Enterprise Ireland
Annual Report and Accounts 2007
Annual Report and Accounts 2007
Enterprise Ireland identified Cork-based AspiraCon as a high potential start-up (HPSU) company soon after two senior Motorola managers set up the enterprise following the US firm’s Cork plant closure in 2007.
AspiraCon’s export potential is grounded in world-class project management skills honed in part by the company’s two founders during Motorola’s tenure in Cork.
Before the shutdown of its Blackrock plant, AspiraCon’s Pat Lucey and Colum Horgan headed major business units at the mobile phone company. Faced with the plant closure, the two men decided to realise their entrepreneurial ambition by combining their knowledge and considerable experiences into a vision for a set of project management software tools and services.
They refined their ideas on the Enterprise Ireland-supported Genesis Enterprise Programme, a rapid incubation programme that provides support and management skills development to entrepreneurs heading knowledge-based start-ups. Their participation resulted in two core software products and confirmation of HPSU status by Enterprise Ireland.
“The team was able to bring the two products to our target market of large companies and organisations quite quickly in Ireland,” says Managing Director Pat Lucey. “We’ve had solid sales to several leading customers, including Tyco, Eirgrid and Waterford Technologies, and feedback is excellent.”
The products, AspiraConnect and Project Collaborator, are unique in automatically building project schedules and in presenting real-time views of multiple projects. The software makes it easier to manage large, complex or simultaneously running projects while reducing the customer’s need to rely on more expensive products or consultants.
“We now expect sales to quadruple in 2008,” says Lucey, “and this, coupled with Enterprise Ireland validation, support and advice has provided the impetus to plan for further expansion. After a great start, and after forming a world-class team, we are now positioning ourselves to accelerate our export plans. We are examining our capitalisation options, looking to appoint a commercial director and to establishing a US base with the appropriate sales channels, all in 2008.”
Having begun with six, the AspiraCon team grew to 15 employees, all but one being ex-Motorola, by year-end 2007 and will grow further in 2008. The early-stage company has also lined up additional products and services for deployment over the next year and is continuing to invest in R&D to build them out.
Lucey believes his company combines the hunger and drive of a young growing company with the maturity, experience and solutions of an established multinational – and this, he says, will drive future growth.
www.aspiracon.com (link opens in a new browser window)
