The AIB Start-up Night in Limerick, held on Wednesday, July 8th, brought together aspiring entrepreneurs, the wider start-up community and some well-known names.
Niall McGarry, CEO and founder of Maximum Media, the company that started the websites JOE.ie and Her.ie, returned to Start-up Night Limerick for a second year.
He talked about his entrepreneurial journey from childhood pumpkin sales to starting the first marketing agency in the west of Ireland to founding Maximum Media.
One of his top tips to aspiring entrepreneurs was that it’s ok to be afraid of failure.
He said when he created Joe.ie, “it was a good time for us to create something new and from scratch”. The website targets a male audience and covers topics from health and fitness to rugby. Maximum now has 65 full-time staff in Dublin.
Shane McAllister, founder of mobile app development company MobaNode, said, “the hardest part is just to start”. He also said the costs associated with starting up are much less than they were in the past, and it’s possible to start-up while holding on to your day job.
“It’s important to get a real paying customer as quickly as possible. Don’t rely on grants and start-up funds,” he said.
AIB Start-up Academy alum Bernie Kinsella pitched WorldBOX, an international shipping service.
The company’s boxes are shipped to 220 countries worldwide and are now stocked in 47 hotels in Dublin. They have just partnered up with USIT to offer the product to students moving abroad.
Hannah Wrixon pitched her company Last Minute Minders. She provides qualified childcare professionals to families, crèches, hotels, weddings and events.
She has just launched Festi’Kidz, a childcare service for festivals. Festi’Kidz will have a marquis at the National Ploughing Championships this year and is set to mind 600 children over three days.
Natalie King pitched Natalie King Designs, a luxury womenswear label based in Clare. King started the label last year and is now in three boutiques and has an online store.
Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh is a fan of the brand and wore King’s dresses at the St Patrick’s Day parade in Philadelphia and during an appearance on the Late Late Show.
Shane McCarthy, CEO and founder of BlueChief Social, told The Irish Times: “I love the electricity in Dublin, which wasn’t here in the start-up scene in Limerick. We took it upon ourselves to do the same things here.”
McCarthy founded the Wild Atlantic Start-up initiative, which holds monthly meetups and occasional start-up weekends in Limerick. He plans to hold Ireland’s first entrepreneurship festival in Limerick next June.
"We're here to see what's going on. I'm delighted it's happening in Limerick. A lot of these things tend to happen in Dublin," said Sean Brady, founder of Red Pen, a cloud application for the construction sector based in Limerick.
The next Start-up Night is in Letterkenny on July 29th.
