Meet The Team

Welcome to the colourful universe of Kollect. By skillfully juggling bins, skips and junk removal we create alternative waste solutions that give people more flexibility than ever. Kollect is a young Irish Start-up and our overall mission was "to create simple ways to collect and recycle waste, innovating customer service and creating consumer delight. We work really hard on creating simple ways to get customers' waste collected while innovating in customer service. This is a new modern era of startups akin to Uber, AirBnb, and Just Eat using contractors to perform the fulfilment and focusing on rapid customer acquisition. From the get-go we’ve wanted to change the waste industry, give freedom back to the people and offer alternative waste methods.

Our professional and outstanding ideas from our passionate teams makes us unique in every sense.

We feel pretty blessed that each day we can do what we love most. And that’s exactly the vibe we maintain within our office – a place with unconditional space for creativity, expression, reflection and having a good time.

Meet the Founders

John O’Connor, Robbie Skuse and John Hegarty – three wires in a plug. We won't say that John O'Connor is the live-wire and John Hegarty is the grounding earth wire with Robbie as the neutral in the middle because, well that wouldn’t be entirely accurate. What we will say is that without all three wires, the plug wouldn’t work, and someone would probably get a shock. All the plug does is switch the company on. It absolutely doesn’t work without a really good team inside it, and that’s exactly what we have. For a company that deals, almost predominantly in rubbish, you’d wonder where the passion and enthusiasm comes from each day but you’d need to see our team to believe it. Every day, without fail, it’s there.

John O'Connor
(CEO & Co-Founder)

CEO and Co-founder of Kollect. I have a business Degree from the University of Limerick and has 15 years’ experience as a founder and CEO running various start-up companies with online, retail and waste emphasis. I have extensive experience in the waste industry and has been the founder and CEO of two waste start-up companies, The BIGbin Company (2010) and now Kollect.ie (2016). Both of these companies have developed totally innovative and first-to-market B2C solutions and have created their own niches within the waste industry. BIGbin is the first waste drop-off company globally and has sites with Circle K and Centra stores. Both these businesses are driven by a vision to make it simple for people to get waste collected and recycled globally.

John Hegarty
(COO & Co-Founder)

John Hegarty is a qualified Sustainable Energy Engineer with extensive experience in operational roles. Up to 2009 he spent 5 years as an operations manager in a large law firm in Waterford city, managing 17 members of staff. After which, he spent 4 years as a self-employed energy assessor, carrying out hundreds of building assessments throughout Ireland. At this time, keen to develop his sectoral skills, while also self-employed, John went back to college, completing a degree in Sustainable Energy Engineering, with first class honours. After meeting John O’Connor and Robbie Skuse, they collectively started a home cleaning platform called upChore before they formed Kollect. John has spent the last three and a half years working in the Waste sector supporting the set up and management of a number of new verticals, helping to lead their aggressive growth strategies. John has extensive knowledge of the waste sector, particularly the logistical aspects of the business.

Robbie Skuse
(CIO & Co-Founder)

Head of Business Development and Co-Founder. I graduated from Business Information Systems in UCC. I went straight into start-ups once graduating and have never looked back. I love the challenges and learning that come with growing a business. Myself and John O’C can often be seen have morning meetings running around Tramore, or myself and John H discussing strategy on the P&P course in Tramore after work. It's what makes us a great co-founding team, we’re always switched on even when we’re trying to switch off. Robbie was 2nd runner up in Ireland Best Young Entrepreneur Competition 2018. Robbie sits on the board of Start-up Waterford for his involvement with the start-up scene and is twice listed in Ireland's 30 under 30.