Mullingar's Rob Acton.

Mullingar pair fly flag at web summit

A pair of Mullingar IT entrepreneurs have been chosen to represent Ireland at this week’s high profile Web Summit in Dublin, one of the most prestigious technology events in the world.

St Finian’s old boys Rob Acton and Peter Mullen are the developers of PaydIn, a new online payment system.

PaydIn is one of 50 ‘high potential’ start-ups from across the world chosen to exhibit their wares in front of some of the most influential figures in the tech sector today.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner yesterday, Monday, Rob Acton admitted that he and Peter have had a number of sleepless nights over the last week preparing for this once in a lifetime opportunity.

“It’s kind of terrifying. We are leaving nothing to chance,” said Rob. “We can’t believe our luck – this will give us a lot of exposure. We have a strategic plan going in, we are not going to wing it. We have a list of 20 people that we want to chat with.”

Rob and Peter went to school together in St Finian’s but had lost touch for almost 20 years before a chance meeting at an industry show last year. They got chatting about projects they were involved in and decided to join forces.

The fruit of their labours, PaydIn, is an online payment system that its creators say will take all the pain out of organising group events.

Not only does it calculate the amount to be paid and send out reminders to those who haven’t paid up, it also recalculates the amount to be paid if anyone cancels. Rob says that the he and Peter are focusing their attention on the online gaming sector.

Once up and running, Rob says that they will be looking to set up an office in Mullingar. “That’s the plan down the line. The county enterprise board have been very supportive and we want to keep jobs local.

“There is a fantastic skill set in Mullingar.”

More than 30,000 IT executives from across the world will attend the Web Summit in Dublin this week.

Among the 1,000 guest speakers at this year’s event, the last in Ireland before it moves to Lisbon for 2016, are Tour de France winner Chris Froome and author Dan Brown.

websummit.net