Waterford’s best young entrepreneurs win investment of €50,000

Judge Frank O' Regan, winner Lyndsey Power and Lar Power

Conor Browne, Padraig O’Scanaill and Lyndsey Power have been named as Waterford’s best young entrepreneurs, and have won an investment of €50,000 between them, as part of the €2 million Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition.

Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur is an integral part of the Action Plan for Jobs 2014 and is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through the Local Enterprise Offices.

At a function at the Medieval Museum’s Garden Room on Friday October 10th, awards were made for Waterford’s best start-up, the best new idea, and the best existing business were as follows:

Waterford’s best start-up is Padraig O’Scanaill  Padraig’s company ‘FundRecs’ develops cloud based reconciliation software for the funds industry.

Waterford’s best new idea is Conor Browne who developed a social media app called Grumble, designed to connect you with people you already know anonymously and enable you to speak honestly about things you may not necessarily say face to face.

Waterford best existing business is Lyndsey Power of the South East’s first interactive doggie day care and training centre, Inn the Doghouse.  Lyndsey is a qualified dog groomer, trainer and Canine Behaviour Consultant.

Director of Economic Development for Waterford City and County, Lar Power explained the importance of this initiative, “The aim of the Economic Development Department is to co-ordinate the City and County Council's work and interaction with communities and to support the economic development of the city and county. The IBYE initiative is important to these aims, it encourages and supports the next generation of enterprise in Waterford City and County. I’d like to congratulate all the finalists and entries and wish our three nominations the very best in the next stage of the competition.”

This initiative was created by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD to be implemented by Enterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Offices. Central to his plans for jobs and growth is supporting more businesses to start-up as two thirds of all new jobs are created by start-ups.

That is why he put in place the entrepreneurship forum and that is why he established the Local Enterprise Offices, to provide more and better Government supports to businesses in one easily-accessible place at local level.

The three judges were well known Waterford business people, David Breen, Frank O’Regan and Regina Mangan. Speaking on their behalf, David Breen outlined just how tough the judging process was, “Given the overall standard of entry, there wasn’t an easy decision on the winner in any category, each was vigorously debated amongst the judges. It was a long but thoroughly rewarding day. It was also a distinct pleasure meeting each of the finalists and we hope the winners’ progress within the national forum will make our county proud.”

The three businesses will now go through to regional finals in Cork where they will compete for the right to go through to the national finals and ultimately compete for the award of being named Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur at a ceremony on 6th December 2014.