Maeve Kneafsey is the co-founder of CloudKPI (“CloudKPI | Key Performance Indicators | Empower Business,” 2017) which she set up in 2016. CloudKPI is based in San Francisco, USA and is a cloud-based analytics solution that sits on top of other business solutions such as QB, Salesforce, Hubspot, Stripe etc. delivering advanced analytics to predictive and benchmark performance and makes recommendations. It was designed to help SaaS businesses scale fast. In Maeve Kneafsey’s talk, she discussed that she doesn’t come from a business/entrepreneur background as she studied History and Philosophy in Trinity College but somehow ended up creating her own business. Like Aine Kerr, she gives us a background on her career path and how she became a director for many different organisations. …show more content…
She explains that nonstop reinventing is necessary to stay ahead of the pack in the business world. She highlighted failure as vital for the growth of any product as it allows you to learn from your mistake and to develop a better product that will be more successful. Maeve Kneafsey points out that sometimes that entrepreneurs can get it wrong as they get arrogant about their product. They use their emotions instead of their practical thinking side of the brain. Some great ideas never took off since the entrepreneur never listened to the market before making it public. She also addresses that she had to get backing by getting someone else’s money to develop the company. She explains the challenges she faced with keeping the individuality of the idea whilst having multiple shareholders. At one stage she sold equity to subsidise the rent for their offices. The money was welcomed as she knew it was essential for the business to expand outside of Ireland to make more money in the long