"You hear a lot of 'gurus' hyping up the opportunity, encouraging people to create online startups and they will focus on developing a service or store, but having the idea and implementing it is the easy part. It’s getting visibility which is the most difficult!"

"Expansion is very important. The biggest things you need to consider when you looking at your options are: what made you popular in the first place; what made you successful; what’s bringing money in and what is keeping your business ticking over. And if you are going to drastically affect those things, it’s probably not the right thing to do."

"My brother and I co-founded our startup, TeenagerEntrepreneur.com. This startup is designed to empower teens with the knowledge they need to be successful with their passions. My brother and I show teens how to identify those passions, turn those passions into products, promote those products, and propel themselves to future success."

"Eight minutes… That’s what it took for Wearable World company Skully Helmets to hit their target goal of $250,000. They would go on to be the top technology and top Wearable product of all time for Indiegogo raising over $2 million. Focus, determination, heartache, and luck turned their 2 hard years into an “overnight” success."

"What I appreciate is being able to come up with a niche unique use case that makes people's lives better - if you can figure out that one little niche use case and you can build your empire around that niche use case. Don't worry about monetisation, because people will pay if it can enhance their lives and the market will find itself..."

"There is not one recipe to follow but that to be open to listen and learn. I often say that startups are kind of like Frankensteins that depending on what you know you first grow one hand and then the other one might be shorter. And then you grow a leg and then the other one ...because this is how resources come to you..."

"We are hiring people right now and anytime I meet someone who scares the shit out of me and someone who can actually replace me easily if I ever leave this company I want to hire them right away. Also if the people around you are happy you get a good product and if you have a very good product you get good profits..."

"My main recommendation, especially for people working in large tech companies, is to spend a significant amount of time assessing the opportunity, gathering feedback, challenging the idea, building relationships, understanding the startup world and even raising money before leaving their jobs."

"If I could go back I would launch even faster and even leaner with something much more basic than what we did... What we learned is that to get the viral growth its important to incentivise people to share content."

"What inspired me to get into bitcoins? I got in touch with bitcoins very early, but I didn’t pay much attention back then. Then I decided to go back to college 2 years ago. For one of the courses I had to submit Android app and I decided to do something useful and not just as it usually happens with college. Then I met with Kevin who had an idea."

"There are no recipes for finding the right balance in terms of scale. It seems that everything is a combination of heuristics, secrets and I suppose figuring it out at the last minute. It's the phone call at four in the morning or the little tweet notification or that something has gone down and that terrifies every CTO out there."

Ireland is probably one of the most generous countries in the world right now in terms of government supports, there's a lot of it out there and yet we see a lot of founders who are agitated or stressed out cos they can't get it or they don't know how to get it..So, know the system!"

"My advice to someone starting out? I think start building while working for somebody else. Sit up until 2 o'clock in the morning. Start with as little money as you can. Friends and family are a good place to start - if it is a good idea they might invest. Get something to the market quickly and try to get some customers who are willing to pay."

"Your pitch is about explaining what you are doing, the problem and your product you have to solve it; market validation; how are you going to make money. It is going to involve doing the market research and doing the business development to get it air tight. So you have actually done an amazing amount of work by the time you have a solid pitch."

"We didn't know we wanted to build a phone, we came up with a digital photo frame idea, a smartphone app and something related to a smartphone. We tested all three of them before they existed just with a landing page. And the landing page basically said: this is what we want to build, if you like it, give us your email address..."

"Having a definable USP is important too and the customer will ask: Why should I buy or change my buying habits for your new product? So you have to have a compelling argument. Finally be careful not to over promise and under deliver. You only have one reputation in this world and it takes years to build but seconds to destroy."

"One key barrier is that people fall in love with solutions rather than problems and they fixate too early on one idea. You can take your time to experiment with different ideas and aspects of an idea. As an entrepreneur your success is that of the people that make up your company solving problems for customers not that you had the right idea."

"Listen to investors, take feedback very seriously. They often have seen maybe people do exactly what your are trying to achieve and fail. So with that information they can save you a lot of time and money. That’s not to say they are always right, but you better have a good reason to say why they are wrong in your case or that you're different."

"Be nice - there have been many times that I could have charged some extortionate “rush fees” like agencies would for last minute work, but I haven’t because I know that if I scalp someone today they aren’t going to like me all that much going forward, and I’d wager that they won’t go around recommending me."

"Questions you should ask as part of your STARTUP LAUNCH CHECKLIST: 1. Have you got product market fit? 2. Can you prove your business model? 3. Do you have a customer base willing and capable of paying? 4. Is your business scalable? 5. Is your market big enough? 5. And lastly, have you got the right people behind you – at home and at work?"

"There is no secret behind the success of any company. When you offer a service many want, you'll be successful. The trick is to find your niche, and that's where 90% of startups fall down. If you are having trouble getting traction, it's probably nothing to do with your tech, marketing or business plan. You need to look at your product..."

"I’m absolutely delighted with our team. The level of talent I’ve somehow managed to gather around this concept is really humbling, and that buoys me every day. The enthusiasm that they feel only amplifies my own, and it makes the long hours and working weekends seem irrelevant. Every success that we achieve is simply a testament to them."

"The more ideas we generate, the more likely we are to generate really unique, important ones, so developing skills to create ideas and test them is important. For me it was hard to come up with new ideas after working for so long on my previous startup, so I came up with a method to train my brain to generate ideas - you can read it in my blog..."

"My main failures were related to being involved in business for money not passion. Of course you can be passionate about the wrong type of business also but if you are passionate about a business that has potential then it's very easy to put in long hours. The property business I was involved in was just to make money but that wasn't enough."

"Short answer for growth hacking: Use exit surveys on your website or web app. Why did people leave and what was frustrating for them. Long answer: growing a business is a long term endeavour. You need to bake the growth of the product into everything: Engineering, Finance not just Marketing and Sales."

"My biggest pet peeve is when young entrepreneurs are scared to tell you their idea because they think someone will steal it. This is absurd for many reasons, but mostly because they never get feedback on their idea. When you have an idea, tell everyone. You’ll get feedback, and you may even find your first customer."

"Another thing I have learned is that you should never worry when others say no to your startup idea. But if you sincerely believe in what you're doing, and the impact it could have; if you can live in the future before your friends get there, then you're probably destined for something pretty cool."

"My biggest challenge when starting up Quiip: I had a 3-week-old baby! So I managed to ‘launch a baby’ and ‘birth a business’ at the same time. Our first project ran 24-7 for six weeks, so being awake in the night due to my baby, came in handy. However like so many successful working mothers, I had an incredibly supportive partner."

"Find a sale quickly. Too many entrepreneurs never get to market because they are constantly trying to “perfect the product”. If you can sell what you have, then you know that there is a demand. If you cannot sell it, find someone who can. If they can’t sell it, then get out quick. If you are going to fail, then fail fast."

"On the way up the skydive instructor told me there was a possibility we might go up to heaven instead of landing on the ground. He asked me if I would have any regrets if we didn’t make it and the one that sprung to mind was the regret of not starting up my own business. So I came back from holidays with the intention of handing in my notice."

"Passion and hard-work! Any business needs these two key ingredients. Team is important, good idea helps, long hours is inevitable but if you are not passionate about what you are doing or unwilling to put in the handwork needed to make it work, it is unlikely it will go far."