ByoWave

WestBIC is an Enterprise Ireland partner providing hands-on startup support, funding readiness and investment preparation for early-stage founders in the west of Ireland.

ByoWave was co-founded in June 2020 by Brandon Blacoe and Eibhlin O'Riordan. The two were best friends growing up and they loved playing video games together, they lost touch but reconnected 15 years later at a game jam in Dublin. Brandon wanted to play games together again but unfortunately Eibhlin was no longer able to play games with her friends due to her disability, a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Brandon thought 'that really sucks!' and together the two set out to build the Proteus Controller for the millions of gamers worldwide seeking a custom video game controller. The Proteus Controller lets the user easily build millions of possible controller configurations, but also brings the community together by allowing for the sharing of controller ideas through our online platform. ByoWave is located in the IHUB in GMIT and aims to expand its offices to the US in 2022.

Key supports received during start-up process & the role WestBIC played

ByoWave was honoured to receive the Competitive Start Fund (now known as the Pre-Seed Start Fund) from Enterprise Ireland in August 2021, this allowed us to invest in the required parts for getting our first batch of Beta units out to customers and bring in larger investment.

WestBIC were a huge support to ByoWave at this time, by giving advice from the very first application and iteratively reviewing our drafts and helping with updates based upon their business expertise. WestBIC has also sent us compiled lists of relevant competitions we should enter based upon our current position, which saved us hours of potential research, we used this list to go on and win several prizes.

Words of advice for new start-ups

Be as open minded as possible and get insights from as diverse a network as you can!

It is very hard at the beginning to convince people to get on board with what you are doing with just an idea, and therefore even harder to accept that people shutting aspects of what you are proposing may have a point.

Once you have your mission statement you can always return to it to remind yourself why you are doing what you are doing, so don't be cautious in using all of the knowledge sources in your network to quickly figure out the biggest problems in your proposal and experiment with your business plan to find solutions as quickly as possible.

Future Plans

ByoWave funded their first round of units for manufacturing and began Beta Testing in 2022, the mass manufactured units are now ready for final testing (April - June 2023), now the primary focus for Byowave is securing the final seal of approval from our community and launching it to the world!

ByoWave also has a growing team of full-time staff and interns. Hear more about Byowave's startup journey in our podcast episode. Click here to listen.