‘Flexible workspace’ will link Dublin and Austin tech firms

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Texas-based incubator and accelerator Capital Factory signed a memorandum of understanding with Irishman Cian O'Cuilleanain to assist in his plans to open a new kind of flexible workspace in Dublin.

Signed during the SXSW Interactive event in Austin over the past fortnight, the memo relates to the Gravity Centre, a new flexible work space opening in George’s Quay Plaza in Dublin’s Silicon Docks.

However, as well a place for start-up collaboration, it will also be a direct link between the two cities’ economies.

“I spoke to various people in the Irish business community about the gaps they perceived in the economy,” says Cian O’Cuilleanain, co-founder of the Gravity Centre.

“The start-up community told me there was a greater need for co-working and flexible working spaces, while investors were saying there was a need for more collaboration internationally. New York, San Francisco and London are already well covered but Austin isn’t really on the map for a lot of Irish start ups.”

Entering markets

“The aim is to make the Gravity Centre more than just a hot-desking facility. This is specifically about going deeper, and bringing companies in both directions, entering each other’s markets,” he says.

The new initiative will be almost entirely inspired by The Capital Factory. Located in downtown Austin, the incubator/accelerator has helped hundreds of companies, principally in the software as a service (SAAS) sector, to develop and expand their businesses. They just recently opened an international arm, with local businessman and all round champion of Austin, Fred Schmidt, at the helm.

“We hope ‘Touchdown Austin’ will bring companies here from all over the world to enter the US market through Texas,” says Mr Schmidt.

“It’s a soft-landing facility to help get organised and become successful in the US. So far, we’ve had 15 global delegations in here over the last week, coming from Bavaria, France, Taiwan, Columbia, etc.”

Opening the Gravity Centre in Dublin, according to Schmidt, is more significant than simply creating a physical space in Europe for Austin’s eventual global domination.

“There’s actually a much deeper relationship we plan to develop that will be going on in the background,” he says. “It’s not just about linking up companies. We want to connect the eco systems of Austin and Dublin on many levels.

“With a couple of exceptions, Capital Factory is exclusively in the SAAS space but our mission in connecting these cities goes into broad aspects of economic development, academic exchange, and all kinds of business sectors including creative economies like music and film, the maker community, Internet of Things, and space tech.”

Open for business

Mr O’Cuilleanain aims to have the Gravity Centre open for business in April. His co founder,

Edel Flynn

, was formerly the CEO at the Digital Hub. Are they now in competition with the existing Dublin-based digital and tech incubator? Not according to Mr O’Cuilleanain.

“I don’t see it as competition,” he says. “I see it as a different model. The Digital Hub is a government initiative [The Gravity Centre is privately backed], which provides flexible workspace for their clients. Our model looks at specific companies and aims to get in front of them at an earlier stage to help them with national and international market access.”

The announcement comes in the wake of many other ties being made between Ireland and the Texan capital. In the past 18 months, the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Consulate have all opened offices in Austin with an ever-growing Irish community in the city to match. Mr O'Cuilleanain is on the board of the Irish Network in Austin, keeping him plugged into Irish business here.

“Ireland has already made some huge commitments to Austin with the recent moves that have been made,” says Schmidt. “Now with this new relationship we’re putting tangibility into a lot of what was otherwise ceremonial in nature.”