Shane Cronin

TouchShield

Course: Electronic Engineering

Year of study: 3rd year

College: Cork Institute of Technology

Business name: TouchShield

Sector: Healthcare

Business idea: A wearable electronic device that would help the staff in hospitals and nursing homes to break the face touching habit.

Plans for September 2020

I plan to spend the remainder of September developing a finished prototype.

Student Inc. Programme Highlights:

I enjoyed the social aspect of the rubicon office

Any previous entrepreneurship experience before you joined Student Inc.?

So, I began selling all my old toys at car boot sales when I was 6 and continued for years. I began buying items off done deal, restoring them and proceeding to sell them on for profit. I finally made a net return of 2000 euro from my business selling cans of coke in 4th year in secondary school.

What connections did you make on the programme?

Many invaluable connections such as:    

  • Carole O’ Leary – Business Opportunity verification
  • Maria Coakley – Marketing
  • Paul Healy – Funding and Business Plan
  • George Bullman – BMC and Feasibility studies
  • Ronan Coleman – Intellectual Property
  • Danny Sheehan – Market size and segmentation
  • Brian O Kane – key activities, costs and partners
  • Mike McGrath – Pitching Skills

What advice would you give to someone thinking of applying to Student Inc.?

Keep on top of assignments and you get what you put into this programme

What was your greatest learning from the programme

Definitely just the confidence that starting a business is achievable, as beforehand I was so knowingly ignorant to all the ins and outs business aspects such as funding, documentation and manufacturing that they would have been too daunting for me to attempt.

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