Dublin City’s Best Young Entrepreneurs Announced
Dublin City’s best young entrepreneurs have been announced at the County Final of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition. Run by the Local Enterprise Offices, IBYE is supported by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland. Now in its 4th year, this year attracted almost 1,500 applications nationwide.
Greg Swift, Head of Enterprise in Dublin City, explained: “The search to find Ireland’s best young entrepreneur began in August. The calibre of entries was exceptionally high. The innovation, creativity, passion and determination demonstrated by entrants at the Enterprise Day, Bootcamp and County Final confirms that supporting fledgling businesses has such importance in terms of future enterprise and job creation in Dublin City. The competition enables all participants to broaden their business networks and refine their business acumen.”
There was joy for James McElroy of House My Dog in Dublin City as they were named winner of the Best Established Business award.
The Best Start Up category was a particularly hard-fought contest. Aimee Madden of CliniShift in Dublin City was named winner.
Many innovative new business concepts emerged in the Best Business Idea category. The winner was Flavia Wahl of Ibreeze in Dublin City.
James McElroy of House My Dog was named the Overall Winner of IBYE for Dublin City.
“Dublin is one of the best cities in the world to start and grow a business. Individuality, innovation and creativity combine; helping to create a strong start-up eco-system that supports entrepreneurs to shape their ideas and create value through the products and services. The entrepreneurs here today are contributing to and shaping this enterprise eco-system for themselves, and for future generations,” said Lord Mayor Ardmhéara Mícheál Mac Donncha.
The adjudicators in this year’s competition were Greg Swift of Local Enterprise Office Dublin City, Edel Flynn of Element 78 and Gavan Walsh of iCabbi. The awards ceremony was attended by other special guests including Owen Keegan, Chief Executive, Dublin City Council and Martin O’Connell guest speaker from Nasal Medical.
IBYE Co-ordinator for Dublin City, Ailish Smyth concluded: “Each of the winners and runners-up will share in an investment fund of up to €50,000 from the Local Enterprise Office to help grow and develop their business. The 3 category winners go forward to the Regional Finals in Dublin in January. The team in Local Enterprise Office Dublin City will be providing intensive supports between now and then to prepare them for the regional finals and hopefully Dublin City will have a representative at the IBYE National Finals in March.”
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Pictured are: James McElroy of House My Dog, winner of the Best Established Business award; Flavia Wahl, IBreeze, Best Business Idea category award winner; and Aimee Madden, Clinishift, Best Start Up category award winner. Photo Colm Mahady/Fennell Photography.
