Doctorate in hand, Jerry tweaks business idea
Dr Kennelly said his new company tweak.com – based in Killorglin – will be launched in November.
It has already opened offices in Dublin and New York with a workforce of 50. Dr Kennelly said his online design and advertising business will have a global reach.
He has already invested €10m in the venture.
“It is primarily aimed at the print media where there has been huge problems in creating designs. We will be very large- scale content creators for designing both in print, marketing materials and brochures. We expect to launch in November.
“There has been a three-year research and development programme with a lot of tough mathematical and technical problems to be resolved. We have done that with the team we have in place.”
Instead of seeking the services of a graphic designer, customers of the new venture will be able to create very high agency standard designs online.
This, he said, would hugely liberate small and medium businesses around the world.
“We have employed highly skilled graphic designers, typographers and pre-press people to accomplish this task,” he said.
Dr Kennelly said tweak.com will be unique in the standard of finished art work it will provide online.
He said the workforce of 50 will grow as the business develops, adding: “We expect this to be a very substantial global e-commerce business, and the first of its kind globally.”
Dr Kennelly said eight key workers from the former Stockbyte company have joined his venture.
Meanwhile, in addition to Mr Kennelly, the founding president of the University of Limerick, Dr Ed Walsh was among the five people conferred with honorary doctorates.
The other three were Frank Daly, former chairman of the Revenue Commissioners and now chairman of National Assets Management Agency; Oliver Murphy, who established the Irish Wheelchair Association and Professor Anya Peterson Royce, a world renowned academic in the area of anthropology of dance.
