Established by Michael Dwyer in 2000, Empathy Marketing was one of the early pioneers in the online deals and discounts business.

The group’s flagship brand was Pigsback.com, although it also owned a number of related websites, including Escapes.ie, Pamper.ie and LuxuryBreaks.ie. In 2019 it was sold to the British online travel group Secret Escapes.

The purchase price was not disclosed at the time, but it has since emerged that the figure was in the region of €25 million.

To the outside world, it looked like a major success – and, in the end, it was. But the journey was anything but linear. Dwyer’s entrepreneurial journey was multi-faceted, a roller-coaster that veered from massive highs to significant lows.

His business had to pivot, work with non-aligned shareholders, and retrench from aborted expansion plans. But, throughout it all, he was resilient. After selling the business, he has sat down and chronicled his journey. Dwyer had maintained journals across his 20 years in business, and, working with the writer Gavin Daly, he has turned it into a compelling book entitled From the Arena.

Yesterday, we ran an extract from the book, which described how, in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds, his business adopted the defiant motto of the Spartans.

I have picked out five key takeaways from the extract, but there is one comment on entrepreneurship that I want to single out.

It comes from 2015 when Dwyer was battling to keep shareholders on side to keep larger competitors at bay: “I read another one of those social media debates about entrepreneurs. This time the distinction was being made between company founders who are entrepreneurs and those who are artists. Entrepreneurs, they said, are committed to the exit, are looking at the next venture already, and may be involved in multiple ventures. Artists are more likely to be wedded to the success of their work, no matter what. Kevin, our chairman, would no doubt say that I’m an artist. I’m not sure.”

It is a sentiment that many entrepreneurs will associate with. Over the course of the book, the key theme that emerged was one of resilience, a capacity to keep going when others might have thrown in the towel.

It was the dominant motif of the book; Dwyer’s resilience was astonishing and uplifting. Here are five other key takeaways from the extract.

 1. Savour the wins

In November 2015, Dave Foody, an executive with Pigsback, came up to Dwyer and announced: “We’re number one, ahead of Groupon!”The announcement came just after a board meeting where Dwyer had asked backers for a chance to turn the business around under a strategy entitled “Project Encore”.Dwyer was told that there was a potential margin of error in the numbers, but that Foody was happy when they were number one – for the previous month at least. Dwyer embraced the win. “I was off like a child, wandering between the boardroom and the open-plan offices. I couldn’t restrain my joy, wanting to shout it from the rooftops,” he said, adding that “nothing was going to take the shine off this very proud moment”. We can all get caught up in the hard issues. But it is important to embrace the successes too.

2.  Have aligned shareholders

One of the striking aspects of the journey was the firm’s relationship with a major shareholder. The investment was originally negotiated and later overseen by Hotbed, an independent investment company now under a new guise as Connection Capital. They were negative about the investment, As Dwyer put it: “Why wouldn’t they be?”.

As he wrote: “Over the years, Hotbed’s quarterly investor updates made for the grimmest reading. They could do little else. We were heaping bad news on top of bad news so they heaped one downgrade on top of another. I found their updates clinical and, at times, even felt a bit of shame.”Eventually, the company managed to exit some of the positions. But it highlights a key point: if a CEO feels a lack of support from investors, there will be significant issues. Interests need to be aligned, and backers, while requiring a return, need to offer assistance, as opposed to making people feel shamed.

3. Good people, always

A dominant theme that emerges from the book is the importance of good people. Dwyer was fortunate to have a fantastic chairman (and backer) in the firm of Kevin Watson and a longstanding lieutenant in the firm of John McDonald (Johnny Mc, as he is referred to in the book – remains MD of Pigsback, under the ownership of Secret Escapes).

As Dwyer outlined when he was dealing with his UK backer: “As Connection Capital, they’ve continued to attend our board meetings and partook in all key decisions but it now seems like they have had enough of our struggles. They want out of Pigsback and recently asked Kevin if he would consider making an offer to buy out their shareholders. Although not a seller of shares, Kevin declared that he wasn’t a buyer either. He has more than enough at stake.” 

4. Work/life balance

In late 2015, Dwyer began a creative writing course. It might have seemed an unusual thing to do for someone who was keeping his company afloat, but it had a big impact on him – for the better. He was able to better articulate his thoughts but it also gave him a greater perspective of the issues other people were facing and of his own place in the world. As he put it: “I’m trying new things, as I continue to grapple with those 4Gs of Graft (work), Gang (family and friends), Games (leisure) and Good (giving back), seeking to identify a new balance. It’s working. There’s a positive energy in my work, my family time, my leisure, my reading, my learning and writing, my curiosity, my exercise, and my sociability.” 

5. Be agile, not stubborn

Pigsback had tried to break into the UK and Canada. It did not go well. Instead of keeping going and trying to make it work, the company retrenched. It admitted the expansion was not going to work, and it went back to basics. Reflecting on an interview in the Sunday Business Post, Dwyer writes: “The article concluded: “Pigsback will not be looking outside Ireland and will stick to home sweet home”, quoting me saying: “We’ve taken on board enough risk for any one company in its lifetime.”

*****

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