Enterprise Ireland showcase highlights key role of market

EARLY STAGE companies pitched investor-ready technologies that have emerged from third-level research and also got time to meet potential investors individually at Enterprise Ireland’s Big Ideas showcase in Croke Park this week.

One of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs taking on research projects is finding the right market, according to Dr Brendan Cleary from LearnOpt, a spin-out from the University of Limerick.

The software, which came out of Higher Education Authority-funded research, matches would-be learners with suitable courses by using recommendations and elements of online social networking.

LearnOpt is already up and running on the Institutes of Technology of Ireland website bluebrick.ie, and the company now wants to bring their model to wider markets. But first they had to work out how.

“You have a piece of technology from a university, there are a lot of possible ways you could go to market with it, the problem is figuring out which way is the most realistic and has the best chance of generating revenue,” said Dr Cleary. “I knew it had to be done but I had no real preparation for it taking as long as it did or the knockbacks. There’s no shortcut and if you want the reward you have to endure the pain and long hours.”

But the graft seems to be paying off. Working with Enterprise Ireland, LearnOpt has now identified potential openings with continuing professional development bodies in the US and Canada.

So what about funding the transition from lab to market? The money is there if you have the right formula, according to those in the thick of it.

“If you can identify the entrepreneur and lead scientist, a market that has a value and a technology that can solve that problem, there seems to be still significant amounts of money here to support this, in my opinion,” said Dr John Gleeson.

He pitched to the crowd about HydroxyColl, a bone graft substitute that has come out of research at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and he hopes to have boosted the potential for investment in the technology.

Another presenter, John Feighan, told the Croke Park crowd about Veutility, which can help companies save money by monitoring energy usage. We don’t want for ideas in Ireland, but we can often lack the expertise to sell them, Mr Feighan said.

“I think we have got some stunning technology ideas and some great operational people and I think the biggest issue we have is that we lack people with international sales and marketing expertise, people who can articulate this and sell it,” he said.