# EE502 - How He Turned 173 Salon Conversations Into a Startup That Raised €4.9M | Conor Moules

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-entrepreneur-experiment-1063847/ee502-how-he-turned-173-salon-conversations-into-a-startup-that-raised-4-9m-conor-moules
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-entrepreneur-experiment-1063847/ee502-how-he-turned-173-salon-conversations-into-a-startup-that-raised-4-9m-conor-moules.md
Podcast: [The Entrepreneur Experiment](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-entrepreneur-experiment-1063847)
Published: 2026-05-28T04:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://episode.flightcast.com/01KSFVXX41R82EK24WW2TRY834.mp3
Audio file: https://episode.flightcast.com/01KSFVXX41R82EK24WW2TRY834.mp3
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Duration seconds: 5598

## Resource

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 Notes In 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 Co…

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