Ambition - Female Business Accelerator

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Be inspired by our ambitious alumni...

INSPIRING INSIGHT

Growing Ambition Article

It has been a year of discovery for this Ambition cohort. Read about their experience.

Ambition, what it is...

Ambition is an exciting accelerator programme of Local Enterprise Office Donegal. The programme focuses on female entrepreneurs and promotes the skills and resilience needed to develop globally scalable ventures, attract investment and create jobs.

The Local Enterprise Office will assist founders to bring ideas from concept to pitch. Up to twelve business ideas are selected to receive mentoring and support through a series of workshops.


Who is eligible?

The Ambition programme is open to:

  • Any Female Founder or Co-Founder.
  • Residents of County Donegal or anyone part of the Donegal Diaspora within Ireland or worldwide.
  • With a concept for a new product or services across any sector with a particular focus on technology and digital solutions.
  • Global scalability potential.
  • A team.
  • With a commitment to grow a business from Donegal, no matter where in the world you live at the moment.


General Guidelines

  • If applicants are part of a team, teams may only select up to three participants to complete the workshops.
  • The competition is open to residents of County Donegal or anyone part of the Donegal Diaspora within Ireland or worldwide.


Selection

Ambition Selection

We are looking for innovative new business ideas amongst Donegal's female entrepreneurs. Convince us that your business idea is the next big thing, and you will receive support to develop your business idea from concept to pitch.

Up to twelve businesses will be selected to participate in twelve half-day workshops. These will be chosen based on criteria including the scale of ambition, the size of the problem to be solved, early market understanding, a clear competitive advantage, a feasible business model and the strength and diversity of the team.

Teams must be available to participate on all programme days as outlined. At the end of the programme showcase, a Judging Panel comprising leading entrepreneurs, executives, and investors will evaluate progress.


Programme Outline

DescriptionTimeSubject
Workshop 1Tuesday, 02 September 2025Orientation (in person)
Workshop 2Tuesday, 09 September 2025Customer Discovery (Online)
Workshop 3Tuesday, 16 September 2025Testing Your Idea (Online)
Workshop 4Tuesday, 23 September 2025Value Proposition (Online)
Workshop 5Tuesday, 30 September 2025Customer Experience (Online)
Break Week for Customer Discovery Activities
Workshop 6Tuesday, 14 October 2025Confidence in Communication (Online)
Workshop 7Tuesday, 21October 2025Finance (Online)
Workshop 8Tuesday, 28 October 2025Founder Well-being (Online)
Workshop 9Tuesday, 04 November 2025Marketing (Online)
Workshop 10Tuesday, 11 November 2025Growing a Team (Online)
Break Week for Presentation Preparation
Workshop 11Tuesday, 25 November 2025Strategic Planning (Online)
Workshop 12Tuesday, 02 December 2025Practice Pitch (Online)
Programme ShowcaseTuesday, 09 December 2025(In-person)


What they said about Ambition....

Ambition Cohort

  • “Clear schedule communication, excellent planning, very well organised and quality speakers’.
  • “I really enjoyed learning from and with other women. It was a constructive and safe learning environment”.
  • “The content was well structured and each module built on the previous one. I now have good tools that I can continue to use in the future”.
  • “The support and experience from mentors was invaluable, the belief in each of our businesses was really nice and encouraging”.
  • “The ‘Ambition Buddy’ was a wonderful support and the suggestion of weekly catch up calls with participants”.
  • “The genuine challenge and the generosity of time, energy, effort and opinion”.
  • “Loved it!”


Apply now to be considered for our September 2025 Ambition programme. 

Apply now