Ireland (and Dublin in particular) is a fantastic place to be in digital. Sure, look who’s here – Google, Facebook, Zynga, LinkedIn, etc, etc, etc. All the big guys are here (nearly!). And lot’s of little guys too – DublinWebSummit, Tapadoo, Vlearning,
So, Dublin is definitely a good place to start your digital business. And there is plenty of help for budding entrepreneurs (much of it Enterprise Ireland assisted) through various accellerator and incubation programmes. There is the Hothouse, M50, CreateIreland and Endeavour to name but a few.
One such program that’s getting a lot of airplay of the NDRC (National Digital Research Centre) Launchpad accelerator programme, which is “focused on supporting the next generation of digital entrepreneurs to accelerate good ideas to sound start-ups”.
The programme is designed for digital start-ups and 15 will be selected for the investment stage (which starts in mid-February).
70 start-ups, both national and international, recently applied for one of the small number of places.
NDRC provides up to €20,000 per project in micro-seed investment to support the founders during the programme.
In 2011, NDRC Launchpad was identified in the top six best accelerators in Europe. NDRC has supported 30 start-ups through its Launchpad programme since 2009.
With this number of applications for the 15 places, there is clear evidence that Dublin is the place to be and accelerator programmes are the thing to be in!
Roll on new digital ventures.
