and of course snapchat. Video is going to play a huge role in the future of engaging with customers and potential customers. Stay tuned!

6. Establish our brand as a household name

I’m sure this a goal shared with a lot of small businesses around Ireland and abroad. This is definitely a challenge that drives me.

Personally I’ll add two more:

1. A podcast series of Best Irish entrepreneurs.

To be the best I believe you must learn from the best, what better way for me to improve as an entrepreneur than to interview the best. I know I would love to listen to their stories and I’m sure there is a few out there that would as well. It also doesn’t take a genius to see I’m not the best writer of all time so being able to deliver quality content without having to ask everyone to proof read my posts will be an added bonus.

2. Finish up my College course.

If you enjoyed it, hated it or have something to add please reach out and say hello. I always want to hear from like minded individuals. Twitter:jackparsons_17 Instagram: jackparsons_17

If you want to follow O’Kale on our journey follow us here:

Twitter: Okalekrisps Instagram: Okale_krisps Facebook: Okalekrisps

I’m in final year of college finishing up a business and law degree, and although it might seem like an unlikely time to set up a business, it’s probably a perfect storm for a startup.

This past September, I set up my own crisp company, O’Kale Krisps, and have found there are so many people in college who are young ambitious and desperate to get experience, which is ideal for any startup that isn’t flush with resources.

For example, you have graphic designers that need to do stuff for a portfolio and are ‘time rich’ at the minute.

A few weeks ago, I met someone from NCAD who has just finished up a graphic design course and they are willing to share with me what they know about design and branding of a product.

In a year or two, when they are out of college and have some experience under their belt, I’d be paying them top-level consultancy fees to learn what they know.

Matter of time

Running a business is what I have always wanted to do, to be honest. The way I describe this year of college is I’m tying up a few loose ends in UCD — it’s just about getting it done.

It just feels like you’re playing a different game. When you’re hanging around between lectures and everyone is drinking coffee, the chat is all about this and that graduate job. The grad jobs never appealed to me.

If this goes belly up, I think I would probably end up working in a shop part-time as I tried to get another business off the ground.

Before O’Kale Krisps, I had started an online student publication with a group of friends called StudentB8.

The idea was instead of every college having their individual publication, this was going to be a one-stop shop to student opinions, and we had writers from every college in Ireland writing for us.

It was a learning curve for us and we never made any money from it, but it taught me a lot about managing people and motivating them when we had very little to offer them financially.

We wrapped that up and I remember thinking to myself that the next thing I started was going to be something I could physically sell.

I honestly have no idea what got me so interested in business and it’s one of most popular conversations at home: “Why does Jack want to start a business?”

Neither of my parents are big into entrepreneurship, but since I was as young as I can remember, the goal has been to start my own business and not to work for anyone else.

Jack Parsons (right)

Source: O’Kale Krisps

I was always into buying things and then selling them on for a higher price — ‘flipping’ as they call it. I even did it with stuff at home. I would see stuff lying idle at home that my mother had bought and all of a sudden it would have been gone because I sold it on DoneDeal.

I think it’s the way I’m wired to do that sort of stuff. I would always ask for forgiveness, not permission. I also used to sell small stuff in school.

We would go to the shop during our break and I would buy a multi-pack of chocolate bars and sell them on so I would get a free lunch out of it.

My mother also used to be into art. She used to do paintings on rocks and I would go door to door when I was eight or nine years old trying to sell them.

I remember thinking this was the best business model ever because I had the free labour of my mother who was making them, and all I had to do was go to the neighbours.

I never thought anything of it until I started getting into college and seeing that this is the way I want to go. I wanted to be selling stuff.

Taste for Kale

O’Kale Krisps all came about from my own fascination with kale crisps while I was on my J1 in the US during the summer. I loved them and after work I would always head into Wholefoods and get a packet.

My younger sister Sally had started a similar business that sells crisps made of kale years ago, but it didn’t work out. She won a local entrepreneur competition but was only in first year of secondary school.

While I was on my J1, I just started seeing kale crisps everywhere in the US, and I found that nothing they had over there was as nice as what she had previously made. I thought there was no reason why this couldn’t take off in Ireland.

So I decided, why not give it a go. Kale grows so easily in Ireland, which meant that I would be easily able to get my hands on it, and also it’s a very nutritious snack, so I thought there is definitely a market for this at home.

