Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh developed sugru in 2003 while still a student at the Royal College of Art in London. Instead of having to buy new things all the time, she thought it would be better if people could fix and improve the things they already had to make them work better.
From that initial spark of an idea, she led a long and dedicated scientific development process involving a small team of material scientists, designers and business people to develop an entirely new material.
The result after six years of R&D was sugru – a flexible silicon rubber that can be moulded and stuck to anything. The product air cures, remains soft to the touch and is resistant to extremes of temperature, providing an innovative method to fix and improve everyday household objects.
How did you secure your first investment?
I partnered up with my co-founder Roger Ashby and Nesta gave us £35,000 to start the company back in 2005. From there I was able to start working with chemists and, as soon as we had formulations that looked like they could work, we were able to secure £250,000 of investment funding from Lacomp plc in 2006.
What moment/deal would you cite as the game-changer or turning point for the company?
Our launch day in late 2009 changed everything – it took us nearly three months to make 1,000 packs in our labs and, thanks to a good review on a tech blog on the launch day, they all sold out in six hours. The enthusiasm from people around the world was overwhelming. After six years in the labs with no one knowing about us, it was an incredible feeling.
What was the best/ worst advice you received when starting out?
The best: "Start small and make it good". We still try to remember this in everything we do today.
The worst: a business adviser once told me early on that I was the weakest link in our team as I had no business experience. I strongly disagreed with him, of course, but it stayed with me. Now I understand why he was wrong.
Sometimes vision, persistence and the ability to think differently trumps experience and I’d even go so far as to say that experience can sometimes be a hindrance to innovation.
What is your biggest business achievement to date?
Winning the 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the London Design Festival and making it on to Time magazine's list of the top 50 inventions of the 21st century. Sugru was number 22 on the list, 12 places ahead of the iPad.
What was your "back-to-the-wall" moment and how did you overcome it?
It took much longer to develop the technology for sugru than we thought. When the recession hit in 2008, we had spent all our funding and it was very difficult to find investors to take the business to the next step. We spent months pitching to investors and were getting nowhere.
The turning point for me was a simple piece of advice from a friend – "start small and make it good" – this changed everything for me and it was then that we got the confidence to make sugru ourselves and launch online.
What top tips would you give entrepreneurs starting out today?
Learn as you go, start small and make it good. Do something that matters that's going to make the world a better place in some way.
