Bluebirds and Startups

Finding our foundations when building what’s next

Eastern Bluebirds on a Gutter © by Dave Graham

I’ve noticed the insistent chirping of birds from just outside my office window for the past couple of weeks. This starkly contrasts with my nearly ten years of quiet sitting in the same place. I rather like this tremulous warbling and staccato noise reverberating around like tiny ping-pong balls on a stairwell. Imagine, to my shock and surprise, when looking out my window during yesterday’s surprise snowfall, I see five eastern bluebirds sitting on the gutter across the divide between buildings. It’s the first time I’ve seen it occur since coming here, and hopefully, next time, I’ll have a longer focal length lens to capture them with.

In the cacophony of what I can only imagine is a community meeting, I was reminded that a lot of life tends to resemble this scene. Loosely connected people of some heterogeneity clinging on for dear life to the sides of their stories and careers they’ve tried so hard to establish. When forced to, they mingle with distinct lines of separation between them as if to say, “This is my moment,” and to offset any challenge from another’s encroachment. Funny, that.

I spent the early hours of this morning participating in mentorship sessions with three incredible Irish startups, each focused on a different industry domestically and in the broader…