Eircom Business Funding

Innov

Does anyone know about the funding that eircom has announced for start-ups. I have some original ideas but unable to find how to get the funding. Any help will be appreciated.

Dabko

innov

have a look here http://www.eircom.net/labs/

ljk

This is a great initiatice in the current market. I have a widget idea that I might enter. ANyone enter last year and know what the competition is like?

Innov

Thanks Dabco

Got a formal invitation from eircom.

eircom would like to continue stimulate innovation in the online sector by announcing the second Web Innovation Competition. eircom launched it’s second Annual Web Innovation Fund worth €100,000 to promote, mentor and sponsor innovative web applications in the Irish Internet industry. This year the competition has seven categories:
1. Content (e.g. video, short films, animations, UGC)
2. Movies and TV (e.g. programme recommendations, listings application, information aggregation, content search, fan communities, recommender systems)
3. Games (e.g. Flash games, game communities, platforms, multiplayer games, persistent worlds, avatar-based social networks, game creation tools, ratings, reviews, gambling)
4. News (e.g. personalised news gathering, news aggregation, news submission tools, communities of interest, domain-specific news services)
5. Music (e.g. Internet radio, streaming / OD services, search / recommendations / personalisation, community tools)
6. Sport (e.g. communities, results aggregation, results prediction, betting, games)
7. Widgets (e.g. any widget(s) based on the above or additional categories)

In order to file in the proposals applicants are asked to go to http://labs.eircom.net/, download the application and forward the completed application to eircomlabs@eircom.net.
Four winners will be selected and each winning applicants will get prize worth €25,000 along with additional consultancy, development, training and support from Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (TSSG) www.tssg.ie. These finalists will also be invited to the Golden Spider Awards http://www.goldenspiders.ie/ sponsored by eircom.

Timing of the eircom’s Web Innovation Competition:
Submission starts - 20 February 2009
Submission Deadline - 30th April 2009
Finalist announcement - 29th May 2009
Winners’ services launched on eirocm.net - November 2008

Programme Manager
eircomlabs@eircom.net

Darragh29

They were doing great until they mentioned the Golden Spider awards. The businesses I know of that have won a Golden Spider Award have all had sh*tty sites and just happened to have paid 3K for a table or two at the awards night. Thay have lost a lot of credibility on this front in my eyes.

ljk

Hi Darragh,

But the sites that won were good no? I remeber seeing a list and thought they all deserved it!

I see eircom have a widget page now (widgets.eircom.net) so might help if I gear thsi entry towards that. What do ya reckon?

Darragh29

ljk wrote: »

Hi Darragh,

But the sites that won were good no? I remeber seeing a list and thought they all deserved it!

I see eircom have a widget page now (widgets.eircom.net) so might help if I gear thsi entry towards that. What do ya reckon?

The Golden Spiders are well known for being awarded based on tables being bought for the awards ceremony. If you aren't in a position to fork out for a table or two, I don't think you could expect to win an award... That's what I've been hearing consistently anyway...

bonjanee

I dont think its as clear cut as that - the judging panel has had some good people on it the past few years. I think there is pressure put on companies who have been nominated to buy tables so they can see if they win or not, but I doubt if they are as blatant as having an awards-to-seats-bought ratio going.

I think the eircom labs initiative might have been launched to counter this claim... anyone enter this last year? After the initial application phase was there much more required of the companies ie: was there a Dragon's Den phase to it where companies had to present and answer questions about their ideas?

thanks -

antoinolachtnai

Darragh, I have been a judge on the Golden Spiders, and the people you are hearing from consistently are talking rubbish. It's not a perfect process by any means, but generally, prizes are awarded based on merit.

The number of tables or seats booked by particular companies is not known to the judges and was certainly not taken into account.

Maybe I was subject to a deception, and if you have any further information to substantiate your claim, let's hear it.

bonjanee

I think someone is upset that they didn't win a prize last year!!

Darragh29

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

Darragh, I have been a judge on the Golden Spiders, and the people you are hearing from consistently are talking rubbish. It's not a perfect process by any means, but generally, prizes are awarded based on merit.

The number of tables or seats booked by particular companies is not known to the judges and was certainly not taken into account.

Maybe I was subject to a deception, and if you have any further information to substantiate your claim, let's hear it.

Obviously I'm not going to get into it on a public forum but some of the websites that have obtained a Golden Spider defy explanation. And it just happened that these same websites had bought a table at 3K a pop to attend the awards ceremony. You also have the same businesses winning awards over a protracted period of time, which speaks for itself in my opinion.

bonjanee wrote: »

I think someone is upset that they didn't win a prize last year!!

I never entered the Golden Spiders.

ljk

Perhaps they're paying the 3K as they're in the running to win? Not make sense?!! Either way I'm going to enter this innovation fund and give it a shot..nothing to lose

bonjanee

And it just happened that these same websites had bought a table at 3K a pop to attend the awards ceremony. You also have the same businesses winning awards over a protracted period of time, which speaks for itself in my opinion.

