Business
Everything feels right for Galway start-up
An award-winning Galway tech start-up company has been accepted onto Enterprise Ireland’s National Entrepreneur Development Programme.
Feelsright, which will now participate in Enterprise Ireland’s New Frontiers Phase Two in GMIT, is a SAAS cloud based employee reward, recognition and compensation platform, which enables staff to crowd-source their personal to-do list to local verified service providers.
When employers and employees think “workplace perks,” they typically think of game rooms, happy hours and the like.
Often overlooked are perks that pack a big punch in terms of savings on time and money (and an even bigger ROI). Helping employees with their chores has an obvious benefit for employees, but what about employers?
Employers benefit from offering concierge services by increasing individual productivity and engagement through the reduction in the amount of time employees spend on non-work-related activities during the work day.
The work-life balance that results from Feelsright increases employee-engagement levels by more than 20%. Think about that: Less time spent running errands during the work day means more time that can be spent on the task at hand.
New Frontiers emerged in 2012 and is funded and managed by Enterprise Ireland, and delivered at a local level by the Institutes of Technology.
However, New Frontiers is not an academic programme and is delivered by seasoned business practitioners and entrepreneurs. It is a three-phased programme, based in 14 campus incubation centres across the country. Each year, New Frontiers funds 150 companies.
Phase Two placements are given to companies who have completed a competitive selection process, have a strong value proposition and have demonstrated their business proposition has potential to grow and create jobs.
The programme includes intensive support for six months to develop skills and to work up the business proposition by identifying potential customers, sales channels and funding options.
“Feelsright is harnessing peer-to-peer communities to create not only happier, more productive and engaged staff, but to also drive local economy for SMEs,” explained Feelsright’s CEO and co-founder Tara Dalrymple.
“It’s there for companies to buy credit for their staff to have personal tasks completed for them while they are working, such as cleaning, dog walking, food shopping, errand running, sourcing trusted tradespeople, waiting in for deliveries and more,” she added.
Feelsright won the SCCUL ‘ICT’ One to Watch 2014; it was a recipient of the IEDR Optimise Fund 2014 and was listed in Silicon Republic’s top 20 Tech Startups to watch in 2015.
The new President of Local Ireland, the association representing local news publishers around the country, is Head of Irish Times Regionals Dan Linehan.
Mr Linehan takes over the presidency from Declan McGuire of the Connacht Tribune. His appointment was confirmed at the recent Annual General Meeting of Local Ireland at Bloomfield House Hotel near Mullingar, Westmeath.
Mr Linehan, who has served as Vice President of the organisation for the last two years, said: “The coming years are a very important time for local publishers with many important issues to be addressed, including the implementation of the Future of Media Commission recommendations, defamation reform, the role and support for local publishers in public service reporting and helping publishers develop commercial digital offerings.”
Speaking at the AGM, Mr McGuire acknowledged the work done by the Executive in the past two years under the direction of Executive Director, Bob Hughes, on several projects related to the publishing industry but most especially the successful conclusion of the long-running campaign for the abolition of VAT on newspapers.
He also wished Mr Linehan the very best in his new role as President of the association for the next two years.
Mr Hughes thanked Mr McGuire for his leadership and support during his term of office and said he looked forward to working with Mr Linehan on the key policy priorities for the association, including Government supports, Government advertising, fair remuneration for content from the tech platforms and the reform of the legislation for defamation.
Local Ireland members also elected Seán Mahon, Managing Director of the Southern Star, as Vice President for the next two years.
The shortage of affordable housing is the single biggest impediment in attracting and retaining workers in the West, according to business group Ibec.
At a ‘Regional Insights Series’ meeting in the Galmont Hotel in Galway last week, employers were told that capacity constraints and labour supply are the key challenges facing business growth in the region.
Ibec Head of Regional Policy Helen Leahy said: “There must be greater focus by government on enhancing quality of life issues such as housing and infrastructure which are driving labour shortages in the region.
“Ibec’s vision for the West is to realise its potential to become a globally competitive location. An inadequate supply of affordable housing is now the single largest impediment to attracting and retaining talented workers, without whom business investment and expansions are not possible.
“Labour shortages are a real concern for businesses in the region. People decide where to live and work based on quality of life and access to high quality services and amenities. Industry tends to follow talent, and in this regard, the region needs to have all the building blocks in place as the attraction and retention of world-class talent becomes increasingly competitive on a global level,” said Ms Leahy.
Amongst Ibec’s priorities for the West are:
- Addressing housing and infrastructure challenges
- Transitioning towards a new growth model with Net Zero energy powered by Atlantic offshore wind resources
- Adapting businesses to the new economic realities
- Enhancing capacity and skillsets to achieve sustainable development objectives
- Investment in people and skills
- Creating competitive advantage through digitalisation
- Innovation as a key driver of productivity growth
One in five Galway businesses want to go fully cashless, as the move towards card payments and tapping continues unabated post-Covid.
In all, 22% of Galway businesses would like to be fully cashless, according to a survey carried out by BOI Payment Acceptance (BOIPA), a provider of payment technology solutions, which asked Irish businesses about the current payment landscape as well as business confidence and concerns.
Over one-third (36%) of Galway businesses were unaware there is no contactless limit on mobile wallets – just below the national average – while 54% believe the increase in card over cash transactions has helped them run their business.
Six out of ten Galway businesses expect to grow this year despite the cost-of-living crisis and running costs dominating as key concerns; 62% believe their business will grow over the next twelve months despite global economic uncertainty.
Unsurprisingly cost-of-living increases and running costs were the main concerns the majority of businesses had.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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