Inaugural Digital Dún Laoghaire meetup to discuss scaling of Digital Companies

Digital Dún Laoghaire – an initiative of Dún Laoghaire Business Improvement District to develop the town as a Digital Hub – is inviting digital/tech entrepreneurs and business leaders to attend a series of monthly breakfast meetings to strengthen connections between the members of the digital community in the town.

The focus of the meetings will be to discuss how technology companies in Dún Laoghaire can be supported in growing their companies and how this can be encouraged and facilitated.

The first in a series of six monthly meetings will take place on Wednesday the 14th December in Starbuck’s on Marine Road (next to Nando’s) in Dún Laoghaire Town Centre.

The meeting will begin with networking at 7.30am, followed by a presentation and discussion from 8-8.45am.

Entitled How to scale your digital/tech company – lessons from the frontline the inaugural meetup will discuss the key factors needed to scale a digital/tech company. The guest speakers for the inaugural meeting include:

– John Whelan, Executive Director of Blackstone LaunchPad at Trinity College Dublin.
– Ian O’Sullivan, Product Leader StartPath Accelerator at MasterCard.

Digital Dún Laoghaire was officially launched by Minister Mitchell O’Connor and the Chairman of Dún Laoghaire Business Improvement District, Anthony Quigley, last September and the project aims to support the growth of digital companies in creating 450 new jobs over the course of the next two years by building strong collaboration.

Digital Dún Laoghaire Project Director, Eoin Costello (former CEO of Startup Ireland) said: “The aim of the project is to support the growth ambitions of digital entrepreneurs by looking at the success factors behind other digital centres like the Digital Hub in Dublin 8. In this work we hope to attract more digital, high growth companies to Dún Laoghaire to form a strong cluster for the jobs and innovation that this will create.”

Currently, over 60 digital/tech companies are located in Dún Laoghaire, ranging from startups (like Zoom Courier Software, A To Where or NewsLinn) to international companies (like Digital Marketing Institute, Rockall Technologies and Bank of Ireland Payment Acceptance).

A survey conducted by Digital Dún Laoghaire last Autumn found that 61% of companies believed being part of a digital cluster would increase the likelihood of their success, with 52% saying it would make easier to recruit the right kind of talent.

Chairperson of the Dún Laoghaire Business Improvement District Anthony Quigley said entrepreneurs find it very challenging to scale up their businesses.

“The big challenges they face are accessing the space, supports, clients and funding they need to scale successfully. Our goal at Digital Dun Laoghaire is to help tackle these obstacles head on and provide an environment that is extremely supportive to the growth ambitions of digital scaleups.”