The TES Incubator Pitch Night, sponsored by Elkstone, was held in the Tangent Main Event Hall, 1st Floor, Dublin Business School, Trinity College Dublin on the 3rd October 2019 on a stormy (Lorenzo) evening.

The event was completely booked out and the attendance was a full house to see 14 teams pitch for 8 places in the esteemed TES Start-up Incubator Mentoring Program 2019/2020. 

Each team had a strict 3 minute pitch with presentation along with 2 minutes Q&A by a leading panel of Business Professional Judges who were not going to go easy on their questions for each team.

We kicked off the night with advisor.works who pitched a solution to the problem of dropout rates of students in postgraduate studies by offering global real-time professional advisors. With 8,000 active members and 18 active business leader advisors on-board, the bar was set to a high standard.

Next up was ARea, an AR / VR Solution for renting expensive office space via a VR device that offers a VR Office Space for start-ups globally. The advantage of this system over Slack was that users ‘felt in the same place!’ and over time they had a compelling pitch.

Next was CAMPA, a company that provides a solution to the aftermath of festivals by offering reusable rental tents. These would be sold B2B, set up and rented to festival goers. These Dome Shaped Elevated Tents made from recycled plastic would be waxed and flame retardant. With a global market of 1 billion they feel they can excel against costly glamping competitors.

Conquer Media were the first team to have actual clients. They are in the Digital Development Services Industry and provide student value and business scalability. Cheaper than the €10k – €20k market by €8.5k – €17k the market size is in the trillions. Competitors include Armour whose products are more expensive, and Upwork which do not have the same superior quality they provide. To date they have turned a profit of €10k with 10 websites.

CROWD are a Casual Event Creation company whose competitors include Bumble and Meetup. Their main difference is that there are not so many steps involved to navigate their system as others. The Core System is a standardised event creation module with One-Touch Technology. It can be aimed towards travelers who are new to a city, for example. The revenue is created from subscriptions and the premium user community. www.crowdapp.com

EiSHT is a Personal and Professional Development programme designed to promote an Emotional Intelligence, Skills, Employability, Professionalism, Gratitude and Social Citizenship solution for the youth of today.  They have measured the quality of their results on the young people who have completed the trials. They have come to the Incubator for Inclusion, Mentorship and Learning Management Workshops.

Forever Shampoo is a B2C solution in the concept stage. The problem is single-use plastic and their solution is a reusable shampoo bottle where you buy a tablet that you mix with water. Their market is socially aware customers and their competition is shampoo bars. Their revenue model will rely on postal subscriptions and Adware. They come to Incubator for Mentoring, Networking & Funding.

Fensei is a Peer-to-Peer learning and mentoring solution at a Market Value level that is not as expensive as personal mentorship. Their competition is not as exciting or engaging. Their revenue model will be comprised of subscriptions, in-app purchases and Premium Mentors. Their quality checks will be via Mentee reviews to access mentor skill levels.

Karmic Coffee Company offers a low sugar, cold textured (nitro) caffeinated beverage aiming to solve the problem of sugar filled cola and competitor cold coffees. In the EU the average person consumes 5kg of coffee per year. Their competition seems to only be Starbucks and their unique selling point (USP) is Locally Produced Coffee with prolonged shelf life.

MediTree is a solution to the healthcare service to Automate and Diagnoses through Machine Learning & AI. It is targeted at healthcare professionals via a healthcare platform. Phase 1 will tackle Blood Samples, Phase 2 will tackle blood PODS which Phase 3 will incorporate into Workflow AI Models for phlebotomists. Competitors include Evolve.

MEC is a Biotech Device solving the problem of culturing cells in Petri dishes which solves the Shear Stress Range Problem. The solution is In Vitro Cell System for Research Labs where the global market value is approximately $12.7 billion. Their competition is the IBIDI System costing $23,000 while they are on their second prototype costing $300-$500 to produce at present.

REZero has a solution for the Single Use Plastic Problem. This is a Swiss-manufactured durable, reusable takeaway container worked on a Deposit/Return Model. Market competitors include CoCup and down2earth. They have sourced the containers from Switzerland and are talking to 3-5 clients at present. They hold the sole distribution rights for Ireland. The enticing nature of this product is that it poses zero cost to consumers.

Sweet Tooth App provides quick tasty treats (desserts) to all focusing on speed and quality. Their business model will be B2B and Subscriptions with a target market of 24-35 year-olds. Their competition is Just Eat and Deliveroo but they intend to improve the model by putting a strong emphasis on customer first.

Wave Tuk Tuk is a €1 Ride (Max 3km) for elderly people who like to be independent. Instead of walking 700 m to public transport they hire a Tuk Tuk for €1. The target market are students in college or the elderly. They plan to launch a location dependent service in Asia, Africa and the UK. The return on investment is the driver purchasing the Tuk Tuk for €2.5k, running the service and selling it on within 3 years.

The places were awarded to REZero, Karmic Coffee Company, Forever Shampoo, Conquer Media, EiSHT, CAMPA, MediTree and MEC with a wildcard place still up for grabs.

Joseph Keegan

TES Incubator Ambassador

BSc (Hons) Computing (Data Analytics)