On Monday 28 September, a team of OPs and current Paulines will launch SureLight on Kickstarter ( www.kickstarter.surelighttech.com).
SureLight shows others when the cyclist slows down and when drivers get too close. It resembles a car’s brake and hazard lights – red and orange signals understood by everyone on the roads. After winning the Young Enterprise UK and European Finals with SureLight’s prototypes while at St Paul’s, Ben Ray, Luke Andrews, Thomas Dhome-Casanova, and Rohan Chadha (all 2014-19) are joined by current Lower Eighth pupils Joachim, Robbie and Jamin for the launch of their new product to keep cyclists safe on the roads.
SureLight attracts motorists’ attention, varying the brightness, colour and flashing pattern of the light in response to cyclists’ deceleration and proximity to others. In October 2019, with support from OP Ed Clarke (1993-98) at ip21, the team applied for a patent for SureLight’s technology, and in July 2020, SureLight’s final pre-production prototypes were released for filming, live demonstration, and reviews. Two years after founding the company, the team launch SureLight on Kickstarter in an effort to raise £50,000 by the end of November.
Since leaving St Paul’s in 2019, SureLight Tech’s co-founders Ben (Managing Director), Luke (Product Development Director) and Thomas (Operations Director) have continued to work together while scattered across the globe. This September, Ben starts his first semester at Harvard University, living in Barbados while enrolled in online classes following the COVID-19 pandemic’s restrictions on new international students obtaining US student visas; Luke starts his second year studying Engineering at Cambridge University in the UK; Thomas starts his second year studying Engineering at Princeton University, enrolled remotely from the US East Coast. This year, they have been joined by Rohan (Senior Fundraising Manager), who starts his second year studying Economics at Warwick University, and a team of current Paulines starting their A Levels and looking at universities worldwide.
With so much input from the current Pauline and Old Pauline community to date, the SureLight Tech team will be incredibly grateful for any support you are able to give to their Kickstarter campaign. You can now pre-order your SureLight at www.kickstarter.surelighttech.com. Anyone who is interested in sharing this project or who would like to ask any questions is welcome to contact Ben at ben@surelighttech.com.
