Our guest in this episode of Ace Founder is Adrian Sweeney, founder of Libertas Software.
Adrian has been coding since he was eight years old. After 26 years in the industry, he’s built everything from content management systems for government departments in Dublin to billing platforms for law firms—and now runs a custom software consultancy that helps businesses identify and eliminate processes that quietly drain their time and money.
This week we get into the story behind Libertas Software, why Adrian believes AI is the ultimate force multiplier for small businesses, and why the biggest mistake founders make with custom software is not knowing what pain point they’re actually trying to solve.
📚 What We Talk About:
01:45 Why sales is the one thing nobody warns founders about
04:12 From Internet Explorer 3 to building government websites in Dublin — how it all started
14:30 The story behind the name — and what Libertas actually means
19:00 What Libertas Software does — and how to know if you actually need custom software
27:15 Why Adrian always asks “who in the company will be against this?” before building anything
31:00 The billing system that turned a lawyer with a quill into a software champion
42:00 How AI helped him build a quarter million lines of code in three months
49:30 Why you should never let AI run blindly — and how Adrian uses it as a pair programmer
💭 Key Quotes:
“If you don’t recognise the pain point, the cost of fixing it will never seem like value.”
“AI is a force multiplier. That’s all it is. Don’t use it to replace people — use it to make your people do more.”
“Don’t accept what AI gives you. Read every paragraph. Review every line. It’s a draft. An alpha draft.”
“Who in the company will be against this new system? Go make them the stakeholder.”
“Time is the most expensive thing in the world. There’s only a finite amount of it and it runs out fast.”
🔗 Resources & Links Mentioned:
