Video: ‘Net Visionary’ Mark Little explains The Vision Thing

Mark Little was an inspiring winner of the Dot IE Net Visionary Award on Friday night. There’s been a lot positive comment on the video of his speech, and that of IIA CEO Joan Mulvihill.

Afterwards he gave an interview to Technology.ie. I reminded him that, when he founded Storyful, nobody knew what a “social media news agency” was. Being a visionary, he says, is “a fine balance”.

“I think you always have to be just far enough ahead of your partners and the general market, to be different, to be almost misunderstood. But never too far, that you can’t lead people to that destination.”

It’s a noisy environment as the after-party gets underway (and there’s some funky mood lighting), but the insight is true. Being an entrepreneur leaves its scars, he says, but he drew inspiration from the trust of employees, investors and friends. As a dad, he recognises the feeling: being the founder of a startup is “the closest thing to parenthood”.

Technology.ie is brought to you by Blacknight, Ireland’s number one provider of domain names and hosting.

Related articles

• Video: Storyful’s Mark Little Accepts the 2014 Net Visionary Award
• Silicon Republic CEO Ann O’Dea wins IIA award for outstanding contribution
• Storyful’s Aine Kerr is an Honest Broker for User Generated Content [Audio]
• And The Winner Is .. #netvis2014