Four aspiring entrepreneurs recently took up their desks at Boxworks Co Work Space, as part of a Local Enterprise Office Waterford scholarship programme.

The Desk programme, helmed by LEO Waterford, was designed to facilitate those with a business idea or in start-up phase.   By providing a creative coworking and networking environment for the next six months, the businesses will be well positioned to put their specific goals in place with the aid of monthly virtual meetings with a LEO business advisor.

The four businesses to avail of free desk space and enjoy the benefits of a coworking environment are AM Deady Design, a graphic design and illustration studio founded by Anne Marie Deady.  Dilate is the brainchild of Padraig Spillane, a mobile application that informs charities of the location of rough sleepers in order to help outreach teams arrange food, and accommodation.  Eleanor Roche Travel Counsellor provides personal travel planning services specialising in luxury tailormade holidays, while tech-entrepreneur Jordan Casey takes up his Boxworks tenure for his companies, Hub Digital and Tablepay.

Local Enterprise Office Waterford Desk Programme scholars Anne Marie Deady, Jordan Casey, Padraig Spillane and Eleanor Roche with David Walsh, Local Enterprise Office Waterford and Jim ‘Flash’ Gordan of Boxworks. Photo: David Murphy.

Padraig Spillane will be taking full advantage of his Boxworks residency to further develop his non-profit application.  Dilate is a mobile app where the public will be able to inform homeless charities of rough sleepers instantly using geolocation.  Outreach teams will then respond, having a GPS to their location, with food, drink and aiming to get them into accommodation.

Padraig is looking forward to progressing the company from his new base at Boxworks.

“It’s great to be involved with such a programme as it gives us the impetus, determination and focus required as we plan a full launch of the service in Dublin in the coming weeks.  As a free service available to the public, we believe that Dilate will help those who find themselves in challenging situations, by giving them access to food, shelter and mental health services.”

“Being in Boxworks as part of the LEO Waterford Desk programme will also help me to grow my network with Waterford based businesses and work on developing a similar app, which informs relevant authorities about animal abuse and neglect.  It’s a great location with access to like-minded entrepreneurs and the opportunity to bounce ideas around about the best ways to affect positive change.”

Jacqui Gaule, Local Enterprise Office Waterford, was delighted to welcome the entrepreneurs to their new workspaces.  “The last year has caused so much disruption and upheaval.  Now that there is a tentative reopening of the economy, we really feel that this is time for entrepreneurship to flourish.”

“The dedicated workspaces are a hub for productivity, creativity and connectivity, so we’re confident that this new cohort of start-ups will benefit hugely from their placements.”

If your business in pre-start, start-up or established business phase and would like to find out more about what business support services are available from LEO Waterford, you can call their offices on 0761 102905 or visit www.localenterprise.ie/Waterford/