What is First Friday for Startups?
The First Fridays for Startups event is a partnership between Dogpatch Labs, the Irish Tech Hubs Network and leading multinational technology companies. The First Friday for Startups event, which will be held virtually, includes curated expert workshops, advisory panels and fireside chats with successful founders.
Every month First Fridays will be broadcast online from one of the member hubs of the Irish Tech Hub Network – Dogpatch Labs (Dublin), Ludgate Hub (Cork), Ormeau Baths (Belfast), Portershed (Galway), RDI Hub (Kerry) and Republic of Work (Cork). Start-ups will also be able to access one-to-one mentoring sessions with employees and experts from global technology companies. More than 1,000 employees of the tech giants have already committed to support the start-up community.
The programme’s existing mentor network includes Google employees, entrepreneurs, and industry subject matter experts. With the additional multinational partners, the programme will further extend this mentor knowledge pool and reach all four corners of Ireland to support even more entrepreneurs.
The First Friday initiative will work to foster innovation across Ireland, providing entrepreneurs with the skills and tools to build high-growth start-ups of their own. To lead this initiative, veteran start-up advisor and founder of Cork’s Republic of Work innovation hub, DC Cahalane, will join Dogpatch Labs as Director of First Fridays for Start-ups.
The initiative is a significant expansion of the successful programme run by Dogpatch Labs and Google in Dublin for the past five years, which has to date attracted over 7,000 attendees, 650 start-ups and delivered over 1,000 mentoring hours.
