In 2015, Conor O’Flaherty (now 18) made a pitch to his parents as to why he should drop out of school in Galway and work on Pursue, his agency for online influencers. Since then he hasn’t looked back. “Influencers are personalities who create content or let’s say that they express themselves on the internet,” he explains. “They might film themselves going to town or they might film their Leaving Cert holiday or a make-up tutorial. O’Flaherty pairs up online influencers with brands they are passionate about who then promote that product or brand to their thousands of followers on social media channels including Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. He says he helps to “refine” their personalities and that with a bit of hard work, an influencer could earn €100,000-€150, 000 a year. Now he’s living in Dublin and working on Pursue with five global brands, including the beauty brand Laneige and the marketing company OmniCom Group. In 2017 he’ll continue working on Pursue and will expand on an earlier business called Centus, an agency for influencers within the travel industry