Cyber Innovate Student: Paul Ward

“If you have an idea, park it. Go out with two ears and one mouth and listen to what people tell you they need.”

What does an experienced “self-starter” who has built multiple businesses over 30 years take from a programme intended to nurture leadership skills for cybersecurity startups? More than you might think.  

Paul Ward’s name will be familiar to those who followed Ireland’s domestic technology scene. In 1999, he started the business that bore his name, Ward Solutions. Originally it was an IT consultancy for leading Irish technology companies and later became a well-regarded cybersecurity specialist that was ultimately acquired by Ecko in 2021. Paul had handed over the reins to his co-founders back in 2005.  

Following a founder’s muse 

In the years that followed, keen to pursue other interests, Paul became an algorithmic futures trader. “It’s effectively using data science to predict what’s going to happen in the markets. Risk management was what I was doing: how do I avoid losing what I have,” he explains.    

Paul had relocated with his wife to west Cork following a health scare in 2019, and he was keen to get involved in the startup scene and academia nearby. When he heard about the Cyber Innovate programme at MTU, he was immediately interested, seeing the opportunity to meet and mentor up-and-coming founders, and spend time on campus.  

Changing perspective on the startup grind 

Being accepted onto the first year of Cyber Innovate has changed his views on building a business – and he readily admits that was a challenge. “It’s not always pain-free. It’s not easy to scrub your head and not bring preconceptions to the table. I’ve been a CEO or a consultant, I’ve been a boss – and my own boss – since my 20s so I was concerned about if I would be able to sit as a student in a class, but I think I have,” he acknowledges.   

Paul’s experience on the programme has given him the perspective to see one of his more recent ventures in a new light. During Covid, he built a system called Raven for forex brokers and their traders in London. However, he found few takers and now he can see what was missing. “It wasn’t needs-based. In terms of product-market fit, I didn’t do the necessary customer discovery, so I was pushing a large rock up a hill,” he says. “I was solving a real problem, with a great solution, but my intended customer just didn’t see it.” 

How design thinking triggered a mindset shift 

He believes that being open to listening was key to getting value from the programme. “This programme has design thinking at its core, and it’s needs-based. If you have an idea for a product, park it. Go out with two ears and one mouth and listen to what people tell you they need. Before you put pen to paper or write a line of code, make sure you have customers who are prepared to pay for it,” he says.  

Paul has also enjoyed collaborating with his fellow participants on the programme, who often share their knowledge about relevant subjects outside the curriculum. “Someone in the group might say, ‘I can do a 60-minute session on cap tables or some area of their experience. That has worked really well for the group. There’s give and take, people express an interest, and we can do it ourselves,” he says.    

The collaborative aspect of the programme is what Paul has enjoyed the most. “I’ve always been a self-starter in different stages of my career. But a self-starter can often be a loner. I came up with ideas myself and had resources to do that, but it’s not always the best way,” he reflects. “Being open to listen and collaborate and draw on the complementary skills of teammates is an asset I would take forward. It’s more fun and more powerful to combine the strengths of teammates as peers. You don’t have to be ‘the man’; you can be a member of a small team and see the strengths of that.”