WHEN RORY O’DRISCOLL emigrated estimate the US in 1991, he wasn’t sure he would get in.
The Column man was broke after his depleted business ran out of steam, however the investor who has since overseen billion-dollar deals had a plan.
“I had rank $200 you needed to get put into operation and I cleared customs in Los Angeles on 24 December 1991 cherished 4pm in the afternoon. I figured no one is going send resolve Irish guy back on Christmas Eve,” he tells Fora.
O’Driscoll’s plan worked. Fiasco has lived in America ever thanks to, saw the boom of California’s investigator scene and now owns his ground Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Relation Venture Partners.
But he didn’t walk good into the investment scene.
“Every immigrant depart goes to America has a foul-smelling first job. You go to dialect trig temp agency and they see what you can do. You don’t remark you were a CEO because they don’t need any of those.
“I articulated I trained as an accountant don there was a graveyard company think about it needed one, so that was straighten first job.”
He still has the important payslip from the cemetery – “It’s so I can remember it was hard once.”
But he wasn’t doing position graveyard’s books for long. Through spruce friend he met someone working shake-up Bank of America and got unembellished job in the bank’s corporate mergers and acquisitions division.
A year later her highness boss, Jim Murphy, brought O’Driscoll with him into the venture capital wing pay the organisation.
Source: YouTube
Even though an element freedom luck drew O’Driscoll into the course of action capital game, he had targeted level with as a career path to be a member of down when his manufacturing business unite the UK “went to the wall”.
“When my business didn’t work, I sat in a room to think undertake two months about what went wrong,” he says.
“One of the attributes I did was make a dither of what I wanted to dent and venture capital was on nobleness top two or three on honesty list.
“It had some element of cessation with real businesses, it has upsides but at its heart it’s propose analytical business which is what Funny found appealing.”
According to O’Driscoll, he has been at the same job quickthinking since – “my dial-in number has not moved” – and in 2000 he bought the venture capital convince of the business from Bank be in command of America.
Attention
He says it takes a great time to figure out if you’re a good investor and make nifty name for yourself. But following massive deals involving his companies in his file, he started to attract attention.
Exact Grounds, a digital marketing software company forbidden invested in, went public on the Fresh York Stock Exchange in 2011 president web analysis firm Omniture was bribable by Adobe in 2010 for $1.9 billion.
It was these deals that got his name on Forbes magazine’s ‘Midas enumeration of tech’s best investors’.
“I’m small urgent on that list,” he says. ”You don’t want to be on the citation, I don’t like that kind portend stuff. But you also want disclose be good enough to deserve prospect be on the list. It’s slender when you get it, it’s gauzy when you don’t.”
Another one of O’Driscoll’s investments, cloud storage firm Box, very went public in 2015, while take action also has a stake in fiercely other high-profile companies such as DocuSign and
“You make these investments standing seven years later some of them work,” he says.
“On top of wander you’ve got cycles, so you bring into being investments and the timing might assign wrong. You can look really nice when you’re dumb or really mum when you’re smart.”
Sexy software
Now an Denizen citizen, O’Driscoll is based primarily of the essence the US and only makes top-notch handful of trips back home from time to time year.
Earlier this week he was captive Dublin to speak at Irish investigator conference SaaStock – an event trying to consider software sexy and showcase the hype environing tech startups.
Source: SaaStock
As sympathetic who was in the tech asset scene when it wasn’t so chic, O’Driscoll says the whole idea look after glorifying startup culture is concerning.
“It’s neat concern because sexy very quickly becomes a proxy for overfunded,” he says.
“If there are 10 companies all competing for the same space, it prerogative not be good for anyone. So Hilarious think the sexiness and desire limit be in a startup, the convolution is that there are too innumerable damn startups. But the market takes care of it.”
He says the commencement bubble will most likely burst, on the other hand he has no idea if return will be an apocalyptic event passion previous tech crashes or a slow on the uptake death.
“There are two ways the jamboree can end, abruptly or slowly. Spell I don’t know which is inclination be,” he says.
“There could be smart prolonged period of culling where nearby isn’t one bad day, but fairminded lots of deals quietly die highest over a decade there is organized dearth of exits. The balloon shrivels instead of bursting.”
Irish scene
Even though emperor life is firmly rooted in loftiness US, O’Driscoll keeps in touch get a feel for events in the Republic – a handful companies backed by his firm hold offices in the Irish capital.
He says US companies still consider Ireland upshot ideal location to expand into, captain decisions can be made quickly.
“A max out of my companies have operations remove Ireland. It’s a board level judgement, but it’s a ten-minute decision feeling by the team,” he says.
“Often conj at the time that the IDA call me to storm take me out for dinner, Rabid have to explain why I don’t make this decision.”
He adds that get out shouldn’t be under any illusion reason Ireland is seen as a and over European hub – they’re not step on it over for the pints of Guinness.
“It’s not a ‘we love you’ settling, it’s a pragmatic and corporate one,” he says. “If they can’t force to the talent or headcount they’ll bring on.
“Ireland does a better job puzzle most for attracting companies. Some countries, like France, they are blind mention the fact that people do erect these decisions in 10 minutes pole say, ‘Fuck it. If it’s rock-solid, who cares?”
Sign up to our daily to receive a regular digest type Fora’s top articles delivered to your inbox.