James Flynn, Co-Founder and CEO, Connect Mór
Co-founder and CEO of Connect Mór, James Flynn graduated from University College Cork, Ireland with a BSc in Computer Science. After working as an engineer with Susquehanna International Group - a quantitative trading firm, and industry-leading CRM Salesforce, he set out on his new venture. Throughout his career in engineering roles, James was exploring different business ideas such as a new airline that ran flights on routes that were historically not cost-effective, and tinder for startup co-founders. Eventually, after a conversation with some friends who work in marketing, he formulated the idea for Connect Mór. Connect Mór is the web app that makes social media easy.
The platform is a marketer's secret weapon as it automatically analyses your client's competitors and tells you what, where and when to post to maximise engagement - within seconds. Connect Mór is launching to market in 2021. When James isn't working he enjoys playing video games, watching sports, and finding new hobbies (recently, stand-up comedy and jiu-jitsu).
What is your favourite social media platform?
No clear favourite, they serve different purposes: Tiktok is like an easy-to-watch TV show where you can just switch off Youtube you can watch brilliant people talk about interesting things Instagram is the best for catching up with friends LinkedIn for making connections and promoting my personal brand Reddit for keeping up to date with my non-work hobbies.
Tell us about you and your current role or area of interest.
I'm the co-founder and CEO of Connect Mór. We are building a next-gen social media analytics platform. We analyse groups of competitors on social media to tell our clients what, where and when they can post to get the best engagement from their target audience. Our clients can also submit their new post ideas and we predict how much engagement those posts will get using AI that we've developed in house. Originally the idea came from a conversation with some friends who work in social media marketing about how much time they spend analysing their client's competitors as part of their creative process. This was a few years ago, and my thought at the time was "in 2018, this should be automated." In 2021 it definitely should be! My college thesis was on an artificial intelligence topic, so I'm not an expert but I can put some basic systems together and recognise some patterns. As we dove deeper into the problem an interesting pattern emerged. For artificial intelligence, you generally need a dataset that has well-defined attributes, and a scoring mechanism. With social media posts, you can see the content, who posted it and when it was posted. There is an inherent scoring mechanism based on the engagement that a post gets. This means that social media data is ideal for training algorithms that can predict, and make recommendations. We can approximate the social media "algorithms" relatively straightforward. This is really cool. There's two long term aims of Connect Mór: 1. Allow marketers to focus on being creative and winning more clients, rather than worrying about hashtags and adjectives. 2. Democratise social media for businesses that don't have the expertise to excel on it natively. In a post-covid world, social media is more important than ever for businesses of all sizes and nobody should be left behind.
What do you like about your career or area of focus?
We are using very new technology and a small team to solve a problem that would have taken dozens of engineers and millions of dollars a decade ago. It's very fun.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
"All this can go away and you'll still be fine." - my Dad
What inspires you, motivates you, or helps you to move forward?
The recognition for solving difficult problems and creating positive change in the world. I want to be in a history book for a positive contribution. My kids will have the platform to achieve anything they want to in life.
What are you proud of in your life so far?
I reached all the goals I strived for in my brief career as an engineer. From being a kid who struggled to make friends I now have a good social group and am very comfortable meeting new people and making them laugh. We are building a company the right way. Making the leap from a safe career into entrepreneurship was also fun.
What is your preferred way to meet new people/network?
Making an initial connection due to a shared interest or mutual benefit, and getting a real-life coffee to have a proper chat.
What skills or qualities do you feel have helped you?
I love solving problems and learning new things. I typically get bored working on the same thing for too long - as a startup founder that is never a problem; one day I'm a marketer, the next I'm a developer and the next I'm the head of sales. I am a strong believer in honesty and hard work, and I think that shines through and helps people to believe in me. I also firmly believe that most people can achieve more than they think possible, and I try to instil that belief in Connect Mór.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
It's pointless faking it because it's not sustainable. Ultimately we will be good enough, or not, and there's nothing we can do about it besides try our best and accept the outcome.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles and why?
I don't hold anyone on a pedestal above the rest, but for different reasons, some that come to mind are Gary Vaynerchuck, Elon Musk, Marc Benioff, and Patrick Collison.
Outside of your professional/work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
I play video games and chess when I get time to relax. I pick up new hobbies and fall out of love with them a few months later; stand-up comedy and jiu-jitsu being two of the more recent ones. Usually, on the weekends I can be found watching soccer, MMA or Formula 1.
Has the pandemic had a positive or a negative effect on you and/or your business, and how have you been managing it?
We set up the business during the pandemic, so I'm not sure what would have been different otherwise! Social media has definitely followed the trend of many digital industries and had accelerated growth due to the pandemic, so it might end up better for business in the long run. On a personal level, I've found it tough to be working and living in the same space all day. Covid accelerated the death of my grandfather. Regular walks and as restrictions relax in Ireland being able to see friends again has been nice. I am happy that we are through the worst of it.
Do you have a mentor or have you ever mentored anyone?
I briefly mentored an engineering intern in one of my old companies, Rafid is an amazing person and engineer. As part of the New Frontiers incubator, I had an Enterprise Ireland designated mentor Louise O'Conor of Beta Digital, who is amazing, and I definitely consider a mentor still. I haven't really sought out a specific mentor but I am incredibly lucky to have a few different people including Louise that I can bounce questions off, and even dig into stuff deeper from time to time.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work or interests?
Being self-employed in a pre-revenue and bootstrapped startup has its bad days, but the good days are better than any day you'll ever have working for someone else. I hadn't expected the number of gut punches, exacerbated by being in a vulnerable position. Whenever a day is tough I think about all the great things we are going to accomplish over the next few years. Having a great co-founder that I get along very well with is invaluable. Overall I would find something that you are very interested in, with an upside that excites you.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
Resilience fails due to some combination of passion, discipline and support being too low.
Is there a phrase, quote or a saying that you really like?
Be brave.
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
BrewDog, Salesforce, Aldi, IKEA, Airbnb.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience/readership?
I'm successful when I'm content. I am still early in my journey so I don't want to get too evangelical but I think it's important to lead with empathy, and really be interested in what you spend your mental effort on.