Tidelight Success after Big Gig Premiere

Thanks to Cornish inventor Alex Tweed for contributing this article.

I attended The Big Gig Show in March with my startup company, Tidelight. It was our first opportunity to publicly share our Tide.lamp, a beautiful, locally made light with turned wood features. The lamp has a smart twist, it connects to the beach of your choice and shows the tide level and direction in real-time.

We went to the show with some nerves having spent many years developing the lamp. It was kept under wraps while the technology behind it was patented, and we could finally share it publicly at The Big Gig Show. The response was overwhelmingly positive and gave us a big boost of confidence ahead of the crowd funding campaign to raise the funds for manufacturing.

Following the show, Tide.lamp was launched on crowd funding website Kickstarter.com where it surpassed 150% of its crowdfunding target and production has now begun to deliver to everyone who has pre-ordered it. I’d like to thank CPGA for the attention their show brought to the project, it sparked a lot of engagement celebrating the idea, as well as discussions on the costs and merits of manufacturing a local, sustainable product rather than outsourcing abroad. It was great to meet members of the gig rowing community and the other sector suppliers and makers at the show.

Tide.lamp was created with the support of Cornwall’s Good Growth Fund which helps start-ups to source, employ and support the local community, and that’s our goal. Tide.lamp is a hand crafted product which is made locally, and that will never change. To keep the production rooted in Cornwall, we have partnered with Sellectronics for manufacturing and HiYield for app development, ensuring a product that is locally made yet globally relevant.

Our aim is to create something that is not only beautiful and useful but also supports wellbeing by helping people feel connected to the coast. Some of the people we met at The Big Gig Show mentioned that they were frequently checking the tide,  so I hope the Tide.lamp will really help gig rowers to keep track of their local tides in a visual and accessible way.

Tide.lamp can be pre-ordered at Tidelight.co.uk, delivery is expected in September. To find out more visit the website here. :