Friday 03rd February, 2023

Entrepreneurs’ Evening in the GEC

With the Guinness Enterprise Centre in Dublin 8 as our venue, our popular ‘Meet the Entrepreneurs’ evening took place in January, when we heard first-hand the stories of a number of start-ups from the Centre and elsewhere.

Among the entrepreneurs on the night was sustainability champion Dr. Mary O’Riordan, whose company HaPPE Earth has produced a medical grade compostable PPE apron that disappears in weeks and is a winner in the 2022 Health Innovation Hub Ireland awards. View her company presentation here: Deck_HaPPE Earth_v0.1

We heard from Sam Batran, founder of Forás Capital, Ireland’s first ‘Search Fund’, an investment vehicle conceived in 1984 in Stanford and Harvard, through which a group of investors financially support an entrepreneur’s efforts to locate, acquire, manage, and grow one privately held company. You can view Sam’s slides here: Introduction to Search Funds v MBA Association.

Saddled with the usual Christmas party dilemma? Sean Gleeson set up findavenue.ie as a one-stop solution for corporate events organisers. 100% free to use, its goal is to save busy people time and money. It was a winner in the National Start-up Awards in 2021. When Covid brought events to a sudden halt, Sean was quick to set up Zoom Party as a virtual alternative.