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DUBLIN STARTUP POPERTEE plans to roll out its pop-up shop booking service in London later this year – and it hopes to entice department store behemoth John Lewis to put its vacant units on the platform.
The company, which currently only operates in Ireland, says it will soft-launch the booking platform in the UK capital this September.
Popertee was founded in 2016 by ex-Paddy Power marketer Lucinda Kelly, who tells Fora the idea for the company spawned from her interest in Airbnb’s model, which she thought could be replicated in the retail industry.
Although it has only been in operation for a year and a half, the young company’s business proposition is already undergoing a reboot as it pursues a “more scaleable” opportunity in the data analytics sector.
“It’s a little bit deceptive – when you go on our website you see what we are doing, versus what we are building,” she says.
At the moment, Popertee appears to be what Kelly calls a “simple platform” where companies and marketing agencies scout for pop-up retail venues around Ireland.
“We’re running almost a concierge service to validate the proposition,” she says. “We match brands directly with spaces”, adding that the company looks after the legal agreement and rental transaction in exchange for a total 10% commission.
Artificial intelligence
However behind the scenes, the company is developing a technology that uses artificial intelligence to match venues with the specific demands of retailers and brands looking for short-term lets.
“Brands and agencies wanted to understand footfall demographic information and neighbourhood insights when pre-booking,” Kelly says. “We realised there was a much bigger, more scaleable business opportunity there.”
Popertee started buying data from social media companies and telcos to help it build a property search engine that spits out fine-tuned recommendations for pop-up spaces based on clients’ requests.
“For example, let’s say you have Amazon coming to Ireland – they’re looking to promote a new Kindle and they’re looking to target males aged 18 to 35 in shopping centres,” Kelly says.
The marketing agency would use Popertee to seek out venues that can cater for that specific demographic.
The company closed a €500,000 seed round a couple of weeks ago to help build out that model. It has already been backed by Enterprise Ireland and NDRC.
The bulk of the half-a-million euro just raised will be earmarked for hiring new staff, Kelly says.
The startup has grown from a solo operation with help from friends to a five-person team with four interns in the last 18 months.
Several employees and advisors have followed Kelly from Paddy Power. Head of product and operations Joe Packenham is former head of operations at the bookmaker, while director Edgardo Savoy was previously at Paddy Power and has served as chief technology officer at Lastminute.com.
“There’s a really strong team that we’re building out,” Kelly says.
Well-known brands
Despite its short history, Popertee has already worked with an impressive line-up of well-known brands in Ireland.
It helped find a venue for Heinz Baked Beans’ pop-up café in Dublin and was also involved in Italian beermaker Peroni’s ‘House of Peroni’ campaign, as well as sourcing spaces for car brands Citroen and Volvo.
Kelly says the company is currently in talks with John Lewis in the UK in the hopes of putting vacant shop space it owns up for rent through Popertee.
She stresses that Ireland is very much a “test market” as the company looks to break into the much tougher British sector.
Kelly identifies Appear Here as a major competitor on the other side of the Irish Sea. The pop-up shop provider closed a $12 million series B round in May.
“They’re more like a hybrid estate agent,” Kelly says. “They’re doing really well.”
‘Experiential’ marketing
Popertee is riding on the so-called ‘experiential marketing’ wave, which it expects to continue growing over the coming years.
Kelly says marketing firms have begun to significantly increased their spending on the campaigns, a buzzword for Instagram-friendly PR stunts. She attributes that growth to changes in consumer appetites.
“When you look at online,” she says, “it’s about getting from A to B as quickly as possible and getting customers to take out their credit card and make a transaction. What’s lacking is an experience.”
A pop-up venue gives branding gurus the opportunity to give their clients a physical experience in high footfall areas, which Kelly says helps increase “loyalty with the brand”.
When asked about the company’s future plans, she says it is looking at revisiting its original Airbnb concept and extending its offering beyond traditional retail space.
“We believe in five years’ time that it’s not just about retail units or about warehouses,” she says.
“It’s almost going back to Airbnb but for business. But smart Airbnb where you rent out the side of a building or a spare room in town, or a window at the side of your shop. Brands and marketing agencies are looking for new types of spaces.”
For now, the startup is also looking to bulk up its advisory board.
“I think it’s important that we bring some really seasoned experts on board across retail, property, ad-tech,” she says. “We need to think about a chairman. They will help shape us in where we want to be.”
This article is part of a weekly series featuring Ireland’s most promising startups. If you would like to see your company featured email news@fora.ie.
Correction: An earlier version of this article said Daniel McCarthy was head of operations at Popertee. Joe Packenham is head of product and operations at the company.
