My Academy story: If I hadn’t won things would have been completely different

Martin O’Connell, co-founder of Nasal Medical, won the AIB Irish Times Start-up Academy earlier this year and said the prize was “life-changing.”

“It was unbelievable to win on the final night, it’s changed us in every way. I’m still getting 30 to 40 emails every week, congratulating me on the whole thing. I didn’t think we had a hope in hell [of winning].”

Nasal Medical was chosen from 11 finalists in the second year of the Academy and won the coveted top prize package worth €250,000 that included a substantial marketing and advertising spend.

O’Connell’s advice for any new start-up is to make the most of the support around you and says having support around him was key to getting the company going. “Marie Louise [his wife] has been through thick and thin with me. I was stuck in an office just trying to get this off the ground. It was tough going and she’s been there through it all.

“You have to have support. I could have easily gone back to work in engineering and just given up and there were a few times I thought about throwing the towel in when there was no revenue coming in and nothing stirring really with it. Even though we had Enterprise Ireland on board and my wife was expecting the baby, it’s a tough time, you need security. If I hadn’t won the Academy, I think things would have been completely different.”

O’Connell is a qualified engineer and talented musician. After moving to the US, where his wife was finishing a PhD in Music, he met his business partner Keith Yeager. They set-up Nasal Medical in 2014. It creates nasal devices to help with snoring, mild sleep apnoea, pollution, allergies and sports enhancement.

The origin of the company was something very personal to O’Connell: he wanted to find something that could prevent TB from getting into the noses of cattle. “Before Marie-Louise and I went to America, our cattle on the family farm were tested for TB, it came back positive and all our cattle were wiped out. So years and years of building up this breed and herd of cattle was gone just like that. It was desperate, an awful time. It can destroy a farmer in a minute.”

Mentors were also crucial to affirming his belief in the business. “I knew myself there was something in it, but if it wasn’t for Enterprise Ireland, if they didn’t believe in me, I probably wouldn’t have continued with it. I had a mentor as well from Enterprise Ireland, Terry Sullivan. He had high hopes for it as well. He introduced me to Gary Moore from Steripack and both were huge support. So when someone from a huge company like that believes in it you think; “iet’s drive on with this.”

“We have 20,000 units sold of our snoring device and will probably have 20,000 more sold before Christmas. We’re in talks with Boots and Lloyds pharmacies.”

While the focus is on the Irish market for now, O’Connell is in talks with distributors in the UK and in Germany and two distributors in China. By the end of October Nasal Medical will have four people employed. In the future, he’s looking forward to developing his hayfever product and their sleep apnoea device. O’Connell’s advice for any start-up is simple. “If you believe in something, just go for it. You only live once.”