Now in year three of the AIB Start-Up Academy, 14 high-potential businesses were shortlisted to take part in an 8-week training programme leading to a final pitch event, held in Dublin last week.

Each business was vying to share in a prize fund worth 200k to bring their business to the next level. We've now reached the end of the AIB Start-Up Academy and we have our worthy winner...

And the winner is....

We know how important an elevator pitch can be to any burgeoning business, so we brought the Elevator pitch in to the 21st Century and got Ostoform to describe their business in the space of one tweet.

What is Ostoform all about?

Kevin Kelleher, Co-Founder of Ostoform, joined us on The Sunday Business Show this weekend to tell us about his award winning business and the journey he went through during the AIB Start-Up Academy.

Kevin told Conall that the company is still eager for further funding and is excited to launch their product globally, breaking into a market worth over $500 million.

He also spoke about the AIB competition itself, describing it as "fantastic".

You can hear the interview below:

Q&A with Kevin Kelleher (Co-Founder of Ostoform):

Can you tell us about your business and what it is you provide?

"Ostoform takes a user focussed approach to developing products for ostomy skin health. Often, when a patient uses an ostomy bag, they suffer from skin complications around their ostomy, which causes pain, but can also have a huge impact on the patient’s quality of life. Ostoform has developed a product to address this problem. The product has been tested on patients already, and the results have been extremely encouraging."

What did you learn about your business that you didn’t know already as part of AIB Startup Academy?

"The most useful part for me was learning how to tell a good story; and where better to learn that than in Irish Times Building? Customers are more likely to build a relationship with a brand if the company’s story is genuine. I’ve been doing my best to bring out the Ostoform story more and communicate that with people, so that they understand the problem that we’re trying to solve."

How did AIB Startup Academy help your business?

"The Academy was a fantastic way to make me re-check all aspects of our business strategy. Because it covers so many areas, from digital marketing to PR to fundraising, I’ve had a chance to make sure the plan that we had been implementing was the correct approach. I’ve had the opportunity to take a birds-eye-view of the business, re-think certain areas and make sure that everything has been thought through in detail to optimise success as we plan to go to market."

After the experience, what one bit of advice would you give other businesses about their start-ups?

"We had the chance to network with other entrepreneurs during our time at the Academy, one of whom had recently sold a company for many millions. He said he’s only now getting his health and fitness back after being so busy working on his business. He said to me that exercise is one of the first things to go when you’re busy, and it should be the last. That has really stuck with me; and I think it’s worth sharing."

What is next for you?

"Winning this award has given us a significant jump start. We have a plan to launch the device early next year and the next step is to get set up with manufacturing, but a lot of other things have to happen in parallel. We have to start creating digital content and building a relationship with the end user. We also have to ensure we are funded sufficiently to meet our milestones. Along with this, we’ll be growing our product offering further, so the tasks are endless, and having the security of a budget to help promote our device is a real comfort. We’re delighted to have won, particularly when all of the competitors were so impressive."