Written by Conor McMahon and posted on Fora.ie
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Very hard decision made but was it the right one ? I personally would of voted no as to leave all them Irish people up the north without civil rights was shocking.
@Gerrard: very hard to say now how i would have acted at that time. To paraphrase Collins, the treaty would give us the freedom to achieve our ultimate freedom. Alas it didn’t work out that way but at that time i probably would have sided with that argument. It was a very hard decision with no clear correct answer.
@Gerrard: as the article says, everyone at that time felt partition was merely temporary so there was no sense of “leaving” anyone or of civil rights infringements at the time – these issues would not have been pertinent at that moment. The key battles were the relationship with the Crown and empire, and whether going back to an endless war of independence would be worth the death and destruction that would result. Personally I’d find it hard to say how I’d have voted, because I’d always be framing that decision with the benefit of knowing what happened, and from a peaceful country where the army aren’t going to burn me out of my house at the slightest pretext.
@Gerrard: I too would have voted No at the time, for not only the reason you mentioned about selling out the Northern people to an apartheid sectarian state, but for the bigger reason that it was certain to represent civil war.
For me, another war with Britain would have always been preferable to Irish people fighting themselves, and there was no guarantee Britain would have followed through on its threat anyway, as it had already conceded the moral principle of Irelands right to self determination before the world. The eyes of the world particularly the US were watching and I think there would have been enormous pressure on London to come up with a new revised Treaty, as opposed to war, as a response to a democratic rejection of the first one by the Irish.
That said, today I might find myself siding with Collins, but thats only because I know he was serious about moving on the North and was shortly before his death sending weapons north to IRA commanders there for the defence of nationalist communities, then under attack from the RUC and B-Specials of the sectarian state.
@Gerrard: I don’t know. What I do know is that I find it very difficult to take anyone who writes “would of” seriously. What does it even mean?
@Gerrard: I agree but as history tells us the debate was not about the North. If Dev hadn’t walked out and Griffith and Collins had lived then I think the Boundry Commission agreement would of worked out. Fighting amoung ourselves played right into British hands and so the Unionists were left to do what they liked up there for the next 50 years.
Looking forward to this. It will always be a topic for debate and discussion with hindsight and 100 year remove. For a small country we punched above our weight against the might of the British Empire. Collins did the very best he could for the treaty and indeed carried the house in the vote.
@Wicklow CCRO.Leinsterrugby: He certainly did his best and scraped a very thin majority from a very divided house and a more divided country.
Looking back a hundred year on, I feel Collins true leadership role, particularly his actions and intentions towards the north, has been whitewashed out of the story today for reasons of political convenience. This is particularly sad, given that it doesn’t do his memory true justice, not to mention it might also have some relevance to why he was shot and who might have had most to gain by that act.
Look for example, how quickly partition was accepted and the Boundary Commission was left fade away, after Collins had left the stage.
@Wicklow CCRO.Leinsterrugby: He certainly did his best and scraped a very thin majority from a very divided house and a more divided country.
Looking back a hundred year on, I feel Collins true leadership role, particularly his actions and intentions towards the north, has been whitewashed out of the story today for reasons of political convenience. This is particularly sad, given that it doesn’t do his memory true justice, not to mention it might also have some relevance to why he was shot and who might have had most to gain from that act.
Look for example, how quickly partition was accepted and the Boundary Commission was left fade away, after Collins had left the stage.
@Angela McCarthy: Collins was not in charge with the treaty talks with the UK ..Arthur Griffith was …
@Paul Hussey: A large majority of the country voted for pro treaty parties in the election 5 months later. Dail was divided. Country was not.
@Paul Hussey: and your point is Paul? I was referring to who had most influence selling the treaty.
@Billybutcher: and four years later the country or should I say (state) was divided again the election and by 1932 the electorate opted for an anti-treaty party.
Great idea for a show. Living history..
How they agreed an oath of allegiance to the monarch is beyond me.
@Munster1: ..its beyond what we think now ….but you have to put yourself in that time frame …a lot of people in ireland still held the queen as their figure head …there was a sizeable unionist minority in ireland …..you have to look at history from its time ….
@Paul Hussey: it was a King not Queen, and many working class protestants weren’t necessarily unionist in the sense of what we regard as unionist today.
The IRA had protestant members, just as some well off and upper middle class Catholics would have supported the crown discretely.
@Angela McCarthy: yes it was the king ……Victoria was gone …..not only as you say Upper class catholics liked the king ..a lot of the poor did to ..the strangest unionist belive came from the south of ireland .Carson was a dub .history is complex …..thats why we keep reviewing it…..
