Pitch Perfect: Battle Of The Start-Ups Event At TU Dublin

Pitch Perfect is a competition run as part of the Local Enterprise Week in association with TU Dublin and the four Dublin area Local Enterprise Offices (Dublin City, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, South Dublin).

This is the second year of the competition, which features a first prize of €5,000 and 12 months of free office space (in a TU Dublin campus incubator in either Blanchardstown, Grangegorman, or Tallaght) along with a number of other cash and hotdesk prizes.

This year the event was held on 8th March in TU Dublin’s city campus at Grangegorman. Over 60 founders entered the competition and were shortlisted down to just six finalists. These lucky six pitched to a panel of judges composed of Alison Cowzer (co-founder of East Coast Biscuits), Dr Richard Fernandes (award-winning entrepreneur and innovator), and Professor David Fitzpatrick (President of TU Dublin).

Each founder had five minutes to pitch their business. After this presentation, there was a question and answer session with the panel. Each of the finalists was asked additional questions and also given some great advice from the judges.

It was great to see that five out of the six finalists were alumni from the New Frontiers programme! The six finalists were:

• Auindrila Das of gClincs
• Rajat Maheshwari of Finedeeds
• Sarah O’Farrell of Barbaras Bone
• Richelle Flanagan of My Moves Matter
• Colin Deering of Anyscor
• Ben Moran of ProactivePaths

Each of the presentations were extremely professional and engaging. You could tell that the founders had put a huge amount of work into their preparation. The judges had a difficult task to pick the overall winner, but a very worthy founder was selected – Richelle Flanagan of My Move Matters. Richelle’s startup has developed a digital support platform for people with Parkinson’s disease, delivering personalised therapeutics. The Audiences Choice prize went to Ben Moran of ProactivePaths, with the other finalists each receiving runner-up prizes.

If you’re thinking of taking part in Pitch Perfect next year, the competition is open to startups/founders who meet one of the following eligibility criteria:

• Is a registered TU Dublin student
• Is currently completing, or has previously completed, an entrepreneurship programme with TU Dublin (for example, the Enterprise Ireland New Frontiers programme)
• Is a limited company registered with Companies Registration Office (CRO) and based in the Dublin City, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, or South Dublin local authority areas
• Is registered as a client with a Local Enterprise Office in Dublin City, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, or South Dublin local authority areas
• Is based in the Dublin City, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, or South Dublin local authority areas and not registered with any other Local Enterprise Office

Other terms and conditions apply, for more information visit the TU Dublin website.