DCU supports student start-ups
DCU supports student start-ups
Ireland’s future economic growth is closely linked to the performance of new start-up businesses, and DCU is playing its part with a range of supports to encourage entrepreneurship and foster close ties between academia and business.
A recent study found that Ireland ranks second among the EU-15 countries for total early-stage entrepreneurial activity, with 9.2 per cent of the adult population involved in some level of early-stage business. DCU’s contribution includes initiatives designed to help students, early-stage startups, existing businesses and female entrepreneurs with ideas, mentoring and financial support.
Students at DCU have the opportunity to get on board the entrepreneurship express through the highly competitive UStart programme. The first such initiative of its kind in Ireland, it takes the form of a 16-week student enterprise accelerator which gives participants the chance to develop innovative ideas and launch startup companies.
Now in its third year, the competition is open to undergraduates, graduates, postdoctoral and part-time students enrolled in any DCU programme. UStart includes input from business experts and support from successful company founders and businesspeople such as Pat McDonagh, who founded the successful educational software company Riverdeep. “As a supporter and mentor, I have witnessed first hand how UStart nurtures entrepreneurial talent, helping students develop business ideas, learn in a real-world environment and successfully launch their products and services to market,” he said at the UStart demo day event last year.
The 2014 UStart student start-up title went to Twizt Hydration, the brainchild of third-year DCU business students Colin Gargan and Dara Lynch. Their product allows high-performance runners to hydrate without the need for traditional water bottles or other equipment. Eight student-led companies took part in UStart, each received €5,000 in seed funding and free residential accommodation in DCU during the programme.
Another notable aspect of DCU’s support for early-stage business is the DCU Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurs, a non-profit, partnership between the university and the family of Ryanair founder Tony Ryan. The academy aims to promote an entrepreneurial mindset and focus on innovation among Irish small and medium-sized businesses, corporates, startups and researchers through a range of training, leadership and funding initiatives.
One of the DCU Ryan Academy’s more recent initiatives has been Female High Fliers, an accelerator programme specifically aimed at female-led startups and the challenges they face such as fast-tracking the business, developing leadership skills, achieving scale and creating employment.
Launched in 2014, the first year’s programme received 135 applications and had 18 participants from 12 companies, with participating startups landing a €50,000 investment.
DCU Ryan Academy also organises competitions like Hack DCU, which passes on the skills needed to develop ideas and pitch them to a panel of judges. It’s a weekend-long ideas marathon aimed at encouraging students to innovate and build useful products or services. The most recent event, which was held in April, saw seven teams of students working on prototype products to make their fellow students’ lives easier.
Some of the resulting ideas included wireless earphones for mobile phones, a campus-based bike rental scheme, portals to locate meal deals, events and work, and a system to improve access to patient medical records.