After a mountain biking accident confined him to a wheelchair and ended his career in the military Noel Joyce returned to education to study Industrial Design in the Institute of Technology Carlow. While studying he and several other likeminded designers established Designhub, a collaborative effort aimed at helping designers to get work or develop start-ups. As part of Designhubs efforts he started Applydea, creators of the worlds first magnetic stylus and breezy gardening, a gardening product company. He appeared on Dragons Den with the former product and was successful in getting investment from Sean O Sullivan of SOSV a Venture Capital company specialising in backing early stage start-ups.

Noel went on to help build HAX one of SOSVs start-up accelerators based in China where he designed and developed over 250 hardware start-ups products, working in areas as varied as robotics, to consumer goods, to health and wellness products to industrial IOT and more. He developed a set of methodologies around design for acceleration as a result of working with these start-ups. He was active in this role for 8 years and has dealt with start-ups from all over the globe giving him a cultural insight into how to work with people from all walks of life. Part of the work he engaged in was helping many multinational partners of HAX understand how they could bring a start-up mindset to develop in house corporate accelerators.

Noel has also spent some time lecturing. He has worked in Universities such as The university of Limerick, The National College of Art and Design, Singapore University of Technology and Design and most recently New York University Abu Dhabi delivering insight into Education around the subjects of entrepreneurship, design and innovation.

In his spare time Noel likes to work on personal projects which he is passionate about. These projects help enable him to understand the difficulties of innovation and how start-ups can navigate these difficulties. A problem solver and maker at heart, he enjoys bringing new value to people’s lives through design. His experience of having lived life as an able-bodied individual and with a disability gives him a unique perspective on the design development of new ideas.