A born and raised New Yorker, Chris Walla moved to Ireland in 2017 to join the founding team of Dogpatch Labs, a startup incubator and innovation lab in Dublin. Over five years, Chris helped build Dogpatch Labs into Ireland’s top incubator and one of Crunchbase’s ‘Top 10 Incubators Around the World You Need to Know’, leading their business development unit.

Chris works at the intersection of startups and corporates. He has worked hands-on with 100+ startups as well as 10+ corporate partners on innovation activity. He has secured innovation partnerships with some of the world’s largest companies globally, including Unilever, Fidelity Investments, IBM, Huawei, and more.

Chris has a track record of winning landmark contracts spanning the domains of startups, corporates, and government, notably a €17M contract to run Ireland’s national startup accelerator

This episode is hosted by Dave Byrne