About Us
Our Story
Our story is one that shows the power and resilience of the entrepreneurial spirit
We're a team of entrepreneurs who are bound together by our story and our journey. Our story begins with each of us pursuing our own individual goals. But as our paths crossed with each other over the years, we slowly began to realise that we shared a common vision and a set of values that guide everything we do. We eventually came together to form a team that is greater than the sum of its parts and we have overcome challenges and achieved success that would not have been possible on our own. It's a story of starting with nothing and building something great. It's a story of hard work, determination and sacrifice. And it's a story of never giving up, no matter how difficult the challenges maybe. We're proud of our story and we're proud to be part of it. We're committed to helping entrepreneurs achieve their dreams, and we'll continue sharing our story and our journey with the world. Thank you for also being a part of it.
Our Team
Our team has deep expertise in company building and helping businesses grow
We come from backgrounds in technology, venture capital, and private equity, and we are all excited to give back to our community by coming together and contributing our knowledge and skills to help entrepreneurs succeed. Whether it is our commitment to putting entrepreneurs first, our drive to innovate new solutions, or our focus on building lasting relationships with our portfolio companies, our success is founded on teamwork and dedication to service. With our passion for helping others succeed, we believe that we are the perfect team to help entrepreneurs achieve the next level of growth and success. Whether you are just launching your business or looking for new ways to take your business to the next level, our team is here for you. So let's get started on your story today!
Kieron Branagan
Kieron is a co-founder of Déjà Partners, a boutique advisory firm that helps entrepreneurs pitch to investors so they can find success with funding, scaling, and building successful businesses.
Kieron is also a mentor at several start-up accelerator programs as well as a lecturer in Strategy and Technology.
Prior to co-founding Déjà Partners, Kieron was the Chief Executive Officer of OpenJaw Technologies, a global travel technology business with a staff of 500+ industry professionals, operating across offices in Ireland, Spain, Poland, Hong Kong and mainland China.
Kieron was also a partner at Ireland's largest venture capital firm, Act Venture Capital, where he specialised in enterprise software and semiconductor investing.
With over 20 years of board experience at multiple companies across international jurisdictions, Kieron constructively engages with investors, board members and leadership teams on matters of governance, strategy and performance, bringing a unique perspective on these matters.
Kieron graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a degree in Computer Science after which he worked as an embedded software engineer for ten years. Kieron has also completed the Strategic Leadership for Chief Financial Officers Programme run by Stanford University Graduate School of Business in association with Enterprise Ireland.
John Chapman
John has supported entrepreneurship across Europe for more than 20 years. He is a collaborative leader and coach to founding teams driving visionary, technology-based startups, or large corporate spinouts. John is also a bridge builder between the commercial world and researched focused academia.
Before co-founding Déjà Partners, John was active in strategic roles at several early and growth stage technology companies located across Europe. These roles included Chief Strategy Officer of Intelligent Growth Solutions, a globally active provider of Vertical Farming Solutions, as well as being on the Board of Directors of Voxgig, a cloud-based provider of Developer Relations tools, and OpenJaw Technologies, a global travel technology business.
John sees himself as a Europeanised American, having lived in Germany for more than 30 years. His experience bridges the world of finance and business building and draws on M&A deal making at Citicorp, Bankers Trust and Paribas. John moved from the world of investment banking to venture investing in 2000 when he joined TVM Capital, a transatlantic early-stage investor with $1.3 billion under management, as a General Partner. His defining skills include agreeing a shared vision and winning commitment across stakeholders as well as the ability to drive agreement between parties with conflicting agendas.
John earned an MBA from the Kellog Graduate School of Management (Evanston, Il, USA) in International Finance. He has taught courses in Startup Finance and the Harvesting of Corporate Assets at the Munich Business School and the EMBA programme of RWTH University Aachen.
David Tracey
In addition to his role at Déjà Partners, David is a Distinguished Software Engineer with Rapid7, a leading cybersecurity solutions provider, where he is leading architectural initiatives for large-scale distributed systems in the Cloud.
David has also held senior leadership and R&D roles in startup and multinational technology organisations, including Dell and Sun Microsystems. David has been appointed as a technical expert evaluating project proposals in the EU Horizon 2020 programme.
With over 30 years of industry experience, David has a valuable combination of breadth and depth of knowledge in leadership, team building and technology areas (distributed systems, Cloud, software architecture, IoT) that allows him to provide strategic insights in a range of technical environments.
David graduated from University College Cork with a Ph.D in Computer Science and also has an M.Sc in Computer Science from Trinity College Dublin and a B.E (Electronics) from University College Dublin. David has published a number of research papers and has seven granted U.S. patents, with several applications pending.
Colin Lewis
Colin is a practicing marketer and former Chief Marketing Officer who has worked in travel, telco and tech for the last 25 years in the UK, Australia, France, Switzerland, Ireland, Singapore and China.
He is a coach, advisor and facilitator to 'C' level executives, as well as teaching over 100 hours a year in the UK, Ireland, Spain and Dubai. Clients include Unilever, Philip Morris, Samsung, Kingfisher (B+Q, Castorama), Britvic, TK Maxx, Bayer, Oracle, Europcar, Facebook, WARC, Experian and SAP.
Colin is a Marketing Week Magazine - writer and columnist - since 2015 and a regular speaker on marketing, eCommerce and digital.
Colin is the course creator of the Fundamentals of eCommerce on the Future Learn Platform - one of the world's largest online learning platforms with 15 million users. Colin is the author of three eCommerce, Marketplace and Retail Media Best Practice reports. Colin is also the Founder and Programmer of DMX Dublin, Ireland's largest marketing conference which started in 2013, as well as a Fellow of the Marketing Institute of Ireland.
Colin earned an MBA (Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business), an MSc in Marketing and a Degree in Commerce from University College Dublin.
Ciaran Walsh
In addition to his role at Déjà Partners as Company Secretary, Ciaran is the founder & principal partner at OFM Solutions, a leading financial management services firm providing a full suite of outsourced financial, accounting, compliance, funding and advisory services to Irish technology companies. OFM Solutions work with some of Ireland's leading technology companies and have helped manage them from incorporation through to, in many cases, very successful exits. OFM Solutions also provide financial management services to the Irish operations of a number of NASDAQ quoted international businesses.
Prior to founding OFM Solutions, Ciaran was European Financial Controller at Parthus Technologies, a NASDAQ & LSE listed semiconductor IP provider.
Ciaran has also worked internationally in Eastern Europe as CFO of a Swiss / Russian operation in retailing, catering & wholesale, employing 750 staff and revenues of $50M. Thereafter, Ciaran moved to Switzerland for a number of years and was International Controller to a number of businesses in Switzerland, Austria and Russia.
Ciaran graduated from the University of Limerick with a degree in Business and Finance and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.