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| Colin Goulding, Head of SMB Publishers, EMEA, Online Partnerships Group, Google Padraig O'Scanaill, Fund Recs, winner of Best Online Promotion of a Business Award and Valerie Legrand, Ads Quality Operations Vendor Manager, EMEA, Google (Keogh Photography) |
Padraig O’ Scanaill, a young Waterford entrepreneur
and finalist in Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition, picked up
the award for the ‘Best Online Promotion of Business’ and won €1,000 worth of
Google Adwords for his company, Fund Recs.
Of the 24
finalists from 17 counties competing in the inaugural national competition, the
special award was presented to Padraig and was judged by Google to be the best
at promoting business online.
Paddy
Flynn, Director of Product Quality Operations at Google Ireland said: “The
Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition is a natural fit with the
existing ‘Google for Entrepreneurs’ programme, which aims to foster
entrepreneurship and empower the next generation of innovators to be
successful. The ‘Best Online Promotion of a Business’ Award is an extension of
that, offering one young entrepreneur the opportunity to find their audience,
extend their reach, and grow their business both locally and internationally.”
Padraig
was delighted to receive the award for his company, Fund Recs, which provides cloud based software to the Investment Funds Industry.
He said, “From start to finish the IBYE journey
has been a rewarding experience for me and for Fund Recs. We participated in invaluable business boot camps,
received great mentoring from established practitioners, won best Waterford and
Munster start-up titles and to top it all off were singled out by Google as
having a national award winning online strategy.”
“The #TeamWaterford campaign was instrumental
in driving visitors to our website. The content was engaging and interactive
and it certainly increased our company’s profile.”
Padraig added, “Despite the much heralded
economic difficulties, there has never been a better time to start a new
business. There are plenty of support
services available to start-ups, particularly through organisations such as the
Local Enterprise Offices to enable new companies to grow and become successful.”
Ciaran Cullen of Waterford Local Enterprise
Office said, “Padraig was a deserving winner of the best online promotion
award. The Fund Recs online campaign has
allowed them to grow their business and put them on an equal footing with some
of the world’s more established software providers to the global funds
industry.”
“Waterford LEO engaged the services of
Waterford marketing company, B2B Communications, to implement and manage the highly
effective #TeamWaterford social media campaign, which not only built links to
support Fund Recs SEO efforts, it gave a wider audience access to the whole
IBYE process and particularly, Padraig’s journey.”
Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition
is an integral part of the Action Plan for Jobs 2014 and is supported by the
Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through the 31 Local Enterprise
Offices around the country.
For further information about the Ireland’s
Best Young Entrepreneur competition, visit www.ibye.ie, www.localenterprise.ie or search
#TeamWaterford or #IBYE on social media.
