Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE)

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Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) is a competition run by Ireland’s 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) with the support of the Department of Enterprise and Innovation, and Enterprise Ireland. It was last contested in 2019.
What are the main aims and objectives?

IBYE is trying to achieve several goals. Firstly, it aims to discover, promote and reward young entrepreneurs in Ireland who have innovative business ideas with the potential for commercial success. Secondly, it aims to provide these young entrepreneurs with the necessary skills, expertise and funding to develop their business ideas and bring them to market. Thirdly, the competition seeks to reverse the low percentage of startups created by youth entrepreneurs by fostering a culture of entrepreneurship in Ireland by encouraging young people to consider entrepreneurship as a viable career option. Finally, IBYE aims to contribute to the growth and development of the Irish economy by supporting the creation of new businesses and jobs. 

How does the program work?

IBYE is a nationwide competition, run across three categories: Best Business Idea, Best Start-Up Business and Best-Established Business. County Finalists enter into a specialised Entrepreneur Bootcamp to help develop their business or business idea. The County Finalists also receive a suite of targeted business supports and mentoring from their LEO. 

The program is underpinned by €2 million prize (approx $2.2 million) fund with an IBYE investment fund of €50,000 each (approx $55,000), every LEO will award up to six investments to three category winners and three runners-up at county level. The local winners in the Best Start-Up and Best-Established Business categories at county level will receive investments of up to €15,000 (approx $16,500) each and the two runners-up will each receive up to €5,000 (approx $5,500). 

The competition defines youth entrepreneurs as being aged 18 to 35 and is open to all people in this age group with an innovative business idea, new start-up or established business.  

What is the overall cost?

The program is underpinned by a €2 million (approx $2.2 million) prize fund, however, this does not include the administrative costs of running the competition which have not been published. 

The total investment by the Irish Government through LEOs across 2014-2016 was €5 million (approx $5.5 million). 

How was it implemented?

Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition was launched in 2014 by the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Burton. It was introduced as part of the Action Plan for Jobs, which is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through Enterprise Ireland and the 31 LEOs. 

In November 2014, the ‘National Policy Statement on Entrepreneurship in Ireland’ was published and it included a commitment to “evaluate the Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur Fund with a view to building on the success of the 2014 scheme and increasing the number of youth entrepreneurs accessing support systems”. 

The competition was suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic.  

In November 2022, Damien Egnlish, the minister of state at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment said the government would examine the future of IBYE after a number of business leaders had expressed fears the competition would be discontinued completely.  

What impact has been measured?

IBYE provided €8 million (approx $8.8 million) in funding for more than 600 young entrepreneurs over the period of 2015-2019. In 2016 there was a record number of entries with 1,842 competitors, coming from every county of Ireland and 450 young people attended the Entrepreneur Bootcamps. It was indicated that a performance report would be published in 2018 that would evaluate the number of youth businesses formed directly as a result of the program. However, this study has not been released so it is not possible to assess the impact IBYE has had on the wider ecosystem and the Irish economy at large.  

What lessons can be learned?

The initiative has been hugely successful in terms of getting young people to enter the competition and in gaining media attention around this issue. What is not yet known is how many young people have started a business that would not have started if this competition did not take place and has the rate of youth entrepreneurship altered greatly over the five years it was active. 

CURATED BY

Thomas Cooney

Professor, College of Business
Technological University Dublin
Ireland