A changed tech landscape in 2023
Issue 1 - Jan 1st-15th: A slow start to the year as companies much like people emerge from a Q4 slumber
Welcome to Issue 1 of 2023 for “The Land of Saints, Scholars, and Techies”
A new year brings new beginnings and you will notice some changes in this newsletter. I hope you continue to enjoy and get value from it and may share it with your network. Check out below some of what you might missed kicking off the year.
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Top Stories
Layoffs: 📉
The tech market is still suffering to begin 2023 with a number of high profile companies announcing layoffs. We saw Amazon, Salesforce, Coinbase and Informatica announce they would be making cuts. While Irish jobs seem to be somewhat insulated for the most part it suggests that 2023 will be a slower market at the top with that trickling down through the ecosystem slowing some companies and providing opportunities for others.
Predicting 2023: 🔮
As is common to kick off a new year we saw a number of pieces discussing the wider tech ecosystem and looking to predict what will happen in the industry from companies experiencing downrounds, what opportunities may be present and wider predictions across tech. What is clear from it all that the good times are over and there is a new reality facing tech. Some companies will thrive and emerge while many will be left looking silly.
Start-ups to watch: 🔭
There was some positivity as we got a profile of Irish start-ups to watch in 2023. The companies profiled are at various stages of maturity and cover a huge variety of offerings and industry focus. What is positive to see is the number of companies and the increasingly global solutions emerging here with the potential for massive growth. Hopefully, we will be seeing much more of many of these companies across 2023.
Funding & Exits
HR Duo Series A €4.5 million Link
HRLocker Preseed/Seed €2 million Link
Swrve Acquired Link
BeyondBMI Preseed €525k Link
Interesting Stories:
ChatGPT:
The emergence of ChatGPT and the momentum behind it is the big story kicking off 2023. ChatGPT is a large language model (LLM). Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained with massive amounts of data to accurately predict what word comes next in a sentence. Try it out here.
Some of the discussion of it is fascinating to think about its applications in various jobs and industries as well as the impact on academics and beyond.
From a business and economics perspective it is intriguing to try and understand how the relationship between OpenAI the company behind ChatCPT and Microsoft could fundamentally shift the big tech landscape. Will Microsoft establish even more of a strangle hold and start chipping away at their rivals too?
Would love to hear some thoughts on how ChatGPT will evolve and be adopted in work and elsewhere.
Job Announcements
If you have any feedback on the newsletter please reach out in comments, email, or chat as I am only at the start of this journey and all ears on how I can improve.
My Story and The Land’s Background
👋 To quickly introduce myself to anyone new … My name is Seán. I am in my late 20s, born and raised largely in Dublin so apologies if my capital bias may sometimes show up.
I work in a start-up within the tech industry and believe that the Irish ecosystem is a dynamic one for a small country. With COVID and too much time on my hands, I decided to create this newsletter to capture the biggest stories and provide some commentary and thoughts of my own.
Thank you for taking some time out of your busy lives to read!
💬 Contact me: thelandsst@gmail.com
🤝 Want to be friends then connect with me on LinkedIn
Cheers,
Seán