The Entrepreneur Experiment

What does it take to make a plan at 16 - and still be executing on it at 32?

Ashley McDonnell saw a Christian Dior exhibition in London as a teenager and decided she was going to work for Dior. She didn't know French. She'd never lived abroad. She had no connections in luxury. Six years later, she was walking into LVMH headquarters on Avenue Montaigne in Paris.

Now she's back building in Ireland — founding Ireland Fashion Week, launching Vyko (Ireland's first luxury brand group), and building the kind of long game most founders don't have the patience for.

In this episode she pulls back the curtain on how the luxury industry actually works, the psychology behind why people buy luxury, why China is the most important luxury market in the world, and the one piece of advice — focus — that changed everything.

SHOW NOTES

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary sits down with Ashley McDonnell — founder of Ireland Fashion Week, Vyko Group and the Tech Powered Luxury podcast. Ashley spent over a decade working across LVMH, Christian Dior and Puig, one of Europe's biggest luxury groups, before coming home to build something entirely new.

What you'll learn:

• How Ashley reverse-engineered her way from Galway to Christian Dior at 22 — by mapping the exact path the executives above her had taken
• Why the luxury industry is built on groups and conglomerates — and what that means for Irish brands trying to scale
• The psychology of luxury buying — from unlimited budget shoppers to the strategic Chinese traveller saving 20% per handbag
• Why 90% of luxury sales were offline pre-Covid but almost 100% were digitally influenced
• What Vyko is — and why Ashley is building Ireland's first startup luxury group from scratch
• The one-note iPhone system she uses to track every single day of the year across Paris and Dublin
• Why focus (not ideas) was the advice that changed everything

Connect with Ashley:

• Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ash.mcdonnell/
• Vyko Group: https://www.instagram.com/vykogroup/
• Ireland Fashion Week: https://www.instagram.com/irelandfashionweek/
• Podcast: Tech Powered Luxury: https://www.instagram.com/techpoweredluxury/
  
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In this Mentor Moment, Paul Buckley shares the messy, real start of what became a serious founder journey - not from a polished “masterplan,” but from a place of pressure, responsibility, and learning fast. Paul is the entrepreneur behind EPS Group Australia (which he built and exited) and now C2O Group, and he’s a great example of how leadership is often forged in the moments you didn’t choose: when the plan changes, money gets tight, and you still have to figure it out.

The lesson here is about adapting at speed, stepping up before you feel ready, and how momentum is created when you stop waiting for perfect conditions and start operating like the person who can handle bigger responsibility. If you’re building something — or trying to level up how you lead — this one will land.

Listen back to the full conversation in Episode 444 of The Entrepreneur Experiment — and subscribe/follow so you don’t miss next week’s Mentor Moment.

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What if the reason your business isn't scaling is that you're aiming 10% higher when you should be aiming 10x?

Sean Mullaney has been a founder three times, led engineering at Google X's moonshot factory, scaled Zalando from €1bn to €10bn, and is now building Seapoint - the business bank designed from the ground up for founders. In this episode, he unpacks the systems, mindsets, and decisions behind 25 years in tech, and why he believes we're living through the most exciting moment in business history.

You'll learn how to spot a real technology shift vs. a fad, why "thinking in systems" is the single biggest unlock for any founder, how to give and receive the kind of brutal feedback that actually grows people, and why AI is the most optimistic story in tech right now — not the scariest.

Whether you're pre-seed or scaling past your first million, this one's packed with frameworks you can use on Monday morning.

SHOW NOTES:

What you'll learn:

• Why aiming for 10x better is often easier than 10% better (the Google X philosophy)
• How to tell a genuine technology shift from a passing fad
• The "thinking in systems" framework Sean uses to run every part of Seapoint
• Why most business banks are built for bankers, not founders — and what Seapoint is doing differently
• How to give and receive brutally honest feedback (and why it's the greatest gift you can get)
• Sean's contrarian, optimistic take on AI and what it means for founders, workers, and society
• Why he'd back a 17-to-20-year-old founder over almost anyone else

Key moments:

• Sean's first startup: web-to-SMS restaurant bookings built in a dorm room
• Lessons from the dot-com boom and how it mirrors today's AI wave
• Inside Google X: how moonshot thinking actually works in practice
• Scaling Zalando from €1bn to €10bn — the systems that made it possible
• Why Sean started Seapoint and what makes it different from every other business bank
• The books, advice, and mindsets that shaped his journey

Recommended book: Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows

Connect with Sean:

• Website: https://www.seapoint.co/
• LinkedIn: Sean Mullaney (DMs open - make it interesting!): https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanmullaney/
  
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A reminder that big breaks often come from proactive moves: ask, show up, build relationships, and make it easy for the right people to say yes. Rory also shows what matters after the moment hits - capturing it, repurposing it, and using it to build momentum, not just hype. Listen back to the full episode, Episode 443 - and subscribe/follow so you don’t miss the next episode.

