Small Business Q&A: Kieran Normoyle, founder of Ocean Survivor

Kehlan Kirwan talks to the winner of the InterTrade Ireland Seedcorn Competition, Ocean Survivor

Kieran Normoyle is the brains behind Ocean Survivor, which just won €100,000 in the InterTrade Ireland Seedcorn Competition.

You just won the Best Overall Business at the Seedcorn Competition, how are you feeling?

Absolutely delighted. We won the overall prize, We didn’t think we’d get that far but it just means the world to us and the company.

We’ve been working full on to get our product to market.

That hard work seems to be paying off?

I think hard work always pays off. It’s incredibly enjoyable to watch a product develop from the mind to where we are now developing it and moving closer to the market.

It’s definitely rewarding to see it come around like this and with a big investment to go with it. We’ve come a long way, and it’s beginning to pay off.

Tell us what Ocean Survivor does?

Ocean Survivor is the company and our product is called Core Degree. Standard life-jackets are designed to keep users afloat, they are not designed to slow the effects of hyperthermia or tackle the loss of heat from the core of the body.

We developed a system that can be integrated into existing lifejackets on the market. So upon immersion in cold water the product activates and begins to donate heat to the core of the body in a survival situation.

We’re trying to add heat back into your body as you will lose heat 25 times quicker in cold water than you will in air.

This increases your survival time and then increases the likelihood that you will rescued. A lot of people overlook heat loss, we’re focusing on it.

You also tested cognitive responses with your product as well, why?

Yes, as hyperthermia sets in the blood gets pooled to the core of the body, namely to keep vital organs like the heart and lungs to continue functioning. That means that the blood must be taken from other parts of the body in order to keep that heat loss from becoming a danger.

So you can lose the effective movement of limbs and hand eye co-ordination as the loss of heat increases in the legs, hands and arms.

So by adding heat to the core area we’re slowing the body from creating that pooling effect to take away blood from those areas. Then it allows the person to remain more aware and to keep calm in the situation.

This helps to create a positive mental approach and that will help to increase survival and keep a person alive for longer.

So was this something you were always passionate about?

I trained as a lifeguard and a medic with the Irish Army Reserve Defence Force and at the same time I was studying at the University of Limerick doing Product Design. So for my final year design project I identified that lifejackets will keep you afloat, but won’t prevent hyperthermia.

From working with the army reserve I always found that the methods of treating personnel with hyperthermia were dissatisfactory.

I then went about designing something that would mitigate the effects of hyperthermia and focussed on cold immersion.

Over a year I worked one developing the product and did that working closely with the RNLI, the Coast Guard, Search and Rescue and the Irish Navy.

They gave invaluable input into the development of the product. So when I graduated I got a job in Molex as a design engineer.

The design was then shortlisted into the top twenty designs in the Global James Dyson awards. I then leveraged that award win to acquire feasibility funding and competitive start funding from Enterprise Ireland. I then left my position in Molex and went out to bring the product forward and make it happen.

Has it taken a lot just to get it to prototype?

Well, I’ve designed and made all the development prototypes. I also have a number of friends who work as designers and engineers.

Occasionally, they would pop in for an hour or a day and offer their feedback and maybe some improvements to the design.

I learned how to sew and how to refine the feedback we’ve gotten back from the industry. We’re also working closely with some manufacturers to develop certain components for it. So as you can imagine it has taken a lot get the product to where it is now.

It takes a lot of time and you need to develop some good communication skills in order for everything to come together. It’s been a huge learning curve, but it’s been highly enjoyable.

€100,000 sounds like a lot, but some of it is already gone?

Next year we’re going to have go through another set of safety standards with the product in order to bring it on to the next level. That is going to cost somewhere around €20,000.

So the closer we get to bringing the product to the market the more we need to invest in making sure we have everything in place behind it, so it’s viable. The money will go pretty quickly but it would be different if it was just sitting there not being used.

We know we’re getting closer to a market wide product and that takes investment, the right investment.

It also means that we can close the gap on others when we can get the product to the market. Now we have this money we can move quicker without stalling on the search for new funds.

It’s come at the right time, which makes winning this all better.

I noticed at the Seedcorn finals you were being courted by some venture capital firms as well?

Yes, we are intending to seek another round of investment, this time with a business angel investor or with a venture capital fund.

We’ve already been invited to talk to a VC firm in Northern Ireland and a number of others have made themselves known at the awards ceremony the other night. So it’s looking like a really positive 2016.

We’ll be looking to expand our team around sales and marketing, so we’re on the look-out for the right people to come on board with us.

We’d preferably like to work with somebody who has a good track record within the industry in bringing new products to the market.

What’s the goal for 2016 and beyond?

Over the past year we’ve met a lot of interesting people who have given us a lot of ideas or shined a light on some problems too.

So the goal will be to bring this first product to market and develop a whole lot of expertise around treating personnel in survival situations. That will enable us to develop a product pipeline for the future.

We have a lot of plans and our ambition is to be a global player in the market in the years to come.

However, we also want to be a product leader as well, and that means working with the best to get the best products for the future of the company as well.

So we’re ambitious, but we’re dedicated to bringing those ambitions to reality.