We made it into the Wayra Dublin Academy 2014

Yesterday Marco, Vinnie and myself spent the day at the Telefonica offices pitching to be part of the Dublin Academy, an incubator program organised by Wayra, owned by telco giant Telefonica.  We were one of 15 finalists who got to spend the day seeing what Wayra was all about.  We were treated to interesting talks, mentoring, plenty of food – and the all important pitch.

The competition was really tough with startups at every stage and in every field.  I chatted with several companies enviously hearing about their multiple paying customers and interesting business models.  The pitch itself was pretty nerve-wrecking with a curtained corridor leading to an Apprentice style set-up – 7 intense looking judges waiting to pick holes in your pitch.  But they were great and asked intelligent and probing questions.

And it went really well.  Out of the 15 finalists, 9 got picked – and we were one of them! This is amazing for us.  Not only does it mean we get to take part in a nine month intensive accelerator program, we also get office space for the company and mentoring from industry experts.

The whole day was really enjoyable and so smoothly organised by the Wayra team.  They were hugely professional and looked after all of us nervous looking folk.

We’ll be celebrating with champagne and kayaking down the Liffey past our new offices.

Check out the video of the finals.