@Angela McCarthy: not only Upper class catholics a lot of the poor did to…the strongest unionist voice came from the South of ireland .Carson was a dub…your point on the king is correct ..
Brilliant programme. Well done to all. Should be used in schools as a teaching aid.
@Gerry Ashe: It was indeed a great show and I agree that it should be used in schools, starting with the teachers as this is an element of our history that was only available to people who went looking for it themselves.
I only hope that RTE continues to keep future shows like this in the time ahead as impartial as this one. My fear however, is that when we get into the nitty gritty of the civil war, our national broadcaster will revert back to the political self censorship of the past, particularly regarding Collins role in the sending of weapons north for the defence of nationalist communities, and his plans for dealing with partition once the southern state was stabilised. I wont be holding my breath on that one though!
This Programme showing reinacting the Treaty was truly excellent. Congrats to David & Sinead & everyone involved. If you failed to see it watch on RTE player. Whatever side you supported you cannot be disapointed. Recommend a further reinactment showing how Civil war ensued and concluded is recommended.
Collins was right when he said the Treaty gave us “The freedom to achieve freedom”. I would have followed Collins into the fires of hell if he asked. We were running out of guns, ammo and men, the British intelligence services had themselves embedded in the IRA by the end of the war. Mulcahy’s accommodation was raided twice in the last few months of the war. What Collins did was the best he could get for our country and our people and if he hadn’t been murdered by the Irregulars he’d have done great things for our country. The Cuban didn’t do much to end partition when he finally got the chance and ended up taking the same oath he caused a war over. I will always be Pro-Treaty
@Alec MácGrianna: I think we could do with less of the Hollywood version/myths of Irish history and instead deal with real facts. Most of what has been written about Collins here is true, but Collins was not a god and was very human, which meant he was as prone to the odd lie and exaggeration as everyone else when the occasion warranted it.
One big myth and exaggeration related to the state and strength of the IRA at the time. I cant speak for the IRA as a whole, but I do know that a number of Cork first brigade officers had just completed a Divisional tour and inspection of Munster units on July 11th 1921, the day the truce was announced, They reported that the volunteer movement in those areas was never so well, trained, equipped and ready for another round with the enemy, should the need arise. There had been a substantial procurement of arms and ammunition in the region from captured weapons from the enemy and from small-scale importation of weapons from abroad before the truce.
As I said, I cant speak for other areas, particularly the capital, but im sure Munster wasnt the only area that was ready and equipped for another round.
I think where I would differ with Collins approach, is, I dont think there was a need for him to lie or exaggerate the situation in order to strengthen his argument in favour of the Treaty, and Im assuming he was exaggerating, because if he wasnt, it would mean he didnt really have all the facts and information at his disposal at the time.
Im fairly sure that what was really bothering Collins at the time, was not so much that the Volunteers were out of ammunition and supplies, which they were not, but that if Lloyd was telling the truth regarding his threat of immediate war, is that such a war would have been of a new and different nature to anything the IRA had faced before, including aerial bombardments of civilian areas. Collins should have been upfront about that, but perhaps to admit as much would be to look weak and risk the charge that he had succumbed to the British Bully.
My own view, is that the Irish Delegation should have walked out of the room in Downing street the moment Lloyd George introduce the threat, and left it to the Irish people to decide the next move.
@Angela McCarthy: Sorry Angela, I think you misinterpreted my comment. I was stating my opinion, not looking for yours. I have a degree in Law and History, so precisely nothing of what I said was a “Hollywood myth”. If that is your assertion, then it is a good thing you weren’t around 100 years ago. What Collins did was completely and totally correct. Nowhere in the country was “ready and equipped” for another round. I suggest you do more research on the topic. Fin Dwyer of the Irish History Podcast has done a brilliant series on the War of Independence that might serve as a good starting point.
There was one amusing sketch in last nights show. It was the scene and exchange outside the chamber before the press between Eoin O’Duffy the future Fine Gael leader and head of the fascist Blue Shirt movement, and Cathal Brugha on the anti Treaty side.
It was somewhat entertaining to listen to the future political ally and admirer of Franco, Mussolini and Hitler come across as the more moderate one in the exchange.
@Angela McCarthy: Eoin O’Duffy was like his future party an Irish conservative who replaced British conservatives. When you consider Charlie Flanagan wishing to commerate the Black and Tans/ RIC , or Oliver J Flanagan entering the Dail in a fascist Blueshirt uniform…The apple did not fall far from the tree.
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