Corlytics CEO, John Byrne, on his journey and what it takes to be an entrepreneur

As part of Bdaily’s feature week looking into entrepreneurship, I hear from John Byrne, the CEO and founder of Dublin headquartered Corlytics. Corlytics today, automates and solves the problem of updating, managing and implementing regulations for firms in a highly regulated business that operate globally.

John told me the Corlytics mission is to, “manage the entire regulatory value chain. We help our clients achieve a better standard of compliance with their regulators and regulations by offering accurate and timely regulatory updates, assisting with analysing the impact of regulatory changes, following through with updated and evidence-based policies.”

Corlytics was founded at the beginning of 2014 in response to a need John noticed at his previous company that set up a regulated subsidiary. John said, “There was a need to automate and prioritise the most important regulatory notices to various stakeholders in a regulated firm.”

Corlytics was started in a university campus centre for entrepreneurs, with a diverse team of legal analysts and data scientists. They began building a global taxonomy (data structure for regulations) and by 2016 a number of leading regulators such as the FCA (The Financial Conduct Authority) were clients.

During the early founding of the firm, Corlytics obtained early-stage funding and some research grants. With this support, they then set up a UK office in 2017 and went selling to global banks. By the end of 2021, they had over 10 global banks as clients.

Since then, they have steadily grown their value proposition to include regulatory monitoring and change management, regulatory risk assessment and a digital regulatory library.

In 2023 Corlytics made two acquisitions, ING’s policy management solution and Clausematch. Clausematch is a strategic acquisition that gives the merged company market leadership in the global banking market.

With Corlytics clearly on a trajectory of growth, I was keen to find out what advice John had for would-be-entrepreneurs. He said that, “this is the fourth Company that I have set up. I have been an entrepreneur all my working life.

“Entrepreneurship is about three things, in my opinion: have a vision that significantly benefits and improves a target market, create enthusiasm around the vision, be resilient, learn from mistakes/initial failures and make improvements along the way in order to make the vision happen.

“It is a very lonely journey to stay resilient so I have a network of other entrepreneurs, mentors to test ideas on. While a vision is important, it needs to be tested with hard data and evidence and adjust your plans in the face of hard evidence.”

John has such a clear understanding of what it takes to become an entrepreneur, I was eager to find out if any entrepreneurial figures inspired him. He said, “Michael O’Leary the CEO of the airline Ryanair.

“He’s often seen as a very controversial, abrasive figure with no time for those who don’t see eye to eye with him, but he has had phenomenal success with innovative thinking, agile decision-making, and a willingness to challenge norms, or generally shake up the business and operating environment.

“His ability to transform a small regional airline into a major player in the aviation industry has been nothing short of phenomenal. He pioneered ultra-low-cost air travel, reshaping the industry and compelling competitors to adapt.

“He Identified untapped markets and secondary airports greatly expanding Ryanair’s network. I think the business world continues to watch this man and wonder what his next move will be and how controversial, yet successful it will prove to be.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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