DCU Business School- Dragons Den

DCU Business School- Dragons Den

DCU Business School students will face a real-life Dragon’s Den encounter, presenting their plans for developing a new business idea to real-life leaders from across business areas and industries. These start-up ideas are the result of the year-long New Enterprise Development module from final year Business students in the study of Entrepreneurship.

32 Dragons from companies such as Google, Bank of Ireland, EBS, Beauchamps and Irish Rail will participate as Dragons, including Kilkenny Hurler Richie Hogan and Geraldine Freeman Managing Director Benelux at Johnson & Johnson.

This years Dragons includes a number of DCU Alumni including Patrick Thorpe, Founding Partner, Searing Point; Liam O’Halloran, CEO, Alcomis; Fran Egan, COO, ClevaMama; Dr Ui May Tan, Clinical Lead, VHI; Jane Morrin, Director of Marketing, Udemy; Sue O’Neill, Managing Director, Shellcove; Ronan Morris, Co-Founder, Together Digital, and Colin Moran, Director Retail Banking, Bank of Ireland.        

63 groups of students will present their project or prototype to a panel of dragons, facing scrutiny around all aspects of their business proposal and all elements of the product’s viability, including valuation, market research, USPs and accessing capital.

Some of the new business ventures and innovations that will be presented include:

• A wearable device that detects lactate threshold in athletes (runners)
• Sensory teddy with fragrant release capabilities for autistic children
• Smart boxing gloves that measure and track your punch performance
• Lifestyle app for long-distance drivers which improves physical and mental well-being
• Ocean waste removal product, attaching a magnetic band to plastic bottles allowing for ease of extraction
• Virtual supermarket experience from the home
• On-field soccer ball sterilization device 
• Mobile phone fire proof charging case, for those charging phones in bed at night

Previous New Enterprise Development projects have included DropChef, which went on to become a successful business, earning its founders awards such as Regional Final of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur 2018, the Regional Final of InterTrade Ireland Investor Readiness Competition 2018 and a listing in the Sunday Independent 30 Under 30.

New Enterprise Development groups have overall won over €100,000 through this process. DCU Business School is recognised in Europe as being among the top undergraduate business school in winning funding of this scale.

New Enterprise Development module coordinator and Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship Dr Eric Clinton commented: 

“The New Enterprise Development Module is of great importance to students in terms of developing their entrepreneurial skills and abilities, as well as developing an understanding of what is involved in setting up a business today. Students work in a hands-on, practical way moving beyond the theoretical, working in cross-functional teams, culminating in the boardroom pitch to the Dragons. I am inspired with the effort put in by the students and look forward to seeing some of these students as successful entrepreneurs in Ireland over the coming years”.