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In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Anthony Kelly - entrepreneur, co-founder of Glofox, and co-founder of WellFest - for a wide-ranging conversation on building in the health and wellness space long before it became mainstream. From spotting the early signals in boutique fitness and turning that into a global software company, to building one of Ireland’s best-known wellness festivals over a decade, Anthony shares what it really takes to grow in a category that is evolving in real time.

He opens up about the importance of timing, niche focus, culture, and hiring, how Glofox scaled internationally and navigated the shock of Covid, and what it was like to eventually join forces with ABC Fitness. But this episode goes beyond business too. Anthony reflects on identity, obsessive founder energy, male health, emotional resilience, and why more honest, conversational spaces are needed for people to figure out what actually works for them.

If you’re building a business, navigating growth, or trying to create a life that works beyond just work, this is a thoughtful and deeply valuable episode.

In this episode, we cover:

🔥 How Anthony spotted the shift in boutique fitness before the market fully exploded
🚀 The early Glofox story: from agency work to building a SaaS platform for gyms
💡 Why niche focus gave Glofox an edge in a crowded software market
📈 Growing from early traction to global expansion across Ireland, the US and Australia
🌍 What it takes to build enterprise relationships and win major fitness franchise clients
🧠 The hiring lessons Anthony learned the hard way, and what he now looks for in great people
🏗️ Why culture is built by behaviour, not by slogans or slide decks
🦠 How Glofox and WellFest both survived Covid - and what that period revealed about community
🎟️ The decade-long journey of building WellFest into a major wellness brand
👥 Why Anthony believes men need more spaces built around listening, not lecturing
🪞 The identity trap many founders fall into when business becomes everything
⚖️ Redefining success through business, body and brain - and building a life that works as a whole
🔁 A practical reset exercise for anyone trying to change the story they tell themselves

• Anthony Kelly LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anthonykelly81
• Glofox: glofox.com/lp/gym-management-software-revenue/
• WellFest: https://www.wellfest.ie/
  
  

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In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Nir Eyal — bestselling author of Hooked, Indistractable, and Beyond Belief - for a masterclass on the psychology of belief, persistence, and entrepreneurial thinking. Together, they explore why success is so often less about intelligence, resources, or talent, and more about what you believe is possible. Drawing on psychology, behavioural science, and real-world entrepreneurial examples, Nir explains why some people spot opportunities everywhere while others walk straight past them.

This is a fascinating conversation about the beliefs that quietly shape your decisions, your motivation, and your ability to keep going when things get hard. From “entrepreneurial alertness” to limiting beliefs, predictive processing, and the surprising science of persistence, Nir breaks down how founders can train themselves to see differently, act differently, and ultimately build more than they thought possible. If you’ve ever felt stuck, doubted yourself, or wondered why some people seem able to create momentum where others hesitate, this episode is for you.

In this episode, we cover:

🔥 Why intelligence is not the best predictor of entrepreneurial success
🧠 The difference between facts, faith, and belief
💡 Why beliefs are tools, not truths
👀 The concept of entrepreneurial alertness and why founders literally see opportunities others miss
🍀 What a simple “luck” experiment reveals about attention and opportunity
🐀 The famous rat study that shows how hope can radically increase persistence
📈 Why success in business, body, and brain comes down to persistence more than talent
🚫 The real reason most people fail: they quit or never start
🔺 Nir’s model of motivation: behaviour, benefit, and belief
⛓️ The difference between limiting beliefs and liberating beliefs
🪞 Why it’s easier to spot everyone else’s limiting beliefs than your own
🌍 How past experiences and “priors” shape what you notice in the world
🎯 Why we don’t see reality as it is — we see a prediction of reality
📱 The role of negativity bias, social media, and fear in keeping us passive
⚡ How changing your beliefs can change what you see, feel, and do as a founderLinks & Resources

Connect with Nir Eyal

• Nir Eyal official website: nirandfar.com
• Beyond Belief: nirandfar.com/beyond-belief/
• Indistractable: nirandfar.com/indistractable/
• Hooked: nirandfar.com/hooked/

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In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Jennie and Lisa, the founders of Gigi, the women’s health brand rethinking hormonal support through premium, evidence-led supplements.

From working as registered nutritional therapists to building a fast-growing consumer brand, Jennie and Lisa share how their clinical experience led them to spot a major gap in the market: women being told to take multiple supplements for PMS and hormone balance, with no simple, targeted solution in sight. What followed was a crash course in product development, manufacturing, branding, retail, cashflow, and persistence.

