Dan O'Toole
Vice President
Dan joined Eight Roads from Notion Capital. He spends his time working on investment opportunities in enterprise software and FinTech.

What motivates you?

The continuous learning which this job facilitates along with the opportunity to work with passionate founders shaping the future of the enterprise and how we work.

What’s been the steepest learning curve on your career journey so far?

My first role as a product manager involved launching a FinTech product to 25,000 customers at Travelex. It was a very steep learning curve which gave me even more respect for entrepreneurs and the breadth of challenges they face on a daily basis.

Which Europe tech trend are you most excited about at the moment and why?

I’m spending a lot of time on vertical SaaS solutions at the moment, there are a swathe of industries which have had very little benefit from the technology advances we have made over the last 20 years. They tend not to attract the most headlines, but massive European software companies will be built across construction, insurance, real estate etc.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Sadly, not delivered to be me personally, but Jeff Bezos’ Regret Minimisation Framework has always struck a chord. Project forward to age 80 and ask yourself will you regret making a particular decision. In his case, it was whether to start Amazon or not but it works across all sorts of decisions that life throws up. 

What is the company you wish you’d backed and why?

Stripe: effectively a tax on the digital economy. The Collison brothers made something extremely complex, incredibly simple and they continue to reap the rewards!