Categories: Business

Launching 12 start-ups over 12 days – one university takes entrepreneurship to the extreme

In spite of the economic crisis one Irish university is working with a dozen entrepreneurs to launch one promising startup a day for 12 days this December.

From left to right, Billy Kelly (Associate Dean for Teaching & learning of DCU Business School), Gavin Lockhart (Director of Sales and Marketing at Smartouch Media), Sandra Maguire ( Managing Director of Edubills), John Pryor (Co-Founder of Smartouch Media), Trevor Dagg ( Co-Founder of Talentevo), John Maughan (Founder at Nimble Tours), Carmel Shiels ( Regional Manager of AIB, DCU Branch), Mannix Ryan (Founder of Maybe Video)

In an initiative called the “12 Business Days of Christmas” (#12bizdays) Dublin City University (DCU) will bring 12 young Irish companies to the market between December 1 and 20 in what is likely one of the largest startup initiatives Ireland has seen since the death of the Celtic Tiger.  But emphasising the tough economic times, the series of launches will take a break on December 5th and 6th as the Irish Government announces what is known to be an extremely difficult austerity budget for 2012.

According to Dr. Theo Lynn, the Director of Industry Engagement at DCU Business School, it is because of these economic challenges that the university sector should be doing more to support young enterprises.  He said, “DCU is Ireland’s University of Enterprise. We believe small business is big business and SMEs will play a crucial role in Ireland’s future economic growth.

Universities, whether through research, education, or engagement, should and can play a much more tangible role in helping entrepreneurs and startups develop and grow their businesses.”

The series of launches comes from DCU’s Leadership, Innovation and Knowledge Research Centre (LINK), a department of the university that works to connect entrepreneurs and established companies with academia.

LINK will work with each of the 12 startups’ founders to develop their ideas into larger businesses.  Currently they plan on creating 24 jobs in the first your of the initiative, with more expected as the enterprises grow.

The 12 companies range from educational e-commerce systems to Web TV platforms and the companies themselves have been founded either by former students of the university or clients of the LINK Research Centre.

The launch schedule is;

Speaking to The Sociable Philippe Brodeur, AerTV’s Director said that this is the first step in the development of the company,

Social TV is one of the fastest trending activities worldwide – and there are a lot of new players entering the market in a number of different ways.  The partnership between Aertv and the DCU LINK programme is one that is producing amazing results.  Locally, consumers are picking up the service and interacting with live TV.  Internationally, big players are looking at what we are doing and wondering how they can become part of it or even replicate the model.  Watch this space….

Today the university launched Smartouch Media (@SmartouchMedia | Facebook) a web development firm specialising in e-commerce sites and smartphone apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 7 platforms.

Ajit Jain

Ajit Jain is marketing and sales head at Octal Info Solution, a leading iPhone app development company and offering platform to hire Android app developers for your own app development project. He is available to connect on Google Plus, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

View Comments

Recent Posts

Byte-sized solutions: How tech is transforming life with food allergies 

Nine-year-old Addie Lao from California lives with severe allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, sesame seeds,…

2 days ago

Credibl appoints sustainability leader Viral Thakker as Chief Business Officer to help more businesses achieve regulatory ESG compliance 

Sustainable investment in the US has faced political backlash in 2025 after the current administration's…

2 days ago

CATALYST Launches Real-Time Satellite Intelligence Service for National Defense Agencies

For many decades, satellite images have played an important role in the arena of national…

5 days ago

Digital ID is the key to unlocking digital identity for the DPI panopticon

Your biometrics are your identification, your identity is you; together they feed the interoperable digital…

5 days ago

AI enterprise Prezent wins back-to-back Inc. Power Partner Award

Inc.'s Power Partner Awards present the definitive list of B2B partners in the U.S. and…

6 days ago

Allie AI raises $5.2 million to advance autonomous intelligence in global manufacturing systems

AI continues to transform the operations of enterprises across the globe, including in manufacturing. In…

6 days ago