AN INTERNATIONAL business networking organisation, which aims to bring the brightest, youngest entrepreneurs in the world into contact with each other, opened its first Irish “hub” yesterday, with the blessing of Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Sandbox was founded in Switzerland three years ago and now has about 650 members, all under 30 years old. Its adviser here, John Egan, says it will “identify exceptional people who have already made an impact in business at a very young age”.

A number of the young entrepreneurs identified by Sandbox in other countries were in Dublin yesterday for the photocall with Mr Kenny and Eoghan Murphy TD, who is also advising Sandbox here.

Among them were Mariano Kostelec from Portugal, who founded uniplaces.com, a website to help students find student accommodation throughout Portugal, and Dominik Grolimund from Austria, founder of wuala.comwhich is a secure cloud-storage system for computer data anywhere in the world.

Mr Murphy said the community would help Irish young entrepreneurs develop their skills by introducing them to like-minded peers from around the world, providing access to senior leaders and identifying opportunities to help them reach their full potential.

“We’re a young country and it’s an exciting time for young people who are taking the initiative and launching their own ideas and enterprises. There is huge potential here. Sandbox launching a hub in Dublin is recognition of that.”

Mr Egan said: “We know already that there are a lot of amazing young Irish entrepreneurs doing exceptional things,” Mr Egan continued.

“For Sandbox to decide to choose Dublin as their next international hub is a great credit to the work of Ireland’s young business community and a vindication of sorts of the work that they are doing, despite being faced with difficult obstacles every step of the way.”

More information at www.sandbox.com