In the lead-up to Sunday’s ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ National Final, the Radio and Television Broadcaster Claire Byrne, has been confirmed as the host of this year’s awards ceremony.
The National Final comes at the end of an eight month search, launched by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny T.D. and Minister Richard Bruton T.D. through the Local Enterprise Offices, to find Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur for 2015.
Diarmuid Byrne from Equiratings in Carlow is representing the Local Enterprise Office Carlow at the Foundry in Google this Sunday.
After a series of 31 LEO finals and eight regional finals involving 1,400 competitors, the 24 finalists, all aged between 18 and 30, are now preparing to deliver their live pitches to the judging panel on Sunday.
Supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through Enterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Offices, the competition is designed to seek out and support entrepreneurial talent across the country. Now in its second year, the competition was opened up this year to include young Irish entrepreneurs based abroad, looking to set up operations in Ireland.
Minister Bruton will be naming Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) on stage, presenting €100,000 in investment funds to the three winners on the day.
He said: “Having met all 24 National Finalists on a couple of occasions now, they are an inspiring group of young entrepreneurs. Their energy, commitment and, above all, their impressive businesses are providing a great example to many other businesses and young people who we are relying on to create the businesses that will be the bedrock of the Irish economy. Over two thirds of all new jobs are created by businesses like those created by these young entrepreneurs, and it’s been a pleasure to be involved in the development of their businesses”.
The supports on offer to all young entrepreneurs are also being highlighted by the Local Enterprise Offices in the Local Authorities Network. Kieran Comerford, Head of Enterprise of Local Enterprise Office Carlow said: “The network of Local Enterprise Offices support thousands of young and aspiring entrepreneurs every year. Through the course of this year’s IBYE competition for example, 450 young entrepreneurs have already participated in business bootcamps, 92 local winners have won ‘game changing’ investments of between €10,000 and €20,000 for their businesses and hundreds more have been offered training and mentoring opportunities, all through their Local Enterprise Office.”
At last year’s inaugural national final, Eamon Keane at Xpreso Software in South Dublin was crowned Ireland’s best young entrepreneur for 2014; Philip Martin won the ‘Best Business Idea’ category for the Blanco Nino tortilla-chip factory in Tipperary and Dean Gammell from Westmeath took the ‘Best Established Business’ award for TheGroupSystem.com
This year’s judging panel includes two successful entrepreneurs: Brian Crowley of the TTM Group and Sarah Doyle of Kinesense, alongside Colin Goulding of Google, Tom Hayes of Enterprise Ireland and Christine Charlton of the Local Enterprise Offices.
The host of Sunday’s National Final, Claire Byrne, has been impressed by the calibre of the IBYE finalists this year, saying: "I’ve been following the progress of this competition since the launch earlier this year. These National Finalists are already carving their own paths in business and as role models for their peers, they are helping to promote entrepreneurship as a viable career option for more younger people."
Further updates about ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ and YouTube videos for each of the national finalists are available through www.ibye.ie or by searching #ibye on social media.
The official IBYE channel on YouTube is https://www.youtube.com/user/IBYEire.