I think the real issue here is industry-wide perception of the worth of the awards. I think there is a small pool of companies that will sumbit every year regardless and hence that's why the same names are always cropping up in the results. That said - there have been some clangers from the judges in recent years in terms of companies that won that weren't nessarily the best in their group. I wouldnt put this down to who is buying tables (one that springs to mind was a fairly large and well represented comany that lost out to very small start-up, when there was absolutely no comparison between the two sites - large company was streets ahead - not naming names).

Anyway - my point is the Spiders are in danger of becoming irrelevant - I've been pretty much every year since 1999 and the same old faces are always there - no bad thing as its a good night to meet up with people I've worked with over the years. But I don't think it has the same relevance to the new breed of developers and start-ups out there - hence why I think the innovation fund is much more relevant.

antoinolachtnai

Well, it's a long way off perfect, for sure. There are a lot of things to consider.

Anyway, the organizers are very open to feedback, so post away at comments about what you think could be done better. If you have issues with particular decisions from this year's award and don't want to get into a boards discussion about it (probably very wise), pm me, i'll pass the message on.

Darragh29

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

Well, it's a long way off perfect, for sure. There are a lot of things to consider.

Anyway, the organizers are very open to feedback, so post away at comments about what you think could be done better. If you have issues with particular decisions from this year's award and don't want to get into a boards discussion about it (probably very wise), pm me, i'll pass the message on.

There is at least the appearace of an association between tables bought at the awards night and businesses that consistently win awards year after year and I've had several discussions with other people within the industry about this and this would seem to be the general consensus. It only became apparent to me after someone mentioned this phemonon to me and actually predicted that one particular business would win an award on this basis on year and sure enough, it did win an award that year! And I think I could say from looking at the website and the concept, it certainly wasn't anything innovative or creative.

If there has been some transparency introduced in recent times, then great and I hope it eliminates some of the doubt and cynicism that has been hanging over the Golden Spider Awards in recent years.

Innov

I agree with ljk, the only way to find out is by entering the web innovation competition and winning it. I found many members have an idea but don’t know where to start, I think this is an excellent opportunity.

I went to the http://labs.eircom.net (thanks Dabko) link and the FAQs section found out more about it.

The beauty of the competition is that your Intellectual Property will be protected and fully owned by the winners, eircom will not claim any share in the winning company. Developed applications will be linked through eircom.net for the first six month giving quality exposure (www.eircom.net gets around 1.2 million unique visitors per month) / platform to launch. Licence fee will also be paid by eircom for at lease six months and winners enter into commercial agreement after that. Business mentoring and training will be provided by TSSG. Seems like a nice package - worth entering!!

Innov

To enter competition and application form - see below




http://home.eircom.net/Images/portal/labs/eircom_web_innovation_fund_application_form_2009.doc

Darragh29

This is a web innovation competition and you have to download a MS Office Word document and post it back to them to apply?!?!?!? Is someone taking the p*ss, seriously!?! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Mother of Jesus, only in Ireland!

Innov

I think that is normal, even Enterprise-Ireland does that http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/Grow/Finance/Growth+Fund.htm

If you have some innovative way of doing this why don't you enter the competition?

ECL

Very good initiative in the current economic climate

Pixelcraft

Great for potential developers to get some funding this way, it's good to see.

On the golden spiders,

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

Well, it's a long way off perfect, for sure.

Getting actual industry experts to judge would be a start. Time after time poorly coded, non accessible websites are given an award, which leads to only one conclusion - the judges are not qualified to be awarding websites.

While I have no doubt the judges have great business sense, the awards are about 'recognising exellence in internet & digital media' and not about business.

ECL

What is the end date?

Innov

Closing date for eircom web innovation competition 2009 approaching soon - 30th April 2009

Innov

Would-be applicants are reminded that the deadline for entries for the second annual Eircom Web Innovation Fund is Thursday 30th April. To be in with a chance of securing some of the €100,000 funding up for grabs, start-ups should submit their applications to http://labs.eircom.net by then.

Innov

Hi guys,

The Winners of eircom web innovation fund was announced today.
Eircom's Innovation Fund, at €100,000, will be split amongst the four winners to help them develop their technology concepts into fully-fledged, commercially viable businesses

The names and more info of the winners are on http://labs.eircom.net

Thanks

patftrears

Innov wrote: »

Hi guys,

The Winners of eircom web innovation fund was announced today.
Eircom's Innovation Fund, at €100,000, will be split amongst the four winners to help them develop their technology concepts into fully-fledged, commercially viable businesses

The names and more info of the winners are on http://labs.eircom.net

Thanks

Innov do you work for the fund, do you have details on the number of applicants and some insite into what the process is and what the judges were looking for, to help people on planning an entry for next year. Thanks

Innov

My friend does, if you pass on your email address I can ask him to get in touch.

More info -
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/13598/randd/social-web-dominates-eircom-innovation-fund

ljk

Hi,

I entered this year but unfortunately didnt win. I emailed the guy in there for some feedback and I have to say he was great. Told me where I fell down and have to say he's prob right. If it's running again next year I'll give it a shot again. Anyone know anything about the winners?