You’re an entrepreneur with a big billion dollar idea — Great. Now, here’s the problem, how are you going about to make your idea come to life?
Today’s story is about my journey in aligning work and passion.
It has been about 7 months since I joined NTUitive’s Venture Builder Programme. I’m taking on 2 major projects within the VB18 programme. The first is AIRO — tasked with developing a minimal viable prototype of a UVC Disinfectant wand. The next is Imaginarium — rebuilding and refurnishing the Open Innovation Lab that I have been working in for the last 4 months and creating a space that is uniquely built and designed for entrepreneurs to learn, create and network with other fellow entrepreneurs.
Airo’s product design iteration was completed around end March this year. I personally went through so much filament trying to get the dimensions and details right through 3D Printing for all of the other considerations like the PCBs ( printed circuit boards ) and switches to fit perfectly. Our Lab was perfect for small scale MVP prototypes.
Now here’s where i felt that i needed to do more. The Open Innovation Lab for which i spent my last couple of months was great. We have machines to help do prototyping, test equipment to conduct electronic tests and teams to help with coding and circuitry design. However, the open innovation lab was under-utilised.
I realised that the biggest problem that budding entrepreneurs face is the lack of knowledge, expertise, or skillset, or manpower to create their first product and mass produce it to their target market. As a trained industrial designer with experience within the UIUX realm to create and launch a product, this is by far no easy feat.
I needed to Reinvent Invention.
So, i took the idea of IMAGINARIUM, an interior rework of the existing open innovation lab ( OIL ) and pitched it to BoonChow, my project mentor and Project lead of the OIL. He was extremely keen of the idea of a proper space to teach entrepreneurs skillsets to develop their first product, give them the tools and machine to get their product developed, and a space for entrepreneurs to network with each other.
It was basically a dream come true- i’ve always wanted to create a workshop and help others create their projects, and this is the perfect start. The interior design is underway and fingers crossed, all development work should be completed and running by the end of my stint at NTUitive.
It will be killing 2 birds with one stone along with AIRO. As i create AIRO’s first Minimal prototype, it will be the Proof of Concept that the OIL is able to produce something beautiful and functional at the same time.
We will be ramping up marketing and work with the next phase of the VENI programme as a BETA launch for Imaginarium.
As Walt Disney always preaches: ‘Keep Moving Forward’.
