New IF director encourages NI entrepreneurs to take first steps

The new centre director at Innovation Factory (IF) in Belfast is using his tech skills and entrepreneurial experience to encourage new businesses to take their first steps forward.

Former Apple employee and rock band tour manager, Neil Allen, has taken up the top job at IF on the Springfield Road and he sees it as the team’s mission to encourage and support innovation leading to economic growth in his home city.

“Fear is one of the main reasons that people don’t start a new business. We want to give people the courage to make that leap by offering the sound advice and support that they need, whether that’s financing, sales and marketing, product development, networking or whatever is required. We have a genuine open-door policy,” he said.

Innovation Factory, which is owned by Belfast City Council and operated on their behalf by Oxford Innovation, has just launched a new series of videos titled What If. Each video focuses on the story of a successful business from the centre highlighting the challenges and how each team grew their companies.

“It’s important to hear first-hand how businesses saw a potential idea, developed it and took it to market. People assume they will be on their own but there is so much knowledge that can be shared within IF, both from our team and also from the other successful businesses,” he continued.

Neil began his career with Apple and was part of the implementation and learning development team within new stores in the UK training groups of 50 to 100 people. Based in Belfast, he played a vital role in the opening of Glasgow, Aberdeen and Newcastle stores.

He dreamed of turning his passion for music into a business and started Four Acre Music, a touring and production management company looking after all the logistics for bands on tour.

“I loved running my own business and working with creative people but I missed being in a high-tech atmosphere so in 2018 I went to WeWork in Dublin and was one of their first employees. The growth of that company was so fast and it gave me the opportunity to work with some of the big tech companies like Tik Tok, Pinterest, Facebook and EY,” he explained.

Last year he decided it was time to return to Belfast and took a job with Catalyst as their senior communication manager before taking the helm at IF.

He added that the success of IF is down to the team and the wider Oxford Innovation family.

“We are committed to supporting and developing the community,” he added.

“It’s an exciting time for IF. We are part of a wider ecosystem as one of 27 sites in the Oxford Innovation family in the UK and another on the way in Dublin. It means we can tap into all that experience and contacts to help our clients grow.”

The £9.1m business hub was funded by Belfast City Council and Invest NI with support from the European Regional Development Fund.