In at the Deep End: Ormeau Baths

Be careful what you say on stage.

In September 2015, I had a (total) meltdown on stage at the Icons Festival in Belfast, having a general rant about the lack of intellectual honesty between startups. It is okay to congratulate each other about taking the entrepreneurial leap, but it is equally as important that they are honest with each other.

But the problem is worse where ecosystems are less mature and too much government love and encouragement makes it more difficult to tell an entrepreneur that their idea is terrible and they should move onto their next thing. There is nothing worse than watching an entrepreneur persevere with an idea that is unlikely to succeed. Being an entrepreneur is hard, we shouldn’t try to candy-coat it.

From this was born the idea of creating a co-workspace in Belfast to bring together the talent which exists under the same roof, where we would actively encourage honesty, support and tough love along the way. But as they say an idea is worthless without execution. Fortunately, most of the “heavy lifting” is being handled by my amazing cofounders Aaron Taylor (a cofounder of Icons), Mark Dowds (the Chief Strategy Officer at Trov) and Steve Pette (a cofounder of Central Working), I am just there for my poster-boy good looks.

But there is more to this than just the founders, we have had huge support from some amazing Founding Members who are part of the Northern Ireland digital diaspora including Sarah Friar (CFO of Square), Nigel Eccles (cofounder of FanDuel), Peter Johnson (founder of Lystable), David Singleton (VP Engineering at Google), Paul Taylor (founder of Thought Machine) and Chris McClelland (cofounder of Brewbot) who have all committed their time and energy to “give back” to the local community.

But the real star of the show is Ormeau Baths, an iconic listed building in the heart of Belfast, built in 1888. Its most recent occupier was an art gallery which closed in October 2011 and it has remained empty since. With the support of the landlord, for which are are grateful, we will be creating a co-workspace for 140 desks with offices, meeting rooms and an event space with a capacity of over 100 people.

We have already received massive support from across the ecosystem but I will save some of those announcements for the official opening in mid May. This is a project close to my heart and a way for me and others to “give back” to a place that was incredibly formative to who I am today. I look forward to updating you with more information as the building continues and when we open over the next couple of months.