Dr Zsuzsa Mayer, co-founder of EcoSync
Dr Zsuzsa Mayer, is the co-founder of EcoSync, a company which is revolutionising energy saving for large organisations. Large organisations like hotels and office buildings spend millions on their energy bills each year while 70% of their heated rooms are empty – therefore 40% of the energy is wasted.
EcoSync is a platform for existing building technologies to synchronise; we harvest occupancy information from the room booking system and from motion detectors and use the data to pre-set the temperature of the right rooms at the right time. EcoSync currently has 5 pilot locations in Oxford and working with 7 developers and looking for investors to launch our product/service in October 2018.
We were frustrated not finding an existing solution for an obvious problem. The development started as a hobby, now a full-time commitment of the co-founders.
“Scientists study the world as it is; engineers create the world that never has been.”
Theodore von Kármán (1881-1963)
An entrepreneur is someone also considering the market/business/viability aspects of that new world.
We have received very positive feedback (and awards) at an early stage of the development.
Depending on the field a solid engineering background is the best thing to have. And an MBA is a great plus.
Not a skill but you must be happy to use your savings at the beginning – and be able to let it go if there is no fund/support as it means your work might not be valuable enough. I might be wrong though.
The potential impact we can make by ourselves – not by following the vision or goals of someone else.
That 5 % of start-ups who made their business work/survive. They are heroes.
Their strategy and pitfalls to avoid. We learn the most from those companies’ only 1-2 steps ahead of us.
Burning up some bridges with potential customers – a good relationship is crucial all the time.
Personal savings, small grants/awards and pre-seed fund/investment.
Social Enterprise Award of the University
Low Carbon Hub award
Carbon Innovation award
OSEF
VIEW
LEV8 (accelerator)
Bad: most of the support opportunities are in London.
Good: the community is relatively small, easy to get to know other start-ups to help each other out.
Facebook groups – like Start-up Therapy and Entrepreneurship Centre.
