Receipt Relay: The Origin Story
In our blogs we talk a lot about what Receipt Relay is and what it can do for you and the environment but we have yet to talk about how Receipt Relay came to life. So, this week we’re going to give the origin story of Receipt Relay.
In September 2019, Seán Finnegan (Co-Founder and COO) joined the Business Analytics Society at NUIG, where a competition hosted by Fidelity International was being promoted. The competition was for startup ideas that could benefit the world financially, technologically and socially. Seán conceptualised the idea of Receipt Relay and with Joe Hennigan (Co-Founder and CMO), the two entered the competition and began adding structure to the idea.
The idea was accepted by the panel and shortlisted for the final. On November 26th 2019 Seán and Joe headed to Fidelity’s Dublin offices by train for the final where they competed against teams from all over Ireland and pitched their idea to a panel of international judges.
Seán and Joe pitching Receipt Relay for the first time (November 2019)
Seán and Joe won the competition that day and with the award money they received, began bringing the idea of Receipt Relay to reality.
Until May 2020, Receipt Relay was still technically just an idea as Seán and Joe focused primarily on understanding the market until Luke Slemon (CTO) joined the team and began building the system. Over the following months Receipt Relay came to life and the trio began focusing on how they would bring the product to market. After several demos and adaptations of the product, Receipt Relay finally secured a location for Beta testing the software where, for the first time ever, the app and service would be used by real people in an uncontrolled environment.
At the time of writing this blog it is September 2021 - two years since the founding of the company - and as the team anticipates the launch of the app within the next few weeks we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the development of Receipt Relay over the past 24 months. The progression of the company has been far from linear so we will always be extremely grateful for the patience and openness that Receipt Relay has been met with.
The Team: Joe, Seán and Luke (2021)