Meet the companies on Launchpad, Ireland’s top accelerator program

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Launchpad teams wishing Gene (Redeem and Get) a Happy Birthday via Twitter. Pic: Ace Photographer Claire Burge

NewsWhip is on Launchpad, an accelerator program at the NDRC that gives tech startups a leg-up in the form of cash, office space, mentoring and introductions to investors. In return, the NDRC takes a small slice of the company. It’s a fantastic program and everyone who’s on it will rave about it if you give them half a chance.

Launchpad was recognized in a year-long study by the Kauffman Fellows as Ireland’s leading accelerator, admittedly with very close competition from two other programs – Propellor and StartupBootCamp Ireland, which I’d guess are also thronged with great startups. The three Irish programs are ranked as the 6th, 7th, and 8th best accelerators in Europe. Getting onto Launchpad was competitive – over 100 companies applied this time round.

Our office is in a hops-smelling wonderful old Guinness building, and it’s a great place to come to “work” each day. Especially over the last few days, when they’ve been filming “Titanic: Blood and Steel” outside, meaning our building is bustling with labourers, gentlemen and soldiers from 1912.

The Launchpad teams are helpful, collaborative, and eager to exchange tips and information on dealing with investors, business plans, state bodies, tough code, and all the common issues we face as new tech companies.

We just had a practice pitch day, and I took a few notes. Here’s a super brief guide to the Launchpad class of Fall 2011:

Hushvine is a social media filter that helps people and businesses separate the relevant stuff form the slew of tweets produced every day. It will be useful for normal (and power) twitter users, and has various business applications. With Hushvine, it’s time to take back control of the  digital firehose.

Boxever helps airlines become better retailers. Airlines are awful right now at selling ancillary products – as anyone who’s been through the hard sale of baggage and insurance when trying to buy a ryanair ticket knows. The Boxever platform gets rid of ‘one size fits all’ and tailors ads and sales for a given consumer of a given airline – or other enterprise. Finally, Ryanair will start badgering me with stuff I might actually buy.

Adjuno is a social commerce platform that helps people find the deals and special offers that suit them, based on social and location information. You want the daily deal that’s close to you and your friends already bought, not the one that none of your friends like that’s 100 miles away. This team traveled from Canada to join Launchpad, and have been enjoying their first slice of Dublin life, made all the more zesty by their Liberties location.

Neurohero aim to fight the isolation associated with certain illnesses and diseases – such as rehabilitation following a stroke. They create fun, interactive apps so patients can engage with their families and friends through games and activities, and help rebuild their own cognitive capacity. Worthwhile as well as cool.

Bitsmith‘s team is developing a spectacular-looking episodic game for the iPad, based on characters from Irish mythology. The game interface will better utilize the unique features of the iPad than games that have gone before. This might bring back my inner-gamer (who I lost, age 14, when I beat Mortal Kombat II and Dune II).

Buttrr enables companies to increase their online social engagement through online competitions with social features. It takes the hassle out of organizing and building a social competition by turning the whole process into a single integrated product. If you want to beef up your social presence, this is how.

GetHealth is a social app that helps people understand and improve their health habits. Keep track of what you’re eating, how much you’re working out, and how you’re doing against other fitness goals. The game socializes the process by allowing you to show off successful milestones to friends or colleagues via their app. Given all I’m reading about how important exercise is to creativity at work, this idea has (muscular) legs.

Adaptics are developing ‘hardware apps’ for the iPhone. Hardware apps are external tools which, when combined with apps in your iPhone, can turn your phone into an electronic measuring device, a weather station, or a whole bunch of other tools. Their message of ‘device convergence’ fits the trend away from multiple junky tools and towards intelligent use of what we have. iPhone pheromone detector, anyone?

iCabbi is a company with two parts – a cloud based dispatch system for taxi companies that beats everyone else on price and efficiency, and an app for consumers that allows them to easily summon a taxi. The two integrate seamlessly, meaning you can summon a cab, a cab company can be informed, and the cab can come, all at the touch of a button. Their dream: a user base so big, you’ll be able to press for an iCabbi from anywhere on earth.

Thought Box create educational software geared towards children – their first product, Numerousity for the iPad, is based around the simple premise: maths, with all its levels and challenges, is a game. The game will feed the beast of curiousity, as well as an animated green monster who grows along with your maths skills.

VideoElephant is an online video marketplace where video creators can upload their material and sell it on to any publishers or other users who are interested – like “iStock photo for video.” A way for videographers to get paid easily for their work, and publishers to find video without agencies and hassle.

Fixational‘s team has created an eye tracking technology and analytics platform that can see – via a webcam – what you look at when you’re on a website. Want to know which ad will get more eyeballs for longer? Fixational can tell you, exactly. Plus if you want to be an early tester, you can sell your eyeballs to them right now, at Fixational.com.

Redeem & Get is an online deal management tool that enables businesses that use a daily deal to collect information about the customers they get through the deal. They can turn a flurry of one off customers into a valuable database of potential repeat customers. Businesses can say goodbye to the pain of a daily deal and hello to new repeat customers.

Von Bismark is in the future of retail. Imagine shopping online for clothes, and being able to see what the clothes look like on you. Or walking past a mirror in a shop and seeing what you look like in a bunch of different clothes on sale in the shop. Already, the guys have been able to demo a system that shows you, live, with different handbags in your hands. Pools of prescient triplets, universal retina recognition, and other Minority Report technologies are also on the way, I hope.

The companies are remarkable, and with great mentoring everyone is getting better by the day. They are agile as markets develop, and have smart plans to bring their products to market. Investors: forget property and piddling returns in deposit accounts. Get onto these guys!