The Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, School of Engineering & Architecture, was there from the very first hour. Back then IRISgo was more a project than a company. The IRISgo cup was a prototype that only two founders could picture as a finished, elegant product. The university took it seriously all the same.
From the lecture hall into the startup programme
Fabian studied Industrial Engineering and Innovation at HSLU and kept bringing IRISgo into his coursework. Every module a new perspective on the product, every piece of feedback a step forward. The university quickly saw how much energy was in the project and invited us to join Smart-up, the HSLU startup support programme.
Through Smart-up, the HSLU gave us the infrastructure a hardware startup needs and cannot afford at the beginning: our own office, the design studio on the Horw campus, 3D printers, lasers, materials research. This is where the prototypes were built that later became the patented IRISgo cup. And this is where the team grew, through the degree programme and the university network, step by step.
Tested at the university with state of the art technology
A closure that is opened and closed thousands of times has to survive being opened and closed thousands of times. Together with a mechanical engineering specialist at HSLU, we ran long-term tests with a robot that show what a closure endures over years. Those tests led to contacts we still keep today.
Not feasible, we were told
Along the way we also consulted a renowned engineering firm. Their verdict: the concept is not feasible. A guest lecturer at the university encouraged us to keep going anyway. We did not let ourselves be talked out of it. Today the closure that supposedly could not work sits on shelves in hundreds of stores.
Still in Horw today
We are still in close contact with the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences. IRISgo is still based in Horw, a few minutes from the campus. That is no coincidence.
