The year-long search for the best start-up talent in the country came to a close when Herdwatch won the first ever AIB Start-up Academy final.

On March 26th, the 11 start-up finalists had five minutes to pitch their businesses to a panel of judges at the Sugar Club in Dublin.

The entrepreneurs went through a rigorous selection process to get into the Academy, an eight-week training programme covering a range of topics, from business modelling to social me dia strategy.

Herdwatch, a farming app and software package for dairy and beef cattle farmers, won the prize package worth €250,000. The prize includes advertising, professional mentoring and office space at The Irish Times.

The judges were Ken Burke (head of business banking at AIB), Jill Downey (managing partner at Livewire), Brian Keating (brand director at AIB), Pamela Newenham (business journalist at The Irish Times), Jean O'Sullivan (manager at Enterprise Ireland) and Johnny Ryan (author of A History of the Internet and the Digital Future and former chief innovation officer).

“We had a really difficult decision on the judging night as the standard was so high. There was a lot of debate among the judges at the end of all the pitches,” said Newenham, who also judged the original pitch day in November when the finalists were chosen.

Uniform quality

“I was blown away by the standard of the start-ups that took part in the Academy. It was great to see how far they had come along and how much their pitches had improved between the start of the Academy and the end,” she said.

Ryan, who also coached at the Academy, said: “I thought the breadth of ideas was fantastic. It’s great that they weren’t just tech companies. That’s a big deal.

“The language of start-ups has been accidentally monopolised by technology companies.”

He said Conor Murphy of GymChef had come the furthest over the course of the programme. Murphy was selling GymChef healthy ready meals in supermarkets but decided to change his business by not outsourcing production.

“He went from having something he realised was not viable to going back to the drawing board with a new plan. It’s very brave, and a lot of businesses go ahead with things that don’t work. This guy is completely throwing out the book and reinventing it. He’s a very smart guy, and I’m completely impressed.

“The founder of Herdwatch has really solved a problem for quite a lot of people in the field. I think it’s quite novel to see a company that isn’t just saying what it might do but what it has already done for about 1,000 farmers. That’s a huge deal,” Ryan said.

Downey said it was “almost devastating” to choose only one start-up.

“I hope that every single one of the start-ups make it because I think they all could. I genuinely thought they all had great potential.”

AIB’s Brian Keating said it was an incredible showcase of entrepreneurial talent.

“The level of insight, planning and passion of each presenter was outstanding. It was a very difficult decision to make on the night as there were many worthy winners and many start-ups that undoubtedly will be very successful in the near future,” he said.

“Herdwatch is a brilliant combination of technology fused with agriculture and the simplicity of the app ensured that the judges [understood] the benefits immediately,” he said. One of those benefits was the ease of use for the consumer.

AIB teamed up with The Irish Times to launch the Start-up Academy last year.

The objective of the Academy was to support entrepreneurs across the country.

It kicked off with AIB Start-up Nights, a series of events across the country where industry leaders shared their insights and experiences with start-up owners.

Almost 300 start-ups applied for the programme, but only 11 became finalists: Blanco Nino, Everest Granola, GymChef, Herdwatch, KillBiller, Obeo, Usher, Vanguard Beer Collective, worldBOX.ie, Writing for Tiny and Wyldsson.

Intensive programme

The finalists participated in an eight-week intensive training programme run by Irish Times Training, a subsidiary of

The Irish Times

, from January to March 2015.

The curriculum was designed to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses more quickly and sustainably.

The next AIB Start-up Academy will kick off in May, and there will be AIB Start-up Nights around the country in the coming months. Details of the 2015/2016 programme will be announced shortly, so stay tuned.