Nominee: Martin McKay

Martin McKay is a founding director of TextHELP. a fast-growing technology company.

Established 10 years ago, the Antrim-based company specialises in speech-enabled software.

It employs 35 staff in the North and the US, and aims to double this over two years.

Customers: Some 97 per cent of sales are outside Ireland, accounting for 5 million annually. The majority of UK universities use TextHelp products and US sales are rising.

Products: The most successful product has been a literacy support tool - TextHELP - that can "plug in" to a wide range of desktop software, as well as a talking phonetic spell checker, predictive software and speech-feedback software. Customers can read and write independently - often for the first time in their lives.

Achievement: The company has customers in every US state and is the UK market leader. It has maintained strong growth and rising profits.

How did the business idea first come about? During a presentation to a hospital group, Martin McKay introduced some speech synthesis.

The impact on the audience was a turning point, highlighting the potential of the technology.

What were the immediate next steps to make it happen? McKay immediately started work on prototypes and within two years had refined a product ideally suited for tackling literacy and dyslexia barriers.

How did the company identify its first customers to target? The first target was the universities, which had a desire to widen access and also had specific funding to deliver communications to adults with dyslexia.

Funding was raised to enable further research and marketing, when targeting the US market,

What sales practices work best? Fundamental to the company's sales strategy is a partnership approach with customers.

What key piece of advice would you give to a start-up entrepreneur? "Never give up. Believe that you can do it. Get good legal advice when taking on funding, get a mentor and hire experienced senior people."