They open up about the reality of building a product-based business from scratch — from begging manufacturers to take a chance on them, to selling out their first production run in just two weeks, to learning the hard way how brutal stockouts can be when demand outpaces supply. They also share how social media, education, and bringing customers behind the scenes helped them build trust early and create real momentum.

This is a powerful conversation about solving a genuine problem, building in a capital-intensive category, and creating a brand with purpose in a space that has long underserved women.

🎧 Show Notes

In this episode, we cover:

🔥 How Jennie and Lisa turned clinical insight into a fast-growing women’s health brand
🚀 The lightbulb moment behind Gigi and why they started with one hero product
🧠 Why the best business ideas come from momentum, frustration, and seeing a real problem up close
💊 The flaw in asking women to take 4–5 different supplements for one issue
🏭 What it really takes to find a manufacturer when you have no track record
✈️ The trip to Paris that changed everything for the business
📦 Minimum order quantities, funding pressure, and the realities of cash-heavy product businesses
💸 How they used grants, personal capital, and negotiation to get their first production run made
📱 Why social media and education were key to winning their first customers
💌 How documenting the journey built an email list and a loyal early audience
🛒 Selling direct-to-consumer while also expanding into pharmacy and retail
📈 The operational stress of selling out — and why “high demand” can still create huge problems
🌊 Why branding mattered, and how they built a women’s health product that didn’t look overly clinical
❤️ Building a business that genuinely improves women’s lives, while also building a commercially viable company

💬 Standout Quote

“There has to be a better way.”
That simple frustration became the foundation for Gigi — and the catalyst for building a product designed to genuinely improve women’s quality of life.

Links & Resources

• Gigi: https://gigisupplements.com/
• Follow Jennie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennie.haire/
• Follow Lisa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisahughes_nt/
• Follow Gigi Supplements: https://www.instagram.com/gigisupplements/
  
  

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A premium-brand lesson you can steal in any industry: pricing that isn’t just maths.

Alan shares how pricing can be communication, positioning, and part of the customer journey. He shows how the “moment of pause” or consideration can actually work in your favour when the product delivers and the experience educates. Listen back to the full episode, Episode 441 now for the full conversation with Alan, and subscribe or follow now, for more episodes like this.

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In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Ken Rideout for a conversation that goes far beyond endurance sport. Yes, they talk about marathons, HYROX, discipline, and what it really feels like to stand on a start line ready to compete — but this episode is really about identity, effort, masculinity, parenting, business ambition, and the mindset required to keep going when life gets hard.

Ken opens up about what success actually means to him, why he believes failure is simply not trying, and how he’s learned to reframe adversity — from losing jobs to helping his wife through cancer treatment. He shares his brutally honest view that most people underestimate what they’re capable of, explains why he’s driven more by discipline than motivation, and reveals the internal pressure, imposter syndrome, and dark mental places that often sit beneath elite performance.

This is not a polished “morning routine” conversation. It’s a raw, funny, provocative and deeply human episode about competing hard, living truthfully, protecting your energy, and building a life where you do more of what matters - and less of what doesn’t.

Show Notes

In this episode, we cover:

🔥 Why Ken believes success is rooted in family, friendship, and community — not status
💥 His definition of failure: not trying
🏃 The mindset he brings to marathons, HYROX, and elite competition
🧠 Why discipline matters more than motivation
😬 The imposter syndrome and insecurity behind high performance
📚 How Ken’s story went from “toiling in darkness” to bestselling author and major podcast guest
👊 Why he thinks 99% of people underestimate their own potential
🏠 Parenting, social media boundaries, and raising strong kids in a soft world
💼 His business philosophy: make enough money so you never have to do things you don’t want to do
⌚ The tools he actually uses: Whoop, sauna, cold plunge, and his beloved 8 Sleep setup
😅 Why he hates LinkedIn, protects his relationships, and refuses to be performative online

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About Ken Rideout:

• Ken’s Book: Everything You Want Is On The Other Side of Hard: https://www.theothersideofhard.com/
• Follow Ken on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ken_rideout/?hl=en
• Follow Ken on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ken_rideout
• Ken Rideout on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ken_rideout

Follow The Entrepreneur Experiment

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In this Mentor Moment, Gerry Hussey shares a simple but powerful way to visualise success that founders can actually put into practice. Instead of vague “future goals,” Gerry breaks it down into outcomes, daily process enablers, and identity — becoming the person who already lives the life you’re working towards.

You’ll hear his step-by-step exercise to map what you want, identify the habits that get you there, and close the gap between who you are today and who you need to become.

For the full conversation with Gerry Hussey, listen to Episode 413 of The Entrepreneur Experiment.

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