Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh

This woman invented a glue you can shape like Play-Doh.

Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh grew up on a farm in Kilkenny, Ireland, where fixing things was just part of life.

After studying sculpture in Dublin, she moved to London at 23 to pursue a master’s in product design at the Royal College of Art.

In 2003, she began mixing materials in the lab.

Bathroom sealant. Wood dust. Whatever she could get her hands on.

Her goal: make it easier for people to repair everyday items.

It took 5 years, 5,000 failed prototypes, and 8,000 hours in the lab.

But she finally created it: a silicone-based, moldable glue that sticks to almost anything and turns into a flexible rubber after 24 hours.

She called it Sugru, the Irish word for “play.”

In 2004, she co-founded FormFormForm Ltd with James Carrigan and Roger Ashby.

They secured £35,000 from Nesta and £250,000 from Lacomp PLC.

But by 2008, the money had dried up.

So they turned to crowdfunding.

With support from an online community, they built a website, developed packaging, and launched Sugru in December 2009.

The first 1,000 packs sold out in 6 hours.

From there, things moved fast.

Sugru was featured in Wired, Boing Boing, and Time Magazine, which ranked it one of the 50 best inventions of the year.

Ahead of the iPad.

By 2013, it had been used on every continent.

By 2017, users had fixed over 10M items.

By the time the company sold, that number had doubled.

Sugru became a staple in over 6,000 stores and a community of 2.5M people across 175 countries.

People used it to repair iPhone cables, mugs, headphones, ski poles.

Even to build a prosthetic leg for a chicken.

Jane expanded the product line with a Family-Safe formula designed for children and partnered with fencing brand Leon Paul to co-develop custom gear.

By 2016, FormFormForm Ltd was turning over £3.6M annually.

In 2018, Jane received the European Inventor Award for SMEs, becoming the first Irish person ever to win the prize.

That same year, Sugru was acquired by German adhesives company Tesa for £7.6M.