Eight finalists chosen following nationwide search
Gerard Doherty (Blueface), Malcolm Donnellan (Simply Phone to Photo), Cristina Luminea (ThoughtBox), Nigel Heneghan (Heneghan PR), Alan Foy (CEO Blueface), Gerry Reynolds (Leitrim County Enterprise Board)
The excitement is intensifying here in Blueface as the final of our Blueface Elevator competition approaches. We’re had a crazy few weeks travelling around the country, meeting start-ups and entrepreneurs, and seeing countless amazing, original and inspiring ideas! It’s been great fun and we hope to keep in touch with everyone we’ve met!
Last weekend was our final heat in Carphone Warehouse, Carrick on Shannon, and we certainly went out with a bang. Nine great contestants pitched on the day and the standard was so high, the judges picked two joint winners to go through to the final!
That means we now have nine finalists who will compete for the grand prize on the 14th of July in the Westbury Hotel, Dublin. These companies emerged as strong contenders in their respective heats and we are looking forward to hearing more about their companies at the final event. They are:
Drogheda winner, CleverMiles, who have developed a system of interactive driver monitoring, education and incentivising which aims to reduce road traffic accidents and save lives
Galway winner, Ireland’s Raw Kitchen, which is to become the first company to manufacture Raw Seaweed Noodles using cold-pressed organic vegetable juice, super food powders, medicinal herbs/mushrooms and organic Irish seaweed.
Cork winner, RigBag, which is an online subscription based platform that aims to bring the action sports community together, providing athletes with a platform to buy, sell, or swap, new and secondhand equipment, get information, trade tips, keep in touch, find jobs and book events.
Kilkenny winner, Fantasy5live, a new social media site, integrating real time Irish fantasy online sports, which offers competitors the chance to play an exciting and strategic game in a fun filled competitive environment.
Limerick winner, New Age Memorials, an innovative Glassfibre headstone business which offers a modern weather and age-proof solution for headstones and monuments.
Dublin joint winners, Oral Eye, the world’s first online dental checkup service, which offers a fast, convenient and low cost dental consultancy, and MotionFox, which has developed a range of clothes that bridge the gap between safetywear and sportswear.
Carrick-On-Shannon winners, ThoughtBox, an educational software provider that encourages children to discover educational principles through games in specific subject areas and Simply Phone to Photo, an iphone application that allows users to print photos directly from their mobile phone.
Check out any of the websites above to find out more about these great companies.
The final itself will include pitches from finalists, followed by questions from judges and audience members. The prize up for grabs is an amazing €60,000 fund of business services including telephony services (Blueface), mobile handsets and tablets (Carphone Warehouse), advertising (Newstalk 106-108FM), public relations (Heneghan PR) accountancy advice (Gorman Quigley Penrose) and legal advice.
We’ve also put together a very special judging panel for the final, with guest judges, Constantin Gurdgiev, economist, and Brian Fallon of Daft.ie and Journal.ie, joining Alan Foy CEO Blueface; Peter Scott General Manager Carphone Warehouse; David Gorman, Managing Partner at Gorman Quigley Penrose; and Nigel Heneghan, MD of Heneghan PR to choose a winner on the day.
So watch this space for more info about the Blueface Elevator Grand Final, and if you’re around Grafton St, Dublin, next Saturday between 12 and 2pm, come down and get a look at some of the finalists, or have a chat with the Blueface team, we’d love to see you!
Janelle
