{"id":11205,"date":"2016-06-17T09:30:52","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T08:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/?p=11205"},"modified":"2022-03-24T12:41:08","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T12:41:08","slug":"the-portershed-galways-startup-hub-opens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/the-portershed-galways-startup-hub-opens\/","title":{"rendered":"The Portershed, Galway&#8217;s Startup Hub Opens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Portershed, <a href=\"https:\/\/portershed.com\/\">Galway&#8217;s first startup hub<\/a>,\u00a0home to an accelerator programme, high potential start-ups and entrepreneurs\u00a0has recently opened its doors. Located on a vast expanse of 14 acres between Eyre Square and the harbour, the Portershed building is centrally located and provides much needed working and meeting space for budding entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n<p>The idea behind the Galway startup hub is similar in many ways to other startup hubs that are emerging around the country. The <a href=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/at-long-last-a-new-digital-software-initiative-outside-dublin-aims-for-500-jobs-in-skibbereen\/\">Ludgate@Skibbereen startup hub initiative<\/a>, for example, was the brainchild of local businessman John Field. He recognised the scarcity of office space for new startups and along with gifting the premises for the hub, he also set about assembling a collection of tech savvy business people to help oversee the initiative. They&#8217;ve ambitious targets to generate 500 new jobs over the next five years.<\/p>\n<p>One of the interesting aspects of this innovation hub is the involvement of Allied Irish Bank(AIB). <a href=\"https:\/\/aib.ie\/business\">AIB signed a five-year deal with the Galway City Innovation District (GCID)<\/a> who have been tasked with turning Galway&#8217;s city centre into a thriving meeting and working place for entrepreneurs. The first move in this grand plan is AIB&#8217;s sponsorship of the Portershed building. According to AIB&#8217;s CEO, Bernard Byrne, \u201cDeveloping an innovation district in the heart of Galway can serve as catalyst for high growth companies, and is a model that has worked in other cities such as Boston.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Portershed already has ten companies in situ. What&#8217;s interesting about one of them, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.genesys.com\/capabilities\/predictive-web-engagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Altocloud<\/a>, is that they were established in 2014 so are growing out of that startup phase. For them, the hub is an opportunity to work out of purposely designed offices that support and enrich their working day. A significant positive for the &#8216;newbie&#8217; startups is that they get the opportunity to meet and network with Altocloud&#8217;s staff and learn, first hand, the do&#8217;s and don&#8217;ts of operating in the tech space. That networking aspect is one of the key attractions of a vibrant startup hub.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s worth repeating the story that AirB&#8217;nB supposedly looked at Galway as a possible European HQ destination. They wanted to be part of the fabric of the city so a city centre location that had a degree of retro charm was essential. None was available so they decamped to Dublin where they are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.siliconrepublic.com\/business\/airbnb-dublin-office-photos\">operating out of a 40,000 sq ft refurbished warehouse<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Altocloud is joined by an eclectic mix of other budding Irish tech companies &#8211; LingoHost, Addvance IT, Ragsbox, Earthbound Films, Irish Apps, Privity, ClearBookings, PayWear and QA Services.<\/p>\n<p>Mary Rodgers, Portershed Community Manager, says that the 14 acre district, once rejuvenated, has the potential to generate and support over 20,000 jobs. Mary is ably supported by a very dynamic and tech savvy team &#8211;\u00a0John Breslin,\u00a0NUI Galway,\u00a0Niamh Costello, Galway Technology Centre,\u00a0Dave Cunningham,\u00a0Beolas,\u00a0Michael Fitzgerald, OnePageCRM,\u00a0Paul Killoran,\u00a0Ex Ordo,\u00a0Conor O&#8217;Dowd, KPMG,\u00a0Johnny O&#8217;Dwyer,\u00a0AIB and Maurice O&#8217;Gorman,\u00a0Galway Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n<p>The tech West is awake!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Portershed, Galway&#8217;s first startup hub,\u00a0home to an accelerator programme, high potential start-ups and entrepreneurs\u00a0has recently opened its doors. Located&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,65],"tags":[178,179,180],"class_list":{"0":"post-11205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-small-business","9":"tag-startup","10":"tag-startup-hub","11":"tag-startups"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Portershed, Galway&#039;s Startup Hub Opens - Big Red Cloud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Portershed is Galway&#039;s first purposely designed startup hub and plans are that it will serve as the foundation to create over 20,000 jobs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/the-portershed-galways-startup-hub-opens\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Portershed, Galway&#039;s Startup Hub Opens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Portershed is Galway&#039;s first purposely designed startup hub and plans are that it will serve as the foundation to create over 20,000 jobs.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/the-portershed-galways-startup-hub-opens\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Big Red Cloud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SimpleOnlineAccounts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-17T08:30:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-24T12:41:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/The-Portershed-Galway.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Big Red Cloud\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BigRedCloud\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@BigRedCloud\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Big Red Cloud\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Portershed, Galway's Startup Hub Opens - 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