Tralee Man Wins Best Young Entrepreneur Award

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John Ross

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Domnick Walsh www.dwalshphoto.ie

Derek Counihan with his Best Young Entrepreneur award. Photo by Domnick Walsh

A TRALEE man won the top prize at the County Final of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition, which took place in the Ballygarry House Hotel earlier today.

A total of €50,000 was awarded in prizes across three different categories including best Business Idea, Best Start Up Business and Best Established Business.

The overall “Best Young Entrepreneur” for the county was named by Local Enterprise Office Kerry as Derek Counihan, age 32 from Tralee, who founded the company Harpoon.

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This business provides services to support businesses monetise their digital marketing using up to date technology. The entrepreneur also won the category for Best Start-Up Business and an investment fund from LEO Kerry worth €15,000.

The other main category winners on the day were Pádraig O’Leary, age 33, from Killarney who won the Best Business Idea with his business Cora.  Cora will provide cloud based services to assist pharmacies optimize their revenue streams through non core activities. Pádraig won a prize of €7,000.

David Monson, aged 31, from Ballyheigue, of Monson Irish Jewellery, won the Best Established Business category and a prize of €15,000.

All three category winners will now be representing the County at one of eight IBYE Regional Finals, taking place during January and February 2017.

Meanwhile, the category runners-up also shared an investment of €13,000 between their three businesses. They were: Rowan Copeland, aged 21, Castlegregory in the Best Business Idea category with Go Yeti; Joseph Moynihan, aged 27, JM Agri-Design, Tralee in the Best Start-Up Business category and Jessica Clinton, aged 34, Ballyhar Foods, in the Best Established Business category.

Tomás Hayes, the Head of Local Enterprise with Local Enterprise Office Kerry said: “Our office started the search to find Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur in August and the competition received a record-breaking number of entries this year, with 1,800 young entrepreneurs applying nationally.  After a very successful IBYE bootcamp and County Final, the future is bright for both youth entrepreneurship and job creation in the region.”

These sentiments were echoed by Moira Murrell, the Chief Executive of Kerry County Council who commended the participants on the very high standard of the applications received.

Special guests at the IBYE County Final included the Mayor of Kerry, Cllr Michael O’Shea, Jerry Moloney, Regional Manager of Enterprise Ireland and Moira Murrell, Chief Executive of Kerry County Council.

The Regional Finals for IBYE to select 24 national finalists across the three competition categories will take place in January and February 2017.

Further details on the competition and supports available to young entrepreneurs are available through www.localenterprise.ie and from the IBYE website at www.ibye.ie.

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