The New York Digital Irish and IrishCentral hosted an event for Irish startups in New York on Monday. The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs was present at the event to learn about each startup and also to listen to their thoughts about business in Ireland today.

Feargall Kenny, founder of NY Digital Irish (NYDI), started the discussion with a brief introduction about NYDI. He spoke about the work NYDI has done with Irish startups to date. He also went on to discuss how NYDI plans to expand out of New York to a non-profit organization and develop chapters all over the globe.

The Irish government minister Charlie Flanagan expressed his interest in the New York Irish start-up scene and he was very enthusiastic to hear about the success of the companies.

Each startup delivered their business model and company ethos to the audience, which included the minister and his advisors, the Consul General of Ireland, Barbara Jones and Deputy Consul General, Anna McGillicuddy.

The speakers included:

  • Oran Bambrick from Fantom. Fantom is an online sticker album publisher and software developer founded in 2009. The company both sells the software platform to brands and licenses content onto its platform to create online sticker albums.

  • Peter Coppinger of Teamwork.com. Teamwork.com is a comprehensive, easy to use suite of collaboration tools for projects. The platform can literally be used from large enterprises on down to sole proprietors.

  • Brian Cullinane from Video Elephant. Video Elephant creates high quality, professional content videos, offering a simple and efficient e-commerce solution for your business needs.

  • Niall Swan from Soccer Resort. Soccer Resort organizes tournaments and team building events across the USA. Niall was previously a marketing consultant to Carlsberg for their soccer marketing initiatives in the U.S.A.

  • Ann Kavanagh from MatchPad. MatchPad is a fresh approach to finding roommates and renting apartments. Think of it as Match.com, but for a roommate. It’s an important relationship and can make or break a living situation.

  • Oisin Hanranhan of Handy, formally known as Handybook. Handy is the leading platform for connecting individuals looking for household services with top-quality, pre-screened independent service professionals.

A few of the speakers had interesting tips for the minister. Peter from Teamwork.com mentioned how Ireland should focus on online software development. He explained to the minister that skills in this area should be taught in schools around the country. He also added that “Ireland has a lot of intelligent people” and what sets us out from the crowd is that “we are an incredibly hardworking nation.”

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