Pictured: Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD (centre), and SPRINT participants Tony Riley and Fionnuala Healy of Gotcha Ninjas, a cloud-based social learning rewards platform for primary schools
Enterprise Ireland has revealed details of SPRINT, a new initiative designed to help start-up founders in the digital content sector shorten the timescale from product development to paying customers.
The pilot programme will start in December 2013 and run for six months.
Places on SPRINT will be awarded to successful applicants of the Digital Content Competitive Start Fund (CSF) which was launched in September 2013. A small number of places are also available to digital content companies who were successful in achieving CSF in previous years, on a competitive basis. The closing date for applications is 4 November 2013.
“We are determined to achieve greater levels of growth among Irish start-up companies,” the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD said from the US where he is currently on a five-day investment mission.
“SPRINT sets out to fundamentally change the way Irish start-ups are built by equipping founders with the tools to get to product/market fit faster – ultimately resulting in the creation of more jobs in Ireland,” Bruton said.
Access to experts
SPRINT will be delivered by Enterprise Ireland in partnership with Select Strategies who delivered Enterprise Ireland’s successful iGAP programme over the last four years.
The fee for participation on SPRINT is €2,000 per company (with up to two participants per company). The programme will be held at Liffey Trust Studios in Dublin.
Using a combination of face-to-face facilitation, web-enabled learning and support from an experienced implementation coach, SPRINT will be delivered through a series of two-day modules over a six month period, and will provide access to experts from Silicon Valley and also from the Irish start-up sector.
“Every start-up founder knows that the greatest challenge they face is to deliver products that customers want and are prepared to pay for,” said Jennifer Condon, head of software at Enterprise Ireland.
“The timeline to find these customers is tight and the runway is limited. SPRINT will help founders address these challenges and get paying customers faster.”
