Diarmuid McSweeney and Lorraine Heskin join Gary Fox
What the show is
Rooftop Twenty Two is hosting The View from Twenty Two, a two-part event run in collaboration with Gary Fox. Each one brings entrepreneurs and brand founders into the room to talk about how they actually built what they’ve built. This is Episode 01, in October. Episode 02 follows in November, and we’ll share the date and guests soon.
About this episode
Gary Fox sits down with Diarmuid McSweeney, co-founder of Gym+Coffee, and Lorraine Heskin, founder of Gourmet Food Parlour, for a conversation about the businesses they built and the brands that carry them. Expect the early decisions that shaped each company and the thinking behind the brand itself. The parts of building a business that rarely make it into a pitch deck.
Gary built his name doing exactly this on The Entrepreneur Experiment, and Episode 01 follows the same approach. One on one, direct, and focused on how these two founders actually make decisions day to day.
Your host
Gary Fox
Presenter
Gary Fox hosts The Entrepreneur Experiment, Ireland’s top-ranked independent business podcast, and has interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs about the habits and decisions behind their success. Before podcasting, he founded the short-term rental management company HostButlers, taught brand strategy as a marketing lecturer at Dublin Business School, and worked in brand solutions at AdRoll before starting the video platform VideoScamp. Across the two episodes of The View from Twenty Two, he sits down with founders to get into the real story behind their business and their brand.
Your guests
Diarmuid McSweeney
Co-Founder, Gym+Coffee
Diarmuid McSweeney co-founded Gym+Coffee in 2017 alongside Niall Horgan and Karl Swaine, and today serves as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Community Officer. The idea came out of the active, outdoor lifestyle the three picked up while travelling in Australia and California, and the brand has grown into one of Ireland’s fastest-growing apparel labels, with stores in Dublin, Cork and Limerick and a growing customer base in the UK and US.
Lorraine Heskin
Founder & CEO, Gourmet Food Parlour
Lorraine Heskin studied at the University of Limerick and spent several years working in the food industry in New York before founding Gourmet Food Parlour in 2006, opening a 25-seat café in Dún Laoghaire. Under her leadership, the group has grown into one of Dublin’s best-known restaurant businesses, with 12 locations across Dublin, Meath and Galway, several concepts inside Arnotts, and a catering arm that works with organisations including the FAI, Shamrock Rovers and the Olympic Federation of Ireland. She was an EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist in 2023 and was later named CEO of the Year at the Business Post Leadership and Excellence Awards.
What to expect
On arrival there will be tea, coffee and catering supplied by our good friends in Gourmet Food Parlour, with time to talk before Gary takes the stage and again once the conversation wraps.
Want to be there?
Register your interest.
Thursday 8 October, 11am. In person at DCU Innovate Hub.
We’re keeping the room small so it stays a proper conversation, which means places are limited. Put your name down below. That doesn’t hold a seat just yet. We’ll go through the list and email you to confirm your place, along with everything you need on the day.