Images of Ian Harkin (Lottie Dolls MD) and Katrina mcBride (Digital Marketing Lottie Dolls) both Ballybofey, at Google HQ (attached).
Arklu, the Donegal company behind Lottie Dolls have made it to the final eight in Google’s ‘Adopt a Start Up’ Competition.
An incredible achievement for MD Ian Harkin and the company, who are based in Letterkenny, and have travelled to Google’s European Headquarters fortnightly as part of the 12-week Adopt a Startup Programme.
Google’s Adopt a Startup mentorship programme aims to support the selected start-ups in order to develop their business strategies and provide them with hands-on support and advice on how they might be able to take their enterprises even further.
Arklu were initially chosen from 150 business applicants, and progressed from 30 semi-finalists to become one of the final eight competing in the national competition.
Arklu were appointed a team of three dedicated Google mentors to help the North West toy start-up to create a digital marketing strategy and to provide a road-map for the company to reach their online marketing goals.
The Googlers which joined Arklu included Jennifer McGann – Associate Manager, Project Management, Molle de Jong – Senior Strategist, and Matan Erez – Associate Account Strategist, the team have a wealth of experience and a unique combination of skills which helped to maximise the Arklu (Lottie Dolls’) online potential, the company also attended an exclusive lecture series in Google’s European Head Quarters.
The Grand Final will take place in Google’s Foundry on Tuesday the 12th of July, winners will take up a prize of €10,000 in AdWords credit, along with eligibility to the Google Cloud Platform for Startups Program, worth €20,000 in cloud credits.
Lottie Dolls are in the final alongside a diverse range of Irish start ups; Beutifi, Cool Beans, Little Vista, Newslinn, Nuwave Sensors, Truck Science and Oxymem.
The Donegal company will pitch their refined business plan and findings to members of Google Ireland’s leadership team, as well as prominent figures from the Irish start-up community, at a finals next week.
The Lottie doll line was launched in 2012 by Arklu cofounders MD Ian Harkin and Creative Director Lucie Follett, and has won over thirty industry awards on account of its innovative focus on being a doll with a realistic body shape, emphasis on childhood, and activities that stimulate imaginative play. Lottie is now on sale in 30 countries.
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