Once I came back from America at the start of September, I had the company set up by the end of the month. There was no real messing around.

I launched the product at an event called Huddle Dublin in September. That all came about because I was selling tickets for the event to help out a friend and they had one free exhibition stall that they couldn’t fill. So I said I would work for free if they would give me the stand.

Whether it’s right or wrong, there was no planning phase in reality — we just launched the product and did a sampling to get some feedback on what people liked.

So there was a trial and error for a bit with the flavours, but once we nailed one that people liked, we stuck with it and so far it has done really well.

View image on Twitter

Next up

It sounds like a cliché and typical business speak, but once you have a good product, in our case a tasty product, everything else falls into place.

Once we launched, we went back and set up all the manufacturing, which is all done locally using some dehydration machines to manufacture the crisps which we already had from the time my sister was making them.

We’re also lucky that I live right next door to Beechlawn Organic Farm, which means we can source the best ingredients from just down the road.

Since I jumped in head first, the packaging is pretty primitive, so looking back it would have been nice to spend some time making that look a bit nicer, but at the same time, done is better than perfect.

You can get stuck in the analysis paralysis phase of planning, planning, planning. But at least if you’re in shops you’re able you have the wheels of the business turning and can do something with the customer feedback, whether it’s positive or negative.

We’re in a great place right now as a company because we’re getting messages from shops that they want to take them. It’s a great problem to have.

I have a plan in place now where we’re going to sell in Galway shops for the first four to six months of this year, then expand to Dublin.

I’m splitting my time 50:50 between work and college right now and it’s just me at the minute producing the crisps mainly at the weekends.

Hopefully we’ll get to the stage soon where I can hire one or two full-time staff to work on it with me, and then we may need to look at building a dehydration room instead of using our current machinery. But that’s probably 12 or 18 months down the line.

Even if this doesn’t work out, setting up the business has given me the confidence that I can do it. It’s not a superpower, anyone can sell something.

Jack Parsons is the ‎founder of O’Kale Krisps. This article was written in conversation with Killian Woods as part of a series on unlikely entrepreneurs.

First of all, I’d like to thank everyone for the great feedback I got on my first post.

One question I got asked a lot is: why am I sharing my experiences so early in my journey to set up a food product business? Some people might say before I’ve proven I’ve anything of value to offer others wrestling similar startup challenges. And they are right in one way- maybe I haven’t. But the reason I want to share is that when I was a 14 year old kid I would have loved to gain an look under the hood of a very early stage company. Someone who wants to dive head first into setting up, into working for themselves, into creating something of value and has to learn on the fly.

I believe reading about how to take the first steps, the baby steps, the crawls and the falls and the getting back up, the unvarnished practical details of what’s involved in trying to become an entrepreneur right at the very start, rather than when someone has ‘made it’ is extremely difficult to find. I know for sure I’d have valued it. So hopefully my scribbles about my efforts will be helpful to someone. Along with a lot of other benefits the main reason is that I personally, when I was 15 years old, would have loved to get a first person insight into someone beginning their entrepreneurial journey rather than reading an article of someone who has already “made it”. So, I’ve decided to publish a post every Friday until I can’t provide you anymore value.

Someone suggested I talk about the pros and cons of launching and running a business while still finishing off in college. I agreed. I’m a final year Business student, currently getting a food product start up off the ground while finishing my degree in UCD.

For context: In September 2016 I launched O’Kale Krisps, an air-dried organic kale crisp flavoured with natural whole ingredients. The fact that it is air-dried and not baked or fried means the nutrients of our healthy ingredients are not damaged. We are currently in 4 shops in Galway and have plans to expand all around Ireland in 2017.

Pros

1. Planning

I tend to jump into things head first and figure it out as I go, which no doubt has it’s benefits. Having the few days in college a week allows me to step back from the operations and analyse how best to go forward. An opportunity that I wouldn’t otherwise have, still being in college studying business. Sometimes the things we learn day-to-day in college intersect with issues arising in my own startup business which can be really useful, it allows me to double down on certain aspects .I find I’ m paying more attention when the subject is of practical benefit to moving me forward.

