This article is from page 5 of the 2012-07-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 5 JPG
A CLARE teenager could be on the way to becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg through his creation of PearUp – a new social network based on sports.
Bunratty youngster, Tiernan Kennedy, is currently in New York where he and two of his classmates from Trinity College Dublin have been accepted into a prestigious incubator programme organised by American conglomerate General Electric.
The intensive 10-week incubator course is intended to bring the best and the brightest of young technical stars – in an effort to further their business start-ups. Tiernan, along with his co-company founders Alex Mann and Dermot Markey are the only non-American students accepted to the Manhattan course.
PearUp is a new form of social network which aims to link together people with different sporting interests in different parts of the world. It is operational as a mobile app for smart-phones and works by allowing strangers to meet and play in sporting events together.
While the application is aimed at individuals looking for people to play sports with, it is primarily aimed at sports clubs who can use its software as a virtual booking agency.
When the programme comes to an end of August 17, Tiernan and the rest of the PearUp founders will get a chance to pitch to General Electric executive for the chance to win € 10,000 in start-up capital.
Tiernan nearly missed out on taking part in competition as the PearUp’s entry to the event was only confirmed weeks before the start of the incubator programme – leaving them without enough time to obtain visas to travel to America.
However, after letters were written on their behalf by former Tánaiste, Dick Spring (Lab) as well as US Congressman Todd Akin and highprofile venture capitalist, Will Porteous, they were able to process their visas in just two and a half weeks.
Despite missing out on the first eight days of the programme, Tiernan and the rest of the PearUp team are reported to be competing well with their American counterparts.
For more information on the PearUp website visit www.pearup. tumblr.com.