Even by the standards of Silicon Valley, where dramatic predictions are as common as hot dinners, to say that “Retail is Dead” is still quite shocking. What, you mean dead dead, not just say, resting? Yes, that is what Marc Andreessen of Venture Capital firm Andreessen Horowitz recently told PandoDaily's Sarah Lacy.

At first glance the title of this piece may sound counter-intuitive to some readers. After all, there have been phenomenal advances seen in healthcare over the last two decades. Advances in diagnostic processes and treatments have given us state of the art scanners and robotic surgery. The development of new drug therapies have enabled physicians to substantially extend life, and sometimes even offer cure, to those with previously terminal diagnoses. So surely everything is ticking along nicely in the land of healthcare innovation?

So yes, it looks like we were all had. Played like pianos, eaten without salt. I´m talking about the Entrepreneur ecosystem in Spain, a sector assiduously courted by both sides before the general election in Spain last November.

Digital Stores is an online retailer and leading supplier of complete end-to-end e-commerce and fulfilment services in the UK. It specialises in running online stores for personality and character brands in the music and entertainment industry.

Lime & Tonic is a business that used the model of Ecosystem Economics™ in order to disrupt the retail and leisure market. Lime & Tonic provides affluent consumers with access to unique social activities and dining experiences in the world’s most dynamic cities, in the form of a social agenda.

Enterprise Ireland, the Government agency in Ireland responsible for supporting Irish businesses, will be hosting a pitch event on Tuesday 8 October where startups could gain access to €500k of funding from Enterprise Ireland’s €10 million start-up fund.

In a world where B2C apps garner much media attention, one Irish startup is focusing on a less sexy niche, that of public sector B2B procurement.

Simply Zesty is a great example of Ecosystem Economics™ in action through its ability to act as a digital enabler to a large media corporate. An Irish social media agency and the only Irish social media agency listed in the world’s top 100. Its client base of over 100 firms includes blue chip companies such as Sony, Vodafone, Teradata, Volkswagen Group, News International, Kaspersky Labs and ebookers.com. From a strong national foundation, Simply Zesty is steadily building its international presence, which now represents 16% of revenues and is growing strongly.

PIE Mapping (PIE) is a digital enabler to the transport industry, providing expert mapping and journey planning solutions as well as being a leading player in the fast growing $15 billion Intelligent Transportation System (“ITS”) market. They take big data and creates practical solutions to allow for better use of digital transport infrastructures. Their big data play has impacted on traffic, they have worked on the London Olympics and they also work with Tfl and Freight Companies.

BeatThatQuote (BTQ) is a great example of 'Ecosystem Economics™' in action in the financial services sector. Through the support of entrepreneurcountry, BTQ succeed as a digital enabler because they understood the vital role they played in their ecosystem, were able to identify and secure natural allies, as well as structure their business model around existing corporate architecture.