Cavan entrepreneur aiming for web summit glory

A Cavan Entrepreneur has been shortlisted on a prestigious list of 12 Irish start-ups who are in with a chance of winning the highly coveted €25,000 ESB Spark of Genius Award this November, at Web Summit in Lisbon.

David Shackleton's company OpenBack’s, whose mission is to create a new standard in mobile notifications to drive engagement while putting users first, will be hoping to be selected as one of three finalists who will head to Lisbon to compete for the ESB Spark of Genius Award.

The shortlisted entrepreneurs, including OpenBack, will pitch to a panel of judges live on 2FM’s The Eoghan McDermott Show all week, commencing October 3rd. The panel of live judges include: John McKiernan, Head of External Collaboration at ESB; Joan Mulvihill, Irish Internet Association CEO; Emmet Ryan, Technology Editor, Sunday Business Post; Jenny O’Doherty, Head of Startups, Web Summit and Mikey Cannon, co-founder, Bizimply who won the Spark of Genius Award at last year's Web Summit.

Paddy Cosgrave, CEO of Web Summit said; “It’s fantastic to be involved with ESB Spark of Genius again this year. The standard of applicants over the last number of years has been extremely high so competition will be tough. It’s a great opportunity for startups and it shows how thriving the Irish tech scene is.”