Cyber Innovate: Colm McSweeney

“I knew what I wanted, and this course has given me a path to get there.”   

Colm McSweeney has always had an entrepreneurial streak, but that doesn’t mean he sees business as a solitary pursuit. As an inter-county footballer for the Limerick senior men’s team, he knows the importance of a good team.  

As one of the 12 chosen participants in the first Cyber Innovate programme, Colm has been able to combine his interest in cybersecurity with his curiosity for business. The postgraduate diploma scholarship at Munster Technological University fosters skills to create and lead a cybersecurity start-up. “When I saw the course come up, I thought ‘this is exactly what I want’,” he says.  

Entrepreneurial energy 

After graduating in business and information systems from UCC, Colm worked in cybersecurity roles at Dell Technologies and the Japanese bank SMBC. Even before his formal career began, he was “always doing side hustles”, in ventures as varied as a cybersecurity newsletter, self-guided mystery walking tours, and when he was younger, a tuck shop in his local park and a firewood business with his father. “That’s definitely where I get energy. What really excites me is the entrepreneurial stuff,” he says. “Cybersecurity interests me, and the blend with entrepreneurship is very interesting.”  

As part of the course, participants are divided into groups to investigate and research potential business ideas and validate them with customers. Immediately, Colm enjoyed the camaraderie with his teammates and the dynamic among the student group. There’s an obvious parallel with his involvement in the GAA. “Especially coming from a sporting background, I always knew the value of a team,” he says.  

Learning and leadership 

To make his point, Colm refers to one of his favourite quotes from the American academic Scott Galloway: “Greatness is in the agency of others”. “I’m one of the youngest on the course, and working alongside people with such pedigree, I’m learning loads from them,” he says. “There are elements of leadership in keeping a team together and keeping everyone rowing in the right direction. As soon as you’re put into a team, you put leadership into practice. And it doesn’t need to be one leader. You need to all be on the same page. There’s no point waiting till after the course to start practicing that.” 

Successful applicants for Cyber Innovate get a €38,000 tax-free scholarship, along with fees which enables them to fully commit to the 10-month full-time course. Colm initially considered putting his inter-county career with Limerick on hold, but in the early stages of the term, he realised there was “something missing” and he decided he could commit to both his passion and his profession. “For me, it’s a pressure release,” he says of staying involved with the Limerick panel.  

Building a business 

Speaking two-thirds of the way through the Cyber Innovate programme, it’s clear the entrepreneurial flame burns as brightly as ever for Colm. The lesson he appreciates most is about applying rigour to building a business, based on clearly identified customer needs.  

“I knew what I wanted to do with my life and my career prior to coming in: I wanted to be an entrepreneur. But the mindset shift for me was having these ideas and launching something. Now there’s a process that I’ve learned. It’s not just building something and trying to find a fit, it’s customer discovery. Now there’s a process I’ve learned that you can go through: how to innovate and how to build a business. You come up with an idea and validate that idea. I knew what I wanted, and this course has given me a path to get there.” 

Trust the process 

Processes, by definition, are repeatable, so Colm appreciates how the programme fosters the sense that business success is a question of structure and process, not luck or timing. “You think that it has to be the right idea, the right time, and all the stars have to align for all these successful entrepreneurs – but it’s probably not the case. The programme has definitely given me that realisation,” Colm says.  

“I’d be much more confident, say if this current idea was not to work out, there’s no reason why you can’t pivot. Say if AI replaces the need for your business or product, I’d be confident we could pivot and go again. We have all the toolsets to do that. It could take a year; it could take five years. It’s given me more confidence that if you want to be an entrepreneur, here’s the process.”