Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) is a competition for entrepreneurs aged 18-35. The Local Enterprise Office in each county runs their own competition, each selecting a winner in 3 categories: Best Idea, Best Start-Up and Best Established Business. Each county has a €50,000 investment fund to share between the winners and runners-up.

Best Start-Up Business: Orla Stafford, Izmoo

Twenty year Orla Stafford, from Drogheda, is the founder of the multi-award winning Izmoo Gelato company. Started in Drogheda in January 2018, but now about to open her second retail outlet in Rosslare, Orla also “scooped” the overall county winner of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur for Louth. A first year student of E-Commerce and Retailing in TU Dublin, Orla is a young entrepreneur with strong vision and big dreams.

Daniel McLoughlin of Rocksalt Café, Blackrock was the runner-up in the Best Start-Up category.

Best Established Business: Evelyn Garland, Simply Fit Foods

Evelyn Garland her partner Luke Judge started Simply Fit Foods in September 2016. Their range of delicious, healthy ready meals have taken the Irish market by storm and are now stocked in SuperValu, Centra, Applegreen and, starting in June, Tesco. Evelyn’s vision is to build a global health-food brand synonymous with healthy living and delicious dishes. The company are moving into the Northern Ireland market this summer and launching a vegan, snack and breakfast range later in the year.

Gary Reilly of Your Way Ireland was runner-up in the Best Established Business category.

Best New Idea: Conor Kerley, Setanta Nutrition Science

A Dundalk native, Conor Kerley is a Doctor of Human Nutrition and Dietetics who has developed a natural nutritional supplement that can help change the lives of people all over the world suffering with diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic conditions. By lowering blood sugar, inflammation, fats and cholesterol, his supplement will help prevent and treat debilitating conditions. Winner of the Best New Idea Conor has already developed the prototype, is in the process of applying for a patent and starts clinical trials next month. With all of this in hand, he plans to launch his product within the next year.

Charlie Donnelly of Ducks in a Row was runner up in the Best New Idea category.

Full Details and Application available at: https://www.ibye.ie/ 

Entry Eligibility

The 2019 IBYE competition is open to people aged between 18 - 35 across 3 categories:

• Best Idea (has an idea for a business but has not starting trading at time of application*)
• Best Start-Up Business (has started trading but in business 18 months or less)
• Best Established Business (has been trading for more than 18 months)

Eligibility Criteria for Applicants - download here