💡 Meet Rachel, the AI agent that called 3,000 pubs

👋 Céad míle fáilte! This week, we're kicking off with one of the most Irish uses of AI we've ever seen.

An AI voice agent named Rachel rang more than 3,000 pubs across all 32 counties over Paddy's weekend to ask a single question: how much for a pint of Guinness? Ireland stopped officially tracking pint prices about 14 years ago. Rachel filled the gap.

The results? A national average of approximately €5.95 per pint. Laois came in cheapest at around €5.38. Dublin was the most expensive at roughly €6.75. And a few pubs still offered a pint for under €5. The resulting Guinndex is now live and being kept up to date by user submissions.

Today's edition is a 3 minute 20 second read. ⏩ In a rush? Here's the quick rundown:

🔁 ICYMI: 124 Irish founders globally reveal that customer acquisition is the #1 hurdle at every stage while burnout actually spikes to 67% as companies mature.

✈️ Abroad: Stripe's former CTO David Singleton sells AI startup Dreamer to Meta, Spectrum.Life launches in Australia with three acquisitions, Dónal Brady wins Digital Irish Sydney pitch night and Horizon Quantum lists on Nasdaq.

🏠 Home: Jentic launches its Claude connector, Grand secures $5m pre-seed, HubSpot invests €40m in Dublin AI, and GridBeyond raises €12m.

🧠 Brain food: What the EU Inc. could mean for Irish companies, Northern Irish distilleries gain global recognition and Sifted 100: UK & Ireland Leaderboard.

Let's dive in 🤿

LATEST UPDATES
News from abroad ✈️

🇺🇸 From Stripe to Meta in 120 days: Meta has acqui-hired David Singleton and his entire team at Dreamer, the AI agent startup he founded after stepping down as Stripe's CTO in August 2024. Singleton is a Belfast native who led Android Wear and Google Fit at Google before joining Stripe in 2018. He was the person Stripe trusted to build its first engineering hub outside the US. He chose Dublin. He founded Dreamer (originally /dev/agents) in November 2024, launched a beta, and Meta came knocking just one month later. The full team was acqui-hired and the technology licensed, giving investors a return above their original stake.

🇦🇺 Three acquisitions. One day. Zero hesitation: Dublin's Spectrum.Life just landed in Australia. And they didn't tiptoe in. Three acquisitions on day one: MindFit at Work, We Lysn, and Valion Health. The plan is to combine all three into one integrated mental health and wellbeing platform. Built by Stephen Costello and Stuart McGoldrick, Spectrum.Life now serves 15 million members globally across 3,000+ corporate clients, with $28M+ raised and 260+ employees. It's the same playbook that worked in the UK, where they grew revenue 200%+ in 12 months. Two Irish founders. And now a serious bet on APAC. Worth watching.

🇦🇺 Work From Anywhere wins Digital Irish Sydney pitch night: Dónal Brady, founder of Work From Anywhere, took home the win at the Digital Irish Australia Sydney pitch night. His company is tackling a real pain point: helping global teams support international remote work without creating tax or employment risk. The pitch night featured a strong lineup of Irish founders building across AI, health, and enterprise. Other pitchers on the night included Dr Harry Power (AttendMe.ai), Marianne Noonan (Bolya), JP Tucker (Optidan), Alex Short (PerformID), and Evin McLoughlin & Chris (Synalogic). Big thanks to the Digital Irish Sydney crew for creating the space for founders to share ideas and support each other.

🇺🇸 Irish quantum startup lists on Nasdaq: Dr Joe Fitzsimons, an Irish quantum computing specialist and former tenured professor, just took his company Horizon Quantum Computing public on Nasdaq under the ticker HQ. Fitzsimons founded Horizon Quantum in 2018 to build quantum software infrastructure, giving developers the tools to build applications for quantum computers. The company completed a SPAC merger with dMY Squared Technology Group to get there, and rang the Nasdaq opening bell in March 2026.

At home 🏠

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🤝 PARTNERSHIP
A message from Gladly

You shipped it. It works. Tickets are resolving. So why are customers leaving?

Gladly's 2026 Customer Expectations Report uncovered a gap that most CIOs don't see until it's too late: 88% of customers get their issues resolved through AI — but only 22% prefer that company afterward. Resolution without loyalty is just churn on a delay.

The difference isn't the model. It's the architecture. How AI is integrated into the customer journey, what it hands off and when, and whether the system is designed to build relationships or just close tickets.

Download the report to see what consumers actually expect from AI-powered service — and what the data says about the platforms getting it right.

If you're responsible for the infrastructure, you're responsible for the outcome.

Get the data

💡 INSIGHTS
Founder Sentiment Survey results are live!

Last week, we released our first-ever St. Patrick's Day Founder Sentiment Survey.

124 verified Irish founders. Every corner of the globe. The results are packed with data on the biggest challenges, the "Irish advantage," burnout rates, and how traditional growth playbooks are breaking down.

A few highlights:

🔥 Customer acquisition is the #1 challenge at EVERY stage, from pre-revenue (50%) through to mature/profitable companies (42%).

🧠 67% of mature founders report burnout vs just 17-22% at earlier stages. Success does not equal stress reduction.

☘️ Founders at home feel being Irish helps them MORE than founders abroad. 35% of diaspora founders were neutral on the "Irish advantage" vs only 20% at home.

💬 Traditional growth playbooks are breaking. Cold outreach and email sequences are becoming less effective in an AI-saturated world.

The full survey is free to download:

🧠 BRAIN FOOD
5 other things we are snacking on this week

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