Innovator of the Week
T. Antonio
CEO & Founder of Trigger Devils
Please provide your 30-second pitch about your company.
Video game controllers were never designed for the intense eSports market ($2b market by 2018). The triggers on controllers are a particularly bad because you don’t even have to pull them all the way down to shoot in games. You only need to pull the trigger down half way.
We invented a product that stops the trigger at the perfect point, instantly increasing reaction times for gamers. We didn’t stop the innovation there. We also created the Rocker Padtm, a surface on Trigger Devils that repositions the gamer’s finger so it can multitask. For the first time in history, gamers can throw grenades without interrupting their gunfire by pressing both buttons at the same time thanks to the Rocker Padtm!
Trigger Devil trigger stops simply clip onto the controllers gamers already have and are the most innovative and cost effective trigger stops on the market.
Who or what was your best resource for starting your company?
Myself. My business didn’t start really growing until I stopped looking for helping hands from others. When I trusted myself to make the dream happen without some miracle or hail marry toss I realized that 99% of this is pure grinding. Other people and resources can nudge along the way of your journey but you have to be the main source of energy in getting to your own goals. I do want to give shout outs to my team, Aloha Loft, the Seacoast Startup Challenge, and the NHSBDC as well. They have been amazing resources for the businesses.
What was your biggest obstacle in starting your company and how did you overcome it?
Getting the first sale will always be a painful memory for me. In eCommerce it is very difficult for a new product to build trust and it took me over a month to generate the first sale of a Trigger Devil. During this period I felt like a failure. I wanted to quit. With each passing day I would watch traffic to the site…no one has even put it in their cart. More days went by and I didn’t even want to get out of bed in the morning. A month of this really pushed my limits. Just when I was ready to give up someone put it in their cart and I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Soon after that I was working with influencers in the industry to help bolster the trust in product and boom…orders.
What’s the best advice you have received?
Building a business is only three steps:
- Figure out what to do next
- Do it
- Repeat
Another great piece of advice I got was from a close friend while I was struggling to find my path. I was at dinner and fielding all the potential businesses I was thinking of start and I just passively mentioned “I also have this trigger thing” at the end. He asked for more detail and soon after smacked me up side the head and told me to do it!! He saw something that I hadn’t seen yet, it had the perfect mix of passion and function. The very next thing he told me to do was patent it. I wouldn’t have pursued a patent without that advice and I sure am glad I did!!! Definitely making sure your work is proprietary is absolutely necessary.
What about the NH lifestyle appeals to you?
I love I’m within an hours drive it seems from everything, ocean, city, mountains, good shopping, crunchy downtowns. There is a lot to love. I’ve found in recent years a surprising hunger for innovation and entrepreneurship in the state that I didn’t know existed. I never used to think of NH as a tech hub but knowing companies like Masquerade out of Belarus can grab the attention and be acquired by Valley titans like Facebook really encourages me to change my perspective on how NH can have in impact on the technology landscape.
What does the future look like for your company?
eSports is a budding industry. Think of what basketball shoes looked like in the 70’s. That’s where video game controllers are now for eSports. We are going to be Nike. We are dedicated to creating the most innovative technologies in eSports and will become a well-known brand for doing so.
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