For a long 18 months, WearWorks cofounders Kevin Hoil Yoo and Keith Kirkland had zero dollars to work with. With no funding for product development, their new business wasn’t going as planned. But they didn’t waste that precious time; instead, they spread the word about Wayband, their life-changing product that uses haptics technology to help blind and visually impaired people navigate and communicate through vibrations on their skin.

“This is really about freedom,” Kirkland says. “It’s about autonomy, it’s about independence. That’s the entrepreneurial journey, but funnily, that’s also exactly what Wayband is about. It’s about giving people freedom, autonomy, and independence.”

WearWorks’ Wayband could be a revolution for countless individuals, if the business can ever get it to market. The team encountered many challenges but persevered. See how they designed Wayband’s innovative wearable tech and went from prototype to real-life product — and how proactive networking and fundraising helped them get there.