Built by Committee Members,
for Committee Members
Tadpole started the way most good ideas do — with a problem that nobody seemed to be solving.
Meet the Team
We're Paul, Alex, and Denis — three members of our local angling club who share a love of fishing and a deep frustration with the tools available to run a club properly.
Paul chairs the club. Alex sits on the committee. Denis serves as treasurer. Between us, we've spent more evenings than we'd like to admit wrestling with spreadsheets, chasing renewals, and preparing reports for AGMs when we'd rather be on the riverbank.
We talked about it constantly. At committee meetings, on the bank, in the car park afterwards. Why was this so hard? Why did every system we tried either do too little or demand too much? Why were we spending our volunteer hours on admin instead of the things that actually matter?
So Paul and Alex went away and built a proof of concept. Denis put it through its paces, testing it against the realities of running a club day to day — bringing the perspective of someone who manages the books, chases the payments, and knows exactly where the pain points are. His ideas, feedback, and practical experience shaped Tadpole into something that genuinely works.
We decided to do this together. Properly. Not as a side project or an experiment — but as a serious platform, built with the same rigour we'd bring to any professional endeavour.
The Reality
Wrestling with spreadsheets. Chasing renewals. Preparing reports for AGMs. The admin grind that eats into the time volunteers should be spending on what they love — the club itself.
We Know What's at Stake
Clubs run on volunteers. Good people who give their time because they love what their club stands for. But too often, the administrative grind wears them down.
Renewal reminders. Membership queries. Reporting for committee meetings.Death by spreadsheet.
We've watched capable, committed people step back from committees — not because they stopped caring, but because the burden became too much alongside jobs, families, and everything else life throws at us.
Tadpole exists to change that. To give committees their time back. To let volunteers focus on the good stuff — the events, the community, the reason the club exists in the first place — rather than drowning in admin.
Decades of Experience. One Clear Purpose.
We didn't come to this lightly. Between us, we bring decades of experience building and running businesses.
Paul and Alex have built technology companies from the ground up, leading teams of developers, designers, and project managers to deliver systems used by organisations where getting it wrong simply isn't an option.
We've built systems used by major pharmaceutical companies and other organisations where getting it wrong simply isn't an option. We've scaled those businesses and exited them.
The Treasurer's Perspective
Denis has run his own business for many years, and as club treasurer he brings something equally vital — a deep, practical understanding of how clubs actually operate. The finances, the membership cycles, the reporting, the dozens of small but critical tasks that keep a club running.
That hands-on knowledge is baked into every part of Tadpole. Together, we combine professional-grade experience with genuine understanding of club life. That's what makes Tadpole different.
A Team That Lives It
We're not just building Tadpole. We're using it, every day, in our own club.
Paul French
Co-Founder, Tadpole.club
A lifelong angler, Paul has spent decades on riverbanks and lakeshores across Ireland and beyond. When he's not fishing, you'll find him offshore sailing or out on two wheels — passions that fuel his love of the outdoors and the communities built around them.
By background, Paul is a technology entrepreneur and business builder. He founded and scaled two technology companies, both acquired — one by Experian, the other by IBM — before spending several years as a senior executive in IBM's Global Strategic Value Creation team. After corporate life, he founded LemonRock Bike Tours, growing it over nine years before selling to US-based Tenon Tours.
Now semi-retired, Paul channels his experience in technology, operations, and business into supporting the angling sector he's been part of for so long. He serves as Chairman of Trim Athboy & District Angling Association, a club widely regarded for its excellence in operations and governance. He also builds apps and digital tools — bringing the same rigour from his professional career to the platforms anglers and clubs actually need.
Tadpole.club is the result: serious technology, built by people who understand the sport from the inside.
Alex Baker
Co-Founder, Tadpole.club
A passionate angler, Alex has spent years exploring the rivers and lakes of Ireland and beyond, with significant experience across the whole of the British and Irish fishing scene. Fishing is more than a pastime; it's a connection to the landscape and to the tight-knit communities that make the sport what it is.
By background, Alex is a technology entrepreneur and infrastructure specialist. He founded and exited two SaaS businesses serving enterprise clients including Coca-Cola, L'Oréal, and National Grid, building a career that spans over 25 years in fleet, automotive, and energy technology. He now leads TOGL Energy, a software startup focused on EV-to-grid flexibility, and advises both the UK and Irish governments on electrification strategy through his consultancy.
Away from the day job, Alex brings that same technical and operational mindset to the angling world. He serves on the committee of Trim Athboy & District Angling Association and is the architect behind the club's digital platform, building the tools that help clubs like TAD manage members, payments, and day-to-day operations with the professionalism they deserve.
Denis O'Donovan
Director and Company Secretary, Tadpole.club
Like the other two founders, Denis is also a lifelong angler on the river, lakes and at sea. A keen kayak angler, he has represented Ireland at the World Kayak Angling Championships.
His business background includes running a multi million Euro packaging company where he managed the salesforce, the online store and all purchasing decisions. He is a passionate photographer and in 2014, set up his own successful photography business which he still runs to this day.
Denis is the Honorary Treasurer of Trim Athboy & District Angling Association and it was in this role he discovered the limitations of the software system in use by the club to manage the membership, boat hire and day permits. Along with Alex and Paul, they designed Tadpole.club from the ground up to meet the needs of angling clubs.
Tadpole was built from the ground up, tested against real problems we face in our own club. Every feature exists because we needed it. Every workflow is designed to save time, not create work.
This isn't software built by people who've read about clubs.
It's built by people who run them.
Ready to Give Your Committee Its Time Back?
Tadpole makes membership management simple, so your volunteers can focus on what they joined the committee to do in the first place.