SeedComp – The Results!

Just a quick post to announce the winners from tonight’s SeedComp Awards.

The winner of our £5k first prize is Mobile Report. Conor Moran’s work over the last few weeks to take his proposal forward set it apart from the start. The judges felt that his report generating app for surveying professionals has the potential to transform his marketplace and there was unreserved agreement that this product would get to market.

Runners-up Mesh caught the judges’ attention with their big idea fuelled by the team’s own experiences as job-hunting grads. Keep an eye on Sean and Aidan’s progress over the next few months – it’s a big idea and a big challenge but if they get it right it could be an equally big business.

Third place – and £2000 – went to Breda Doherty and Catherine Morris for Event Hub. Breda and Catherine first starting talking up the ‘TripAdvisor for events’ platform when they met on our trade mission to SxSW earlier this year. With several of the judges keen to help these two take Event Hub forward we expect to see big things.

Finally, the student prize went to Lisa Kelly and Little Kite Design. Little Kite wants to transform the world of live events by integrating motion graphics and animation. Lisa impressed with her portfolio, passion and professional approach. Again the judges felt that there was little doubt that Lisa would make this business a success and at least one is already keen to hire her and the team for a project.

An enormous well-done has to go to each and every one of the shortlisted entrants, who gave a tremendous account of themselves with polished, exciting pitches that generated real debate amongst the judging panel. In short, they did us all proud!

Finally a few thankyous are extremely well-deserved. Thanks to all the judges; Matt Johnston (Digital Circle), Padraig Canavan (Singularity), Paul McElvaney & Mary McKenna (Learning Pool), Paul Smyth (e-Synergy), Michael Faulkner (SeedUps.com) and Colm Long (Facebook) – an impressive panel which offered some extremely valuable feedback and offers of support throughout the day.

Thanks to SeedUps.com and the Office of Innovation at the University of Ulster for the sponsorship and support. Thanks also to Culturlann for playing hosts and the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce for organising the awards evening. Finally a huge thanks to ILEX for their support and belief in the project through their funding of the entire prize fund – and for their announcement this evening that they are committed to help make SeedComp even bigger and better next year.

The next step is 3 months of seriously hard work before we see them all again at our public demo day in early October.