Second AIB Start-up Academy kicks off in Dublin

The second AIB Start-up Academy was launched last night with a networking event in Dublin.

The Irish Times and AIB are collaborating again to look for the next great start-up. The 2016 academy is officially open for applications from interested companies.

Ken Burke, AIB’s head of business banking, kicked off the evening at the Sugar Club.

“We believe that we gave a great opportunity for a lot of entrepreneurs and start-ups to really showcase their businesses in the 11 networking events we had across the country last year. And those that came through to participate in the Start-up Academy gave fantastic feedback,” he said.

Two entrepreneurs and three start-ups took to the stage to talk about their experiences and answer questions from the audience.

Camile Thai Kitchen founder Brody Sweeney talked about the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. The founder of O’Brien’s sandwich bars talked about going from “living the dream” to receivership to starting-up again with his Thai takeaway and delivery business.

David McKernan explained why his company Java Republic business worked. Part of that was spending 95 per cent of the planning process “getting it right” and only five per cent was down to raising money.

The night featured pitches from start-up companies Cool Beans, GirlCrew and last year's academy winner: Herdwatch.

Isolde Johnson and Sarah O'Connor of Cool Beans talked about marketing "no fuss superhero food" for busy people who might otherwise have cereal for dinner. The company currently offers healthy cannellini bean meals in three flavours.

Johnson and O’Connor had pitched at last year’s Dublin start-up night, and they have come a long way since then. Last year, they did not have a product, and now the product has launched in 221 SuperValu supermarkets across the country.

Elva Carri and Aine Mulloy of GirlCrew spoke about how an international phenomenon began because one woman wanted to go out dancing. Carri turned to Tinder to find girls to go out with her when her friends were busy one Friday night.

That became an online and offline community for women, with meetups ranging from holidays to movie nights organised by the women themselves. GirlCrew currently has almost 10,000 members in 36 cities worldwide.

Last year's winner, Fabien Peyaud of Herdwatch, the "CRM for cows", delivered his successful pitch on the Sugar Club stage once again.

Eoghan McGregor, who is starting-up himself, came to the event for networking and business advice. He operates sun holidays for Crossfit enthusiasts as part of his business WOD Holidays.

“I thought tonight was really good. We’re getting great advice from people. We’re hearing from people that had ups and downs and they’ve recovered. I think the main bit of advice was that we need to work hard, get out there and support our ideas,” he said.

Last night was one of 11 networking events planned across the country. Next week (June 3rd) the Academy will travel to the Crane Lane Theatre for the start-up night in Cork.