The Irish startup became the first Irish company to feature on Instagram’s live news feed. ThinkBusiness spoke with founder Ailbhe Keane about her journey in business.
How did you come up with the name for your business?
I named the brand Izzy Wheels after my inspiration, my little sister Izzy. We chose the tagline ‘If you can’t stand up, stand out.’ We believe our tagline perfectly represents what we do.
What is Izzy Wheel’s biggest achievement to date?
We were approached by INSIDER art a few weeks ago and they made a video about us. The video received two million views in the first 24 hours and 11 million views in one week. As a result, most of our sales are now coming from the USA.
What’s the most important thing you have learnt so far in business?
How to balance your time wisely has been the biggest lesson for me so far. As a founder you are constantly on the go. It’s so important to take a step back from everything and make some time for yourself.
Izzy Wheels was developed out of a college project, how did this help you when you developed the company?
I came up with Izzy Wheels when I was in my final year of visual communications in the National College of Art and Design. I was inspired by a brief which asked you to empower the lives of people living with a long term lifestyle related health condition. Immediately, I thought of my sister Izzy. Izzy was born with spina bifida and is paralysed from her waist down. I had always wanted to create something that allowed my sister to personalise her wheelchair, so that it could reflect her personality.
I spent a full year exploring, brainstorming, prototyping and coming up with different creative solutions to transform my sister’s
