TCD�s student entrepreneur on message

Liam Ryan hasn’t even graduated, but already he is CEO of his own company, with a staff of three. The 21-year-old from Kilkenny is a shining example of how a student’s ambitions should not be restricted by a narrow interpretation of where any particular degree programme may lead.

Liam is currently in the final year of his Civil Structural and Environmental Engineering degree in Trinity College Dublin (TCD).
But he has already made his mark with a winning business idea that reminds women to take their contraceptive pill, through a daily text alert, with plans to expand and offer a similar daily messaging system for other medicines

TCD was Liam’s second CAO choice but now he “loves Trinity to bits.

“Everything I have learned here is a huge strength to me. I don’t think I would be in the position I am in now, without that course”.

It was modules in business and management that helped Liam tap into his entrepreneurial talent. It was a chance conversation with his GP sister in 2009 that prompted Liam to think about a simple way to remind women to take their pill.

His idea firmed up after a survey found that 64pc of female students forgot to take their pill at least once every cycle while 15pc miss their pill more than three times in any one cycle.

Last September, Liam set up safetext.ie with fellow student, Chris Rooney, who has taken time out of his business and law studies at UCD, to concentrate on the marketing side of the formal launch of the service next month

Safetext.ie has already won an Eircom Golden Spider award for internet and web innovation, and has received support from South Dublin Enterprise Board.