Donegal Diaspora Participant Wins Ambition, A Female Pre-Accelerator
A programme to develop female entrepreneurship in Donegal has been hailed as a great success. AMBITION – a female Pre-accelerator programme which concluded on December 10th and was delivered by Local Enterprise Office Donegal – attracted interest from across Ireland, the United Kingdom, Europe and the wider Diaspora. A total of 11 women-led teams – with 20 participants in total – took part in the pre-accelerator, which was designed to encourage, develop and harness the power of female entrepreneurship in Donegal. After an intense seven-week programme, the shortlisted teams made their final presentations, with Rachel Craig of EU Remote Jobs winning a €10,000 prize fund for her business.
Michael Tunney, Head of Enterprise, Donegal, said: “With the ever-increasing awareness of the ability of all businesses to operate from any location – and acknowledging the potential of our Diaspora – the Local Enterprise Office Donegal made the bold decision to open the programme to the Donegal Diaspora. This was the first such programme delivered outside of a major urban centre in Ireland and the first time that such a programme has been open to members of the Diaspora.”
“The AMBITION pre-accelerator is about giving course participants the tools they require to assess and evaluate if their idea has the potential to be viable and scalable” Michael added. “The programme provided participants with the essential start-up tools, techniques, and mentoring to help them develop their business idea into something that is potentially globally scalable. I congratulate everyone who completed AMBITION, and Rachel Craig of EU Remote Jobs on winning the €10,000 prize fund for her business. We are delighted with the success of the programme; we believe that within the programme participants there is a strong cohort of business ideas with significant growth potential and we look forward to working with the promoters in 2021. AMBITION will run again in September 2021 and is open to female founders, entrepreneurs, or those with a strong start-up idea, who have links to Donegal.”
Brenda Hegarty, Assistant Head of Enterprise, Donegal added: “We had a great response to AMBITION, Donegal's first pre-accelerator programme dedicated exclusively to female entrepreneurs. Interest for the first programme was very high with over 40 applications received from Donegal women locally, nationally and all over the world for the 11 places available. The eleven teams participating in AMBITION covered a diverse and broad spectrum of industry, each one offering a unique business concept while sharing a common entrepreneurial spirit. A special thank you to our course coordinators and business mentors for making the programme such a success. I would encourage any female entrepreneur – and indeed any woman harbouring a business idea – to consider applying for AMBITION 2021.”
Programme Director Helen Fullen said: “Thanks to all the participants for their hard work, dedication, and commitment. The judges were really impressed with the quality of the pitches and the work participants completed throughout the past seven weeks to bring their business idea from concept to pitch stage.”
Commenting on her experience of AMBITION, Rachel Craig of EU Remote Jobs said: “This was such a fantastic opportunity and I learned so much about growing and scaling my business. The fact that Donegal Local Enterprise Office made this programme available to the Diaspora meant that I could participate from where I currently live in Barcelona. I would recommend AMBITION to any women who is seriously considering developing and scaling her business or idea.”
For more information on the AMBITION pre-accelerator, contact Brenda Hegarty at Donegal Local Enterprise Office on 074 9160735 or email info@leo.donegalcoco.ie