Start-ups to demo their innovations at Dublin Beta gathering

12 Apr 2013

Dublin Beta is holding its next technology start-up gathering on Monday evening and 14 new ventures will be aiming to wow the crowds with their products and innovations.

The quarterly meet-up Dublin Beta has been running since last year as an informal way of giving start-ups a networking platform to engage with other tech enthusiasts, marketers and potential investors and to share perspectives on everything from legal aspects to accessing funding.

John O’Rourke is behind Dublin Beta, along with Russell Banks, one of the co-founders of the games middleware start-up Conker.

O’Rourke said 14 start-ups are set to demo at Monday’s event, which will be held in the Lost Society club in Dublin City’s South William Street. He added that a lot of younger developers are starting to show interest in Dublin Beta after young coder Shane Curran demoed his new venture Libramatic at the event last July.

As well as the companies that showcase, Dublin Beta attracts investors looking to check out what’s on offer. O’Rourke said a good chunk of attendees also tend to be in the digital or web marketing space, plus people from other start-ups.

“We get investors coming along to get under the skin of some companies. Because we don’t charge the companies to exhibit they come in with a much more social and community-focused attitude,” he explained.

For 2013, the plan is to hold more Dublin Beta events in the city. O’Rourke said the hunger is growing for this type of event, particularly with people who are developing ideas or those who have built something and have come to a point where they need to learn how to scale and get new leads.

“We are going to try get a few more events in this year and maybe focus on different elements of the start-up ecosystem or lifecycle,” added O’Rourke.

Dublin Beta on Monday will kick off at 6.15pm.

Showcasing start-ups

Here’s some more information on the 14 start-ups that will be demoing:

  • Cityhook is a web and smartphone app service to help people find the best transfers between airports and cities.
  • StockStreams monitors Twitter activity about financial instruments and stocks.
  • ParkYa is a new mobile app to help motorists find parking spots based on location, availability and price.
  • Loylap is a free mobile app that has been designed for small businesses to work together and create loyalty programmes so as to entice customers to shop locally.
  • Set up in 2011, Actus Mobile is aiming to disrupt the m-commerce space with its m:Cypher security technology.
  • NurseBuddy is a tool targeted at nurses and carers to help them manage homecare schedules.
  • Looplay is a music social marketplace that aims to allow artists to trade their music directly with fans and self-manage their music property rights.
  • Temptster is an app that allows restaurants and bars to display same-day deals to potential customers. Temptster was in the news earlier this week after the start-up secured a €100,000 investment on Dragons’ Den.
  • Task Messenger is a task-sharing and communication tool targeted at helping online teams increase their productivity.
  • Set up by a group of data and music enthusiasts, Seevl is a music discovery tool. It allows people to find music tailored to their tastes and can be downloaded for Deezer and YouTube.
  • Sighter is a new app that involves a treasure-hunting game to discover city sights using photos.
  • BrokerUltimate is cloud-based software targeted at helping insurance brokers manage and grow their businesses.
  • Founded in 2011, Nutritics provides analytical tools to nutrition professionals.
  • PerkHealth is a new wellness app that features a virtual personal fitness coach for users.

Entrepreneurship image via Shutterstock

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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