Dogpatch Labs launches talent accelerator to find individuals with ‘exceptional potential’

Regional hubs to act as ecosystem partners and talent scouts

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Dogpatch Labs and its regional partner hubs have opened entries to ‘Founders’, a new accelerator programme aiming to bring together Ireland’s ‘most exceptional individuals’ to meet a co-founder and build the next generation of digital start-ups.

Its regional hubs such as Portershed in Galway, RDI Hub in Kerry and Republic of Work in Cork will act as ecosystem partners and talent scouts, helping identify participants for the programme.

The programme will invest in people, rather than start-up ideas, and offers a network to find a co-founder, build a startup, and pitch for €100,000 investment.  

The programme is divided into two phases: The first phase is an intensive three-month programme, Formation, which is focused on finding a co-founder, and pitching for €100,000 equity investment.

The second phase. Accelerate, is for start-ups that receive investment to scale a globally impactful company.

Throughout both phases the participants will benefit from mentorship from renowned engineers, technologists, and founders such as Bobby Healy, founder and CEO of drone delivery company Manna, entrepreneur and broadcaster, Aine Kerr, co-founder of Kinzen, and Stephen Kinsella, director of the immersive software engineering programme at the University of Limerick.

Founders follows a major global trend towards ‘talent investing’ over the last decade, with talent accelerators now emerging as a key building block of major start-up ecosystems.

The programme is looking to broadly recruit a cohort made up of 50% business backgrounds, for example those with sales or go-to-market experience or domain experts in a unique field and 50% from technical backgrounds; those that have backgrounds in software engineering, computer science, product building or PHDs in areas such as data science or AI.

There is no target age range or required level of experience to apply for the programme, the only specific requisite being the ability to problem solve at pace and the ambition to find a high-growth startup, what the team term ‘founder potential’. 

The pilot programme is funded by returns from successful investments in Irish start-ups through the NDRC, which reinvests in initiatives that support the creation of world-class digital companies.

“This initiative marks a new pathway to entrepreneurship for many who may not have the network or funding to build a startup otherwise,” said NDRC board director, Jon Bradford. “The programme adds a complementary building block to the existing start-up ecosystem.”  

Dogpatch Labs CEO Patrick Walsh said: “Over the last decade, we’ve been lucky to work with thousands of incredible entrepreneurs. With Founders, we engineer for finding the best co-founder partnerships by curating a cohort that is committed to building a world class company now. It is our belief that there is a huge untapped talent pool in Ireland that we want to unlock.

“We’re investing first in talent more than just the business ideas which come later. We’re hyper focused on bringing together a diverse group of individuals with a wide range of skills and backgrounds to work together on ideas that can become truly global businesses.” 

TechCentral Reporters

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