EE502 - How He Turned 173 Salon Conversations Into a Startup That Raised €4.9M | Conor Moules
Shownotes
In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with Conor Moules, founder and CEO of Barespace, the company building a true operating system for hair and beauty salons.
Conor’s journey is anything but traditional. He left school at 16 to become a hairdresser, moved to Australia during the recession, found his way into door-to-door sales, then business intelligence, location intelligence, and eventually the Irish startup world through Bamboo. After helping turn Bamboo around during Covid, Conor used that hard-earned reputation to unlock the next chapter: Barespace.
What started as a deep understanding of salon life has become a fast-growing software company solving one of the industry’s biggest problems: salon owners are expected to be creative experts, managers, marketers, employers, finance teams and operators - all while still working on the floor. Barespace was built to change that.
In this conversation, Conor shares how he and co-founder Glenn Baker profiled 173 salons, raised €750,000 from the very customers they wanted to serve, and went on to raise almost €4.9 million in total. This is a story about resilience, customer obsession, reputation, and what happens when you build with the industry, not just for it.
Show NotesIn this episode, we cover:
🔥 Why Conor left school at 16 and started out as a hairdresser in Peter Mark
💬 The unexpected lessons hairdressing taught him about listening, trust and human connection
🇦🇺 Moving to Australia during the recession and finding his feet in door-to-door sales
📊 How business intelligence and location data opened his eyes to the power of systems
🚀 The chance meeting with Luke Mackey that brought Conor into Bamboo
🧱 Why rebuilding Bamboo during Covid became the proving ground for Barespace
💡 The problem Conor and Glenn saw inside hair and beauty salons
✂️ Why salon owners are often expected to run the business and be the best person on the floor
🧾 How marketplaces can damage salon margins and weaken customer ownership
🔍 Why they profiled 173 salons before building the product
💰 How Barespace raised €750,000 from salon owners when traditional fundraising wasn’t working
📈 Processing €4.7 million in turnover in year one and growing from there
🧠 Why Conor believes founders need to ask for help earlier
🌙 The role of visualisation, daydreaming and belief in building a company
🔑 Why reputation, patience and obsession can become a founder’s greatest assets
“The mission was never to get rich out of Bamboo. It was to unlock the gates to be able to walk in with Barespace.” - Conor Moules
Links & Resources- Barespace — the operating system for salons and barbers: barespace.io (https://barespace.io/)
- Enterprise Ireland — mentioned as part of the Barespace funding journey: enterprise-ireland.com (https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/)
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