Final looms but last class at AIB Start-up Academy is crucial

“For me these seven weeks have been the prize. They have been what I really wanted to get out of it,” said finalist Brendan Madden, of Brendan Joseph, at the penultimate week of this year’s AIB Irish Times Start Up Academy. “I think one of the things that we (the finalists) would all agree on is that we are all a lot less scared of the next step in our business, and I know now what my next step is,” said Madden.

There was a practical focus in today’s Academy with Vinny O’Brien sharing his expertise on eCommerce and Antonie Geerts showing the eleven finalists how Data Analytics could help with their businesses.

O’Brien, who has worked in eCommerce for almost 10 years, said it was a central function to most businesses nowadays and his aim was to give the finalists a broad overview of the industry, explore some of the pitfalls and challenges and how eCommerce might fit into their businesses. Before making any decisions about eCommerce, he advised the finalists to seek advice.

“Keep it simple. Try and think about it in a very pragmatic, logical way. I would take advice, and there is a good network of people here in Ireland to take advice from, so pick up the phone and ask a question and second guess everybody. If you are dealing with an agency, pick up the phone, challenge them, ask them questions to verify the information that you get. Challenge yourself and challenge the results that you get,” he said.

As they approach the final the atmosphere is, surprisingly, more like a school class-room and camaraderie is the palpable feeling in the room rather than cut-throat competitiveness.

“Somehow, we are still working as a team rather than against each other and I think that will still be the case even as we get to the last day. It is like we are all doing the Leaving Cert together except only one person is going to college. There has been a really good respect for each other and we want each person to succeed and to do really well,” said Madden.

Paul Moore from Rebel Chilli said he had gained a lot not only from the Academy itself, but from learning from the experiences the finalists shared with one another.

“One of the best things about the Academy was actually working with a number of other people and other companies. Both myself and Brendan work on our own and because you are on your own so much sometimes you don’t know how to measure your progress. So it’s great to talk to other people and they have the same fears and problems.”

Digital strategist and trainer, Antonie Geerts, was with the finalists in the afternoon to show them how to use web analytics to interpret the data their websites generate and show them how to make good business decisions around that. He said analytics was one of the most important things for any business, particularly online businesses.

“If you have a shop down the street you will see people coming in and they are buying products, or some of them don’t buy products, the same thing happens online. People come to your website, they look at your products, they look at what you do, who you are and then they decide if they want to do business with you or buy your product. So if you don’t know that information then you are kind of shooting in the dark and especially with marketing activity like Facebook campaigns or ad campaigns. If you don’t know how effective it really is then you can lose a lot of money and customers as well.”

Geerts said a lot of businesses might set up data analytics, but the majority aren’t making the most of the insights they could gain from it.

“I would say 95 per cent of businesses do not utilise data to the extent that they should. Most will look at how many people came to the website and it kind of stops there. Whereas the data gives you a real insight into where they went to, what they did, what they didn’t do and that is much better to make decisions on.”

The finalists face their final hurdle of the competition in just a couple of weeks when they make their final pitch to a panel of judges. The top prize is worth over €200,000 and includes: a €20,000 cash investment from AIB, that includes a €20,000 cash injection, substantial advertising and marketing packages, PR training, office space and development support. There will also be a runner's up prize. For more details on the prizes visit irishtimes.com/aibstartupacademy

The eleven finalists in this year’s Academy are Buska Boxes, Brendan Joseph, Rebel Chilli, The Cool Bean Company, Popertee, Leaves, Blackwater Distillery, DropChef, Nasal Medical, Queezybags and Topper Technology.

Lisa Hughes is with the finalists next week for "The Pitch Preparation" to help them perfect their pitch before they face the judging panel.

The finale is being held in The Sugar Club in Dublin on Thursday April 28th.

Admission is free and you can get your tickets here, but hurry as numbers are limited