New App to streamline agricultural tasks wins local heat of Go Succeed

A Castlewellan entrepreneur has won the Newry, Mourne and Down heat of Go Succeed: The Ultimate Pitch with a mobile app designed to digitise and streamline agricultural tasks. Ben O'Connor secured £1,000 in investment for FarmFlow and a place in the regional final in November.

The heat was held at the Downshire Civic Centre in Downpatrick and featured 10 entrepreneurs from the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area. Mr O'Connor will now pitch for an additional £5,000 to grow his business at the regional final.

Growing up on a dairy farm, he experienced first-hand the reliance on memory, paper notebooks and group chat messages to manage daily farming tasks. The stress, disorganisation and expensive mistakes that resulted motivated him to build FarmFlow, with the aim of putting all that scattered data into one fast, digital platform.

Three other entrepreneurs also took home awards on the day. Niall Brown won the Inclusive Entrepreneurship award for Inclusive Adventures, a community organisation designed to bring people together through movement. Georgia Heaney won the Rising Star award for Breadly, an AI personal finance agent, and Alison Wilson of Silent Cuts won the Social Impact award for her inclusive social enterprise, which provides hairdressing for those with additional needs.

Councillor Glyn Hanna, Chairperson of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council, said: "We are tremendously proud of all those who both submitted an entry and made it to the local heat final. One of the hardest parts of entrepreneurship is having the confidence to make that first step and we're incredibly proud that Go Succeed: The Ultimate Pitch provides the platform to do just that."

He added: "Congratulations to all who took part, and to Ben, what an achievement! We can't wait to see you pitch at the final in November."

Heat winners from each of Northern Ireland's 11 councils will progress to the regional final at Seamus Heaney HomePlace in Bellaghy, Co. Derry, on 18 November. The overall winner will receive the Go Succeed Ultimate Pitch Award and a prize package that includes a photography session supplied by Brian Thompson Photography, a podcast recording session supplied by Attention X Studio NI, membership of Toastmasters and a media training session supplied by LK Communications.

Subcategory prizes include the Go Succeed Social Impact Award, the Go Succeed Inclusive Entrepreneurship Award, the Go Succeed Rising Star Award for the most inspiring 16-25 year-old entrepreneur, and the Go Succeed People's Choice Award for the contestant with the most public votes. Each winner will receive £1,500 towards their business idea.

The pitching competition is organised by the government-backed enterprise support service Go Succeed, which is funded by the UK Government and delivered by Northern Ireland's 11 councils. It supports entrepreneurs, new starts and existing businesses with advice and support, including mentoring, masterclasses, peer networks, access to grant funding and business planning, at every stage of their growth journey. More information is available at www.go-succeed.com