Ready to accelerate: Start-up bosses begin programme

A CANADIAN entrepreneur has relocated his start-up company to Dublin to take part in the LaunchPad accelerator programme which started at the National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) this week.

Terence Hong, founder of Adjuno, said he was aware of LaunchPad from his own research but he became more interested this summer when the popular TechCrunch blog reported it was one of the top 10 accelerator programmes for start-ups in Europe.

LaunchPad is a three-month course which is focused more on making sure that start-ups ideas are commercially focused rather than developing their technology, said Gary Leyden, director of the NDRC’s LaunchPad.

“We are constantly testing their assumptions and ensuring there is a good commercial fit for what they are doing,” said Mr Leyden.

Adjuno will “provide relevance” to daily deals services according to Mr Hong, who said it would use factors such as your location and the preferences you have expressed on other social networks to offer deals that are likely to appeal to you.

He said he had not decided if the company would remain in Ireland after LaunchPad.

“There’s a lot of engineering talent in Ireland that we can tap into, and the daily deals market is growing in Europe, so it’s possible,” said Mr Hong.

This is the fourth time that NDRC has run LaunchPad and this is the largest programme to date with 15 start-ups taking part. To date 30 companies have completed the programme and 30 per cent of those have gone on to secure further private investment.

Mr Leyden said there had been over 100 applicants for the course and 80 start-ups pitched their ideas to the NDRC. He said international interest was strong with five overseas applicants.

The programme concludes with the LiftOff competition where participating companies pitch to an audience of potential investors and advisors to win a share of an investment pool raised by the NDRC.

At the last LiftOff event the investment fund came to €60,000 and Mr Leyden said there was event more interest from investors in the current programme.

“Angel investors in particular are interested as they see it as us having done some of the due diligence,” said Mr Leyden.