Silicon Valley Trip Follow-up

March 31, 2010 - PRLog -- Before our last trip to Silicon Valley in February, we issued the press release '3 IRISH START-UPS LEAD TRADE & FUNDING MISSION TO SILICON VALLEY'. Following-on from this mission, the three companies: imeeGOLF, tapmap.com & learnpipe.com are working on some exciting new developments that have emerged, in part, from the relationships that we forged back in February.

The progress update is as follows:

John McGuire - imeeGOLF.com (+353 87 7971398)
John has continued to forge ahead with imeeGOLF.com - the game changing golf analytics system. John has garnered serious interest from investors and business angels on both sides of the Atlantic. On Monday (29-03-2010), John returned to Silicon Valley for a week of follow-up pitches to several VC's who are focused on online communities, technology and location based services. John McGuire "The meetings being held over the next seven days are with some amazing venture capitalists – one in particular I keep asking myself how did I manage that, as he himself, let alone his investment arm is a global brand.  From distribution, to software development, to contract manufacturing - we've made substantial progress on all aspects of the business since we last met. The response from the investment community has been phenomenal and our story is getting stronger and gaining momentum everyday”.

Phil McNamara - tapmap.com (+353 87 2106020)
Tapmap - the app that better informs local shoppers - is also gathering momentum. Phil stopped over in Texas, on the way back from the February Valley trip.  He met with a world leader in smart phone shopping apps and is in the process of securing a solution that will see them working together on a new project. Phil McNamara "This is a huge step forward for us. Getting the world leader to buy-in to what you are doing is a massive vote of confidence. They're coming on board with knowledge transfer commitments" .

John Dineen - learnpipe.com (+353 87 8299286)
learnpipe.com - the site that helps you find training courses and classes around the world - has seen its growth curve reach impressive levels in recent weeks. John Dineen "Over 3000 new courses are being added to our sites each day. We're seeing excellent traffic growth levels across the domains. For example, learnpipe.in (our site for the Indian market) is showing a 600% growth in traffic for the last 30 days". Since returning from Silicon Valley our focus has been very much on two things: 1. Commercialising the sites (generating revenue); 2. Scaling our offering (more courses, more cities). Both are critical to us gaining the investment that we need to take the business to the next level. John Dineen "The most important take aways from Silicon Valley for me were 1. the scale the opportunity that's over there if you really go after it & 2. having a presence there is essential if the US market is important to you."

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3 IRISH START-UPS LEAD TRADE & FUNDING MISSION TO SILICON VALLEY

Cork, Ireland, February 19, 2010 --  Sometimes we get a little too caught-up in the doom and gloom of the times we are surely in. The now fabled Hanger 6, ring kissing in Rome (don't ask!), the Greek financial crisis and former Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea have dominated headlines in recent weeks. Stories to put the fabled spring back in the step of the great Irish public? I think not.

With all this negativity, there is a danger that we are overlooking the dogged resilience of large pockets of Irish business. Yes, pretty much every sector in Ireland is feeling the pain. But let's not forget that there is still large numbers of Irish start-ups who harbour serious ambitions to play on the world stage.

This weekend, three such start-ups: learnpipe; tapmap.com & imeeGOLF are heading to Silicon Valley. During their trip they will meet with some of the region’s highest profile technology companies, including Google and Sun Microsystems and will pitch their businesses to some of the Valley's most respected venture capitalists.  

Selected from over 500 applicants, all three companies are currently partaking in the Endeavour Programme which is based out of the Tom Crean Centre in Tralee, Co. Kerry. The Endeavour Programme is targeted at ambitious, high achievers who are totally focused on changing the business space they occupy.

Meet the Companies:

John Dineen, (learnpipe - is a training search site that makes it much easier for you to find training courses and classes around the world. From Cooking to Yoga to Advanced Java Web Development, learnpipe helps you to weigh-up all the course options and make the right choice)

Phil McNamara (tapmap.com - helps shoppers to quickly find the product that they are looking for in the store that is closest to them)

John McGuire (imeeGolf - is literally a game changing golf analytics system that tracks every shot and uploads the data to imeeGOLF.com where the golfer can actually see their rounds of golf and compete with other golfers around the world)

So there you go. Despite how we seem to portray our piece of the world right now, Ireland continues to churn out some pretty ambitious startups.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
name: John Dineen
email: john@learnpipe.com
office: +353 21 242 9436
mobile: +353 87 8299286
web: http://www.learnpipe.com
blog: http://www.learnpipe.com/blog

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Learnpipe is a training search site. Our aim is to make it much, much easier for you to find your next training course / or a provider that focuses on a particular area / technology.