2.Networking

College is a wonderful place. At your finger tips there’s a collection of driven students from all walks of life and their expertise is incredible. Having the freetime to cold call/email a entrepreneur who lives in Dublin and meet for a coffee allows you to bring your thinking to a new level, which probably wouldn’t be possible if you were in full execution mode.

3. Marketing

Youth can be a great door opener which if it’s a card you have, play it. That said, the market is the market. Your product needs to speak for itself to win the real game.

Cons

1. Patience

Being forced to spend time studying when you’d rather be doing is kind of like wanting to be a body builder but your only access to weights is restricted to 2 days a week. You do as much of the other stuff as possible, networking, diet plans, some exercise but there’s still no real comparison to actually exercising at optimum efficiency. This can be frustrating at times when you want to put everything into running your business but in reality there’s tons of other stuff you can do to build a solid foundation, so that when the time comes for full time execution you can go all in.

2. Time

Obviously, there’s plenty of time but in reality if giving time to your business is an issue for you now you’re not going to last too long. In my case starting a business was more of a ‘when’ than an ‘if’, so its not a huge issue for me. Honestly, if it’s what you really want. You’ll make time.

Overall, anyone thinking of giving it a go jump right in. When you’re sitting in lectures it can feel like you’re playing a different game. Lectures, degrees, qualifications. They’re trying to get you a job. If you’ve setting up a business you’re trying to essentially make a job. Chess vs checkers, neither is better. It’s what works for you.

I’ll leave you with this quote from Gary Vee.- “Skills are cheap. Passion is priceless.”

Please reach out and give me your thoughts, suggestions, experience or just to say hello. I really want to hear from like minded individuals. Instagram: jackparsons_17

If you want to follow O’Kale on our journey follow us here:

Twitter: Okalekrisps Instagram: Okale_krisps Facebook: Okalekrisps

I always told myself when I started a business I would document it, mainly for myself, to connect with like minded individuals, for anyone thinking of starting a business and to promote the business. It will be fun to see how my views change as the business grows.

For context: In September 2016 I launched O’Kale Krisps, an air-dried organic kale crisp flavoured with natural whole ingredients. The fact that it is air-dried and not baked or fried means the nutrients of our healthy ingredients are not damaged. We are currently in 4 shops in Galway and have plans to expand all around Ireland in 2017.

Here are 5 things I have found to be true in my short time in business.

1. Sales = Oxygen

I’m sure you’ve heard it 100 times but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s true, cash is oxygen to a start up. You’re not a business until you make sales, nice logos, social strategy and a website are great but unless you can translate that into sales you’re out of business.

2. Product

The biggest insight I’ve learned from my short stint in business is that a product does the talking for you. In my case no matter how healthy your product is, unless it is delicious no one is going to buy it a second time. You might sell once on benefits but no one is going to suffer through it a second time without it being delicious. Thankfully, we are both!

3. Execution

Hate to spoil the party but everyone has great ideas. I bet we could think of the next 10 big companies to break through in the next 10 years in a few hours. In reality, it doesn’t matter. In my short experience, the real magic is on choosing which idea makes sense and executing it. Anyone can open a coffee shop, not everyone can build Starbucks. Everyone knows how to lose weight, but we’re not all fighting fit.

4. Power Of The Cold Call

Emails have their place, however nothing cuts through the noise as calling the person you need to talk to. Very easy to ignore an email, not quite so easy to put you on the long finger when you’re on the other end of the call. An easy way to speed up the growth of your business, essentially for free. I‘ve found that in my short stint in business so far, nothing moves the needle faster than a few phone calls.

5. Ability To Do The Unscalable.

The fact that I’m time rich and money poor, it allows me to do things that may not be possible as the business grows. What I have found to be super beneficial is meeting people in the industry that have a few more years of experience. It’s always great to listen to people that have gone through what you are going through. It also allows you to personally deliver your orders, which gives you the chance to build relationships. This is when I have the opportunity to do things that may not be ROI positive but will allow me to win long term by building relationships.

If you enjoyed it, hated it or have something to add please reach out and say hello. I always want to hear from like minded individuals. Twitter: jackparsons_17 Instagram: jackparsons_17

If you want to follow O’Kale on our journey follow us here:

Twitter: Okalekrisps Instagram: Okale_krisps Facebook: Okalekrisps