Toast Talks

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#8 'Why culture beats systems' with William McColgan, McColgan's Quality Foods | Toast Talks

2026-10-0454:11

He spent two decades abroad. He came home, bought the family business with his sister, and walked straight into a perfect storm. On this episode of Toast Talks, Michael sits down with William McColgan, co-owner of McColgan's Quality Foods in Strabane. William's path runs from Strabane Grammar to Heriot-Watt, then Mercer in Dublin, Stuttgart and Frankfurt, then Philadelphia and a Wharton MBA. In 2020 he brought his family home. In 2022 the purchase of the business completed. Then came war in...

7: 'Why not me?' with Life Cell NI's Catherine King | Toast Talks

2026-08-0322:41

Catherine King founded LifeCells NI - Northern Ireland's first licensed stem cell biobank - during the Pandemic. In this episode she sits down with us to talk through the whole journey: the idea she first had back in 2015, why COVID convinced her to go again, and how she raised £590,000 in pre-seed to bring it to life. We get into the hard parts too. The investor no's that don't mean no. Learning to speak the language of cash flow and cap tables when your world is cells and science. The hard...

6: Rolling with the Punches with SmartPay NI's Marc McLaughlin

2026-04-3029:39

In this episode, we sit down with Marc McLaughlin, Sales Director at Smart Pay NI, a local payment services provider punching well above its weight against global giants. Marc takes us behind the scenes of a business that started with two people in a small room in 2017 and has grown into a team of 20, with customers across Ireland, England, and beyond. He shares the raw truth about the first four years of grinding before things really took off post-COVID, why door-to-door sales never goes ou...

5: How you do anything is how you do everything with Nathan Sno from food story media

2026-03-2357:14

Today's guest is Nathan Snow. He's the founder and CEO of Food Story Media, a content and marketing agency operating exclusively in the food, drink and hospitality sector. He spent a decade as a professional chef from cafes in Paris to two and three-step Michelin star kitchens in London, including Morgan mc Claire Smith, Gordon Ramsey's, former right hand. Food store media has grown. Its Instagram following to over 330,000 with one to 3 million monthly views all entirely organically. T...

4: The Business of Hospitality with Paul Catterson of Orto Pizza

2026-02-2601:11:54

Chef and restaurateur Paul Catterson joins us for episode #4 of Toast Talks. We learn about his path from growing up in Donegal to nine years in London’s high-pressure kitchens, where he learned large-scale service, management, and financial discipline. He explains returning to Ireland, eventually going independent with a food truck business, markets, festivals, and working with major brands abroad. We then learn how those experiences led to opening Tribal Burger in Belfast, navigating COVID...

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