2024 Highlights

Ormeau Labs | Events Recap

2024 has been a fantastic year for Ormeau Labs, filled with inspiring events, meaningful collaborations, and opportunities to engage with our community. We were delighted to host and support a variety of impactful events, including:

  • Ready, Steady, Grow! in partnership with the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association, spotlighting investment opportunities and entrepreneurial growth.

  • A momentous 10-Year Celebration of the Lean In Network, Belfast, honoring a decade of empowering women and fostering community.

  • Vertical Structure Lunch and Learn with Simon Whittaker, providing key insights into cybersecurity and digital resilience.

  • Ormeau Labs + Stripe hosted “A Guide to Market Expansion,” an engaging in-person event exploring practical strategies for successful entry into new markets.

  • Barclays X Belfast Tech week, we were thrilled to host Founder Focus – Offscript in collaboration with Barclays Eagle Labs. This exciting and interactive session brought together entrepreneurs and industry experts for an engaging discussion about the most pressing challenges faced by founders today.

  • Endeavor Ireland Visit, an incredible opportunity to showcase entrepreneurs building companies here in Northern Ireland, and to meet some of our amazing partners.

  • School and University Visits, inspiring and informing the next generation about the wealth of opportunities available for young people in Belfast.

Founder Labs

Cohort 1

Cohort 1 attended multiple workshops, sessions and 1-1 office hours with successful founders throughout the programme.

The teams also visited Dogpatch Labs in Dublin to connect with the NDRC Accelerator teams.

Highlights included a fireside chat with Patrick Walsh, Founder & CEO of Dogpatch Labs, followed by a script workshop with Menno Axt, preparing everyone for showcase day. The week concluded with an inspiring fireside chat with John Collison, President of Stripe, who shared insights from his founder journey.

The Cohort 1 teams dove into the city’s vibrant entrepreneurial scene, gaining valuable global insights and expanding their networks. The trip to NYC offered a fantastic opportunity for our startups to connect with industry leaders and learn from some of the best in the business.

A huge thank you to Digital Irish, SOSV, Activant Capital, and Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA) for their tremendous support, guidance, and insight throughout the trip.

Cohort 1 has continued to impress! They recently returned from London, where they attended events hosted in partnership with Playfair Capital, AlbionVC, and Amplify Solutions.

Cohort 2

This year, we launched the second cohort of the Founder Labs Accelerator. With 10 new teams embarking on their entrepreneurial journey, the cohort is guided by new Founder Labs accelerator director Gareth Burns .

With workshops and sessions presented by founders including:

  • John Healy

  • Laura Haldane

  • Jon Bradford

  • Jennifer Neff

  • Martin McKay

  • Simon Cole

  • Daren Lester

  • Patrick Lynch

  • Sean Sheerin

  • Yolanda Cooper

And many more!

Founders Night

What a fantastic year it has been at Ormeau Labs!

Among our many successes, we were thrilled to continue Founders Night, an event designed to bring our community together, foster meaningful connections, and provide a platform for founders to share their firsthand entrepreneurial stories. It’s been inspiring to see the energy and collaboration these evenings have sparked, and we can’t wait to continue building this tradition in the years to come.