The best ideas sometimes arise from a direct need felt by the inventor or in their immediate environment. A beautiful and visible example of this is Lumicane: the luminous white cane. The father of Lumicane founder Tijmen Meuleman is severely visually impaired and does not feel safe on the streets at night with a regular white cane. Together, they believe that things can and must change: welcome Lumicane.
Tijmen: “The first reaction I often hear is: why doesn't this exist yet? That's what we thought a few years ago. Because you would think: you just put a light bulb in the tube and your stick lights up. But it turned out to be a bit more complex than that.”
Tijmen studies Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation at Tilburg University and started Lumicane with his father and a small group of confidants. “What we do is develop luminous white canes and ensure that blind people are recognisable and visible in the evening. We have been working on this seriously for the past two years. We are currently at the end of the prototype phase. We will soon start testing and hope to eventually be able to sell the canes successfully,’ says Tijmen.
Three years ago, Tijmen participated in the Tilburg University Challenge with one of his other ideas. There he met Nathalie from Iqonic, and through her he also met Geert and Karen from Tilburg University, and ultimately the partners at Startups for Society. Tijmen: “The most important thing about their involvement is the connections they have. Not so much in the field of entrepreneurship, because two people from Lumicane are entrepreneurs themselves and mentor us in that area. The connections I have gathered through the network include insurers, business developers and copyright experts. You don't just find those in a normal network; you really need a good network to find them. We have succeeded in doing so through the partners of Startups for Society. That's great. You just know that you have a very strong network behind you and that they really believe in our story. I only have to talk to one person and I have five connections that I can use for this.”
“We actually had two questions. One was indeed to put me in touch with certain organisations. The other question was about the ins and outs of patents, a subject we don't know enough about. And as I said, that worked out,” says Tijmen.
Looking back, it all happened very quickly, Tijmen acknowledges: “Suddenly you meet lots of people and build relationships. Two months ago, I suddenly found myself presenting our story on The Connection and I wondered where I had ended up. In any case, I look back on it very positively. For me, that's an important sign, because I often trust my instincts and the vibe I get is very positive. That's what I love about Startups for Society. It's genuine; every product that comes along and every idea that is put forward by participants is about helping people.”
Meanwhile, Lumicane is giving serious consideration to new possibilities. Tijmen: “In the meantime, several new ideas have been added. Our plan for Lumicane is to ultimately reinvest the profits or income we generate from Lumicane into another product. Our goal is and remains to help as many blind people as possible.”
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