3 days ago
Homeless entrepreneur Sean builds babywear business inspired by daughter's eczema condition
It's not your average route to market: from living out of a car to starting your own business while in emergency accommodation. But that's the journey undertaken by one young homeless entrepreneur, inspired by his one-year-old daughter's health issues.
Sean Fox has come through addiction, health scares, and homelessness in the past few years, so launching a start-up on a second-hand laptop is just another chapter. He has plans to move his online business into markets in Dublin and Cork.
Goosey Goo, created with his partner Clodagh Kelly, sells organic hypoallergenic clothing for infants, clocking up almost €2,000 in sales since its inception last month, no mean feat for a business created on a battered second-hand laptop. The company is already in talks about linking up with a prominent Irish investor.
All that would have seemed in a different world not so long ago for 26-year-old Sean, who hails from Finglas in Dublin, who stumbled his way through the education system. 'I failed my junior cert and then I got about 250 points in my Leaving Cert. I studied computers in Blanchardstown IT, but never completed it," said Sean.
'I went on undiagnosed with ADHD and found it hard to stick to things that didn't pique my interest. I fell into drug addiction on and off from the time I left school. Cocaine abuse and alcohol abuse were filling a void. I felt like I was lost and without purpose.
Sean Fox with his partner Clodagh and their daughter Eabha. Photograph Moya Nolan
"I had a bad relationship with my father growing up. He was a drug addict himself and that was my whole life in my teenage years. He'd pick me up on a Friday to bring me over to his place but it was always be a thing where he'd end up on the session and but I'd be left crying at the window every weekend.
'I think all of that had a part to play in where I found myself. You know, I went out looking for love through the street. I didn't always find it at home, so I looked elsewhere. I end up finding other things, and falling into addiction.'
The negative spiral saw Sean 'going in and out of jobs' for seven or eight years. 'I went back to college a second time during covid; I studied automotive management and technology in Bolton St. I did that for two years before I dropped out. With cocaine, I'd have about six months and let me life get turn to ruin, then get back on my feet and get a job then would end up falling off again.'
Two events got Sean on the road to recovery: meeting partner Clodagh, and the death of his father.
'When my father passed away about three years ago, I got myself back on the straight and narrow. I started going to NA meetings and started to get my head together.' Meeting Clodagh brought another positive into his life. By the time they found out Clodagh was pregnant with baby Eabha, Sean was already started on his journey of recovery, settled and was working as a service advisor for a national car firm. 'I had worked hard, and then I got an offer to work as a service advisor across the city with better money and. It was a dream.' Eabha was born in July 2023, and life was looking up, when fate too another twist.
A trip to the dentist saw a sore on his lip misdiagnosed as a squamous cell carcinoma. It turned out to be benign but when Sean told his employer he believed he had oral cancer, he was still on probation in his job. He was let go days later.
The young couple, with baby in tow, now had no income and had to leave their accommodation.
'I come from a big family, so there was no space for us in my mother's house in Finglas. We ended up sleeping out of the car, and my Ma would take the baby at night, and we'd call to her during the day.
'I was sacked at start of January 2024, and in mid February we got emergency accommodation, in a converted hotel. We were then moved to an old Magdalene laundry, where my grandmother had been 56 years before.'
Eabha had developed eczema, which was another worry. 'It was severe. It was literally head to toe and we'd be wake in the morning, and she'd be scratching her neck. 'When your child has a skin condition you are cutting back all your other spending about 20% for medications and for different skincare products. And like us, when Eabha was raw head to toe, you need specific clothing. Bamboo clothing is realy soft to the touch and children don't sweat as much. But it was expensive, it could cost €30 a piece,' said Sean.
'The friendships we had in homeless accommodation helps get you through, and one evenig we were sitting down with a few of those friends having dinner, when Clodagh saw bamboo clothing could be purchased online.
'The cogs started turning in my head,' said Sean. 'Why don't we sell our own clothing? I just started working from my old laptop.
Sean Fox's Goosey Goo baby clothing orders ready for postage.
'I have no background in business. I started getting in contact with suppliers,. It was literally me and Clodagh paying our social welfare to pay for the samples. I put everything into it, this became like a drug to me."
The business needed a name. 'Sometimes we'd call baby Eabha our little 'Goose' so we said what about Goosey Goo?'
Sean created a goose design emblem and started putting together a business plan. He enrolled in the Enterprise Ireland New Frontiers national entrepreneur development programme, which supports start-ups in Ireland. One of his mentors there was Dr Colin Keogh, a leader in the Irish start-up space, and a specialist in commericalisation, who helps companies and entrepreneurs to bring research and ideas to reality. 'I deliver a lot of content on those courses around the country teaching and training entrpreneurs on building companies. Sean told me his story fully, and that sort of honesty is quite rare in the start up space. It was so impressive,' said Mr Keogh.
Building the brand has taken on a life of its own in the year since. Sean sourced a supplier in China who could supply Ecotech standard 100 FSC-certified organic bamboo, hypoallergenic and antibacterial. Bamboo keeps the skin about two degrees cooler than cotton. The babywear prints are designed in Ireland, manufactured in China.
The Goosey Goo website is up and running, with babygrows selling for €15.
'We are solving affordability of organic materials for children who suffer from severe skin conditions,' said Sean.
Last February, Clodagh was attacked by a service user at the homeless accommodation the family were using, so the family were moved to a new emergency accommodation flat across Dublin city. That's now serving as HQ for Goosey Goo, which was incorporated as a business in April, with the first products ready for market. 'It's my office, my fulfillment centre, team meet-up spot, everything,' said Sean.
Clodagh acts as the eyes and ears of the business, the creative director and company secretary. Nicola, who the couple described as their 'homeless mum' in their previous accommodation, previously worked in corporate travel before she found herself and her family homeless. She is now acting as operations director for Goosey Goo. The company even has a young marketing professional on board. 'Alan has just finished his degree in marketing and communication so is jumping on board to gain experience with social media and website marketing,' said Sean.
Dr Colin Keogh and Goosey Goo founder Sean Fox speaking to students at the ID8 hub in Dublin.
The website is live and the company has sold almost €2,000 of babywear since April. Sean is now looking at the next step in the company's development. 'I'm looking at getting into the Herbert Park market and the St Anne's Park market in Dublin, and I'd like to go down into Cork's Marina Market, which has a huge footfall,' said Sean.
'I'm hoping to do 500 units a month. That might drop off in summer, but should pick up again towards the winter.'
This week, Sean was a guest speaker for third level students at the ID8 innovation hub in Dublin who are looking at becoming innovators themselves. He has also held discussions with an angel investor interested in taking a stake in the company. 'That would be a gamechanger but we don't have a valuation yet. I've worked so hard to set up this up, I don't want to give it away,' said Sean.
Colin Keogh works with entrepreneurs and business leaders of the future every day, at Trinity, UCD, and other institutions around the country. He doesn't hold back in his praise for Sean. 'I've been in the start-up space for 10 or 15 years, I've started seven or eight companies and I have been involved in 40 or 50 others. I've seen some companies fail, lots of companies grow. Sean's dedication is unmatched, despite the fact he had less resources and much more precarious life situation.
'Goosey Goo has found a massive need. I have an 18-month old so I am aware of the cost, particularly for people that can't afford expensive clothing.
"This isn't going to be Sean's only company because he has that bug now that he knows what is possible.
'There's lots of entrepreneurs, a handful may have once been homeless, but to be actively homeless setting up a business, Sean is a one in a million.'
