This tech conference is profitable and expanding, but its 70,000-visitor Lisbon conference remains the jewel in its crown
to Lisbon on Monday, a voice comes over the plane’s PA system asking passengers to raise their hands for a photograph if they’re attending— back in the saddle after his six-month sojourn from the company he cofounded — had asked attendees to try it on all their respective flights. “Just a fun idea,” he posted on LinkedIn a few days before he returned to centre stage at the event in Lisbon.
If it seems, like the modern-day equivalent of the robber barons of the Gilded Age, that they have seized their chance to grab a firmer hold on the levers of power in the US, that’s because they have.
It is these informal discussions off to the side at Web Summit that are probably its most valuable component. On Tuesday, Waterford-born Fitzgerald addressed the conference, calling on start-ups to stand up to the big tech monopolies that “are profiting while everyone else is just trying to survive in their world”. He said there will be opportunities for businesses to set themselves apart from the herd by refusing to go along with the dominant political trends over the coming years.
Amid the chaos and din, more than 75 Irish start-ups are exhibiting throughout the week, 36 of which are there on Web Summit’s dime, having been selected to showcase at the event. One of those companies is Reso Health, a Waterford business developing a personalised supplements platform.
To what extent? It’s impossible to say. Cosgrave was sanguine about the financials. When asked about it at a press conference on Wednesday, he claimed Web Summit “probably” made €4 million or €5 million in profit this year and Ebitda of between €10 million and €11 million. “We’ve grown revenue by nearly 30 per to an all-time high,” he said. “It’s been a very profitable year.”
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