Jessica Matthew, was just 19 when she created the Sockket – a soccer ball which uses the rotational energy that gets generated every time the ball rolls, to produce three hours of light for every hour of play.
The idea stemmed from an experience she had at her aunt’s wedding in Nigeria. During the party, NEPA did their thing and the diesel generators were brought out. “They brought in a
diesel generator to keep the festivities going,” says Matthews, who grew up in New York, before attending Harvard Uni.
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“I was 17 and it was by no means my first time in Nigeria, but for some odd reason, I was particularly bothered by the fumes coming from the generator. I started to cough and got dizzy. The other guests carried on as if nothing were amiss.”
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“My relatives said, ‘don’t worry, you’ll get used to it’. I remember this bothered me so much because it was them telling me to essentially get used to dying. But what was even more saddening for me was that it was very clear that it’s something they had gotten used to.”
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Jessica drew on that experience a few years later when she and her classmate Julia Silverman, came up with the idea for Soccket. The ball gave birth to the company ‘Uncharted Play’ (@unchartedplay), that is now a profitable start-up with gross profit margins that have doubled year after year.
Jessica’s list of accolades include the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2014, Black Enterprise’s Innovator of the Year in 2013, Scientist of the Year by the Harvard Foundation (2012), and one of the “10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs” by Fortune (2011)
Source: SplufikNigerians
