It’s so true. But I don’t think it’s necessarily the whole truth.

Sure, you need your initial inspiration, your killer idea, your ‘light bulb’ moment, as those who came after Edison soon started calling it.

And equally if you are foolish enough to think, that’s it, you’re done, success is guaranteed if you work until you are so exhausted you can hardly even think anymore, then you seriously need to ‘catch yourself on’ as we say in Northern Ireland.

But sometimes hard work on its own just isn’t enough. You need people who will inspire you to keep going and more importantly, to keep going in the right direction. And I believe that finding those people is just as important as finding investors and finding customers.

When we came up with the idea for GoPlugable with my co-founder Andrine Mendez in 2023 I was certain we had our killer idea – to make EV charging more accessible for everyone, everywhere, by tapping into the huge potential of home EV chargers.

GoPlugable enables EV drivers to book affordable, reliable charging times at local hosts' homes, providing a convenient alternative to public infrastructure, particularly for those without private driveways. This removes one of the biggest obstacles currently impeding the global uptake of EV ownership, by giving customers who live in flats somewhere quick, convenient and affordable to charge their vehicles.

By creating a marketplace where hosts set their own prices and availability, GoPlugable maximises the utilisation of existing home chargers, allowing hosts to earn passive income while supporting the wider EV community.

We are now well on our way, steadily growing the business by acquiring hosts and onboarding users across the island of Ireland and in the north west in the UK. We are also expanding our business model to incorporate B2B and destination charging by attracting businesses such as forecourts, gyms, leisure centres, shopping malls and car parks onto the platform, anywhere with an EV charger with spare user capacity, basically.

From the start though, I was under no illusions that it would be a lot more challenging to launch the business from my native Belfast, where the startup scene, although energetic, is not as developed as Dublin and London yet. The city is also still somewhat disconnected from the investment scene.

When I started studying mechanical engineering at Queen's University Belfast in 2018, the subject was still a largely male-dominated one. But I always felt fully respected by my male peers and empowered by academics who taught the course. They showed us that we can go out there and solve real world problems no matter who we are and where we are from.

Northern Ireland does have a long history of engineering and innovation. Harry Ferguson transformed agriculture with the tractors that bore his name and their hydraulic ploughing system. Eric Megaw refined the cavity magnetron, a high-power vacuum tube essential for early radar technology. Sir James Martin invented the ejector seat.

Hugely significant though their contributions were, when I read about them, these men didn’t exactly ‘speak to me’ down the years with their sober suits and their serious faces. Lilian Bland looked a lot more fun. She became the first woman in the world to build and fly her own plane when she took to the skies of County Antrim in 1910 and she also ran her own car dealership in Belfast.

Once one of the great industrial cities in the world, the troubled past of Belfast is well known. In the darkest days of the troubles the idea of a young person launching a global technology startup would have been laughable. But Belfast has changed, and the truth is that when I sought out inspirational people locally, I found plenty.

Change started in 1998, with the signing of the Good Friday Peace Agreement, one year before I was born. I know that process took time to achieve, but I also know that I, and my generation, owe a great debt of gratitude to the people who stuck with it and delivered the agreement.

Today, Belfast is going through a real transformation of collaborative working empowered by emerging physical and digital technologies. OK, it may be a little later than other parts of the UK but there’s real energy to it that is seeing the city catch up fast. A prime example of this is Catalyst, an independent, non-profit science and technology hub focused on fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in Northern Ireland.

At Queens, initiatives such as the Dragons’ Den competition and ‘Innovate Her’ really made me believe in myself as a woman in STEM and later, as a business leader. Beyond university life, The Awaken Hub, which was created to level up opportunity, access, and connectivity for women founders throughout the Island of Ireland by removing barriers to investment, scale, and success, was super helpful too.

It is still challenging raising funding as a female business leader. But that’s by no means an issue exclusive to Northern Ireland. A recent report showed that for every pound in venture capital invested in the UK, just 2 pence is invested in female-led businesses. So, we still have a long way to go.

But people from Northern Ireland have a special kind of grit, charter, determination – call it what you will. To date, GoPlugable has secured £150k in funding through grants and competitions. We have entered a partnership with Ohme, a London-based dynamic EV charging company, as a home charger partner in Ireland. Ohme owners in Ireland can now become GoPlugable hosts and earn money by sharing their home EV chargers when not in use.

We have also formed a strategic partnership with Myenergi to enhance EV charging solutions for businesses across the island of Ireland. This collaboration will see GoPlugable recommending Myenergi’s OCPP-compliant Zappi chargers, which provide a robust infrastructure for business owners, both big and small.

Following our successful pilot in Ireland, we initiated a similar programme in the Northwest of England, to make EV charging more reliable and affordable for EV drivers without private home chargers.

Now, GoPlugable is seeking to expand UK-wide and attract private equity and angel investors with a fundraising round of £750,000, to support its ambitious growth plan.

There’s been a lot of hard work to get to this stage and there’s plenty more to come. But there’s a lot of people out there to take inspiration from too.