The board of Ireland\u2019s biggest online grinds company has resigned following a power struggle involving emergency shareholder meetings and the suspension of its chief executive and co-founder. <\/p>\n
Since being formed in 2023, Grinds 360 has shaken up the market and brought in millions in revenue from more than 30,000 secondary school students. <\/p>\n
The business\u2019s shareholders include rugby stars past and present Brian O\u2019Driscoll<\/a> and Caelan Doris<\/a>. <\/p>\n The Irish Times has established that Brendan Kavanagh, the educational-technology entrepreneur who runs the Olive Group<\/a> of companies, last month resigned as chairman and director of the grinds company he cofounded with teacher Ronan Murdock. His resignation, along with those of three other directors, follows an agreement that will allow Murdock to take control of the company and run it independently from the Olive Group. <\/p>\n The agreement came weeks after directors suspended Murdock from his role as chief executive.<\/p>\n The teacher and the ed-tech entrepreneur <\/p>\n At first, it looked like the perfect combination. Murdock (42) was an entrepreneurially minded business, economics and Irish teacher at the Institute of Education<\/a>, a school and grinds provider on Leeson Street, Dublin.<\/p>\n He told The Irish Times in 2014 that he made money in school by allowing friends, including Love\/Hate actor Peter Coonan, to punch him in the head in return for money. Coonan would later become an investor in Grinds 360, the business created when Murdock was introduced to Kavanagh through contacts in Cuala GAA club in Dalkey, south Dublin.<\/p>\n Wicklow-based Kavanagh (61) built the Olive Group out of a health and safety training company. Olive employs production staff in Nepal and India who create the technology platforms though which many of the Olive companies deliver their services. These include a sports club management app used by Kilkenny GAA.<\/p>\n Olive for Education, another Kavanagh business, supplies one-to-one laptops and tablets to students in 80 secondary schools around the country. <\/p>\n Although Kavanagh previously said he believed university is \u201cfor slow learners\u201d, he has been evangelical in promoting video as the optimal method for delivering teaching.<\/p>\n The Split<\/p>\n Since its launch in 2024, Grinds 360 has shaken up the grinds market by recruiting some high-profile teachers and attracting tens of thousands of subscribers. Students pay \u20ac1,099 for a subscription that covers all Leaving Certificate<\/a> courses.<\/p>\n Investors such as Brian O\u2019Driscoll, who spoke in a video promoting its services, and Caelan Doris, helped garner media attention, and the business was endorsed by Kevin Marshall, the head of education at Microsoft Ireland.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s last financial returns showed that Kavanagh and Murdock had 21.5 per cent of shares each. Kieran Mills, a co-founding teacher and the company\u2019s director of digital learning, had 6.28 per cent. <\/p>\n [\u00a0Tech entrepreneur Brendan Kavanagh\u2019s charity faces strike-off for failing to file accountsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n ODM and Promotions, O\u2019Driscoll\u2019s company, had 2.8 per cent, the same as Sean Cunningham, O\u2019Driscoll\u2019s friend who owns the Brass Monkey bar in New York and who invests in many of the same projects as the former Ireland and Lions captain. <\/p>\n Shane Glynn, a businessman with an address in Italy, owned more than 5.3 per cent.<\/p>\n The breakdown of the relationship between the co-founders is understood to be rooted in concerns raised by Murdock about the amount of expenditure the grinds company would have to pay Kavanagh\u2019s Olive companies in the future. <\/p>\n Public filings show almost \u20ac4 million was paid by My Grinds 360 Ltd to Olive companies in its first two years of trading. The majority, some \u20ac3.55 million, was paid to Olive Media Solutions UK for software and a digital content library. <\/p>\n Sources involved with the company said there were concerns that despite the success in attracting some 7,000 current subscribers, the company has struggled to pay its suppliers. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a cash-rich business but we\u2019ve been regularly embarrassed by suppliers who had to chase us to get paid,\u201d said one company source.<\/p>\n Grinds 360 reported accumulated losses of \u20ac1.19 million<\/a> in the year up to the end of August 2025, but since published a statement that said its revenue grew from \u20ac1.85 million in 2025 to \u20ac5.3 million for the following year.<\/p>\n On August 24th, Murdock emailed all 30-plus shareholders to call a meeting to discuss the company\u2019s \u201cexceptional performance\u201d and how there was \u201ca need for greater governance across the business from board controls, finances and performances\u201d.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s board consisted of Murdock alongside Kavanagh and two Olive executives: Dara Coyne and Simon Cosgrove. At the August 28th meeting, investors were told that Richard O\u2019Halloran had joined as an \u201cindependent director\u201d. O\u2019Halloran is better known as the aviation executive who was detained in China for three years over a row involving an aircraft leasing company that predated his joining the firm.<\/p>\n Late August and September are the company\u2019s busiest weeks for new business as students take out subscriptions for the academic year. Sources in the company said Murdock was concerned about how much of that revenue would be paid to Olive companies. He arranged to restrict payments from the company\u2019s bank account while he reviewed the commercial arrangements with Olive companies.<\/p>\n This prompted Kavanagh and the Grinds 360 board to take action against Murdock. Kieran Mills, a co-founding teacher and manager of the company, emailed shareholders on September 8th with an \u201curgent notification\u201d to inform them that Murdock was suspended as CEO by the board that morning.<\/p>\n \u201cThe teaching and administrative staff in the Grinds 360 office were visibly distressed on hearing this news,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n Mills called an \u201cemergency update\u201d meeting with shareholders on September 9th. Sources say Murdock disputed the legitimacy of his suspension.<\/p>\n Murdock had engaged McCann Fitzgerald<\/a> solicitors and on September 9th, the firm issued a motion on behalf of shareholders calling for an emergency general meeting (EGM) on September 17th to appoint five new directors to the Grinds 360 board.<\/p>\n One proposed resolution was to note that shareholders had \u201cserious concerns regarding the corporate governance of the company\u201d. It also proposed appointing Shane McCarthy from KPMG<\/a> to carry out an investigation to report on the company\u2019s relationship with parties related to any current or former director and \u201cwhether such transactions were in the best interests of the company\u201d. <\/p>\n Murdock and the five people who signed forms consenting to become new directors received legal letters from Fitzwilliam Law on behalf of the company. They were threatened with High Court action. It was alleged that they did not have the requisite consent from the majority of shareholders for their resolution. <\/p>\n On Friday, September 11th, O\u2019Halloran issued a notice to say the Grinds 360 board would host an \u201cemergency update\u201d meeting with shareholders on Sunday, September 13th. <\/p>\n This would address \u201crecent governance and operational matters which, if not addressed promptly, have the potential to cause economic harm to the business\u201d.<\/p>\n