Can clothes control your muscles?

Which came first: the idea of setting up the company, or the idea of printable sensors on clothing that simply needed to be put into practice?

Definitely the idea of printable sensors. Starting a business wasn’t even on my mind back then. It seemed too big a task: but the desire to see if the idea of printable sensors could work was what drove me. To bring the prototypes to life, I needed support. To get that support, I had to demonstrate not only that it worked, but also that there was a social and commercial purpose behind it. That’s how the concept for Noxon gradually took shape, and the idea of starting a business wasn’t as far off as it had been before.

How did you come up with the idea of developing smart clothing with sensors, and what inspired you to do so?

Due to my own back pain and my passion for statistics and data, I was looking for ways to obtain more detailed information about my symptoms. My knowledge of printing technology struck me as a potential tool. After some research, I came across a technique known as electromyography (EMG) for measuring muscle activity. I delved deeper into the subject and explored whether it would be possible to integrate this technique into clothing using printing technologies, so that it could be worn on the body for extended periods. This is how the idea for Noxon came about – and what is probably one of the greatest academic adventures of my life.

For your project, you needed expertise from various subject areas, such as medicine, printing technology and textiles. How did you manage to acquire the necessary expertise to get the idea off the ground?

Right from the start, I knew I would need a team. So I looked to my immediate circle to see if any close friends or acquaintances I trusted had the necessary skills. With my brother Marius, a physicist, my long-time friend Ka Hou, an electrical engineer, and the support of my former professor Ulrich Moosheimer as a mentor and expert in printing technology, the technical side was covered. Together, we pitched our project to experts in the fields of neuroscience and textiles to get feedback and advice. This helped us quickly determine how to drive development forward and what we needed to focus on.

Apart from knowledge, what else did you need to take your idea forward?

It is impossible to predict success with 100 per cent certainty. All you can do is evaluate the product idea as thoroughly as possible, and if all the indicators are positive, you have to trust that you will be able to manage any remaining risks in the future. That is part and parcel of the entrepreneurial risk.

What challenges did you face – and are you still facing – during the start-up process? How did you deal with them?

When I founded Noxon at the age of 22, it was all a bit much for me at first. Every day I was thrown in at the deep end and had to make decisions for which I bore full responsibility. I had to get to grips with new areas quickly and, at times, delegate tasks and trust others. I had to learn to cope with the responsibility and the stress – even though it was often of a positive nature. One effective method was to restructure my daily routine. I set aside specific times in the morning just for myself, certain evenings just for friends, and, where possible, scheduled all my meetings for the week on specific days. This structure helped me enormously. Since then, I’ve also been a fan of routines.

A woman as a founder? In your opinion, how do female founders (still) differ from male founders?

I believe that women often have a particularly keen sense of the emotions of those around them. This empathy can be an advantage in many situations, such as managing staff, negotiations, or when dealing with partners and customers. I definitely see the sensitivity often attributed more to women than to men as a strength here. What has concerned me in the past, however, is the tendency of some women to automatically blame themselves when a start-up or project fails. Self-reflection is important, but feeling generally responsible for failure is usually unjustified.

Based on your own experience, what advice would you give to students interested in starting their own business?

Communication is key. Talk, talk, talk – it can save you a lot of time and help you avoid mistakes. For example, I sought out mentors from different fields, depending on the challenges I was facing. I would probably have made a lot of mistakes if I hadn’t discussed things with others beforehand. That’s why: networking always sounds so trite, but in the end it’s really worth its weight in gold.