New Frontiers gave Jens the support needed to begin his journey

After studying MSc in Innovative Technology Engineering in WIT, Jens’ ambitions of being an entrepreneur were made a reality by New Frontiers

Jens Kopke was a participant on the New Frontiers Programme at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) in 2017/2018 at WIT’s ArcLabs innovation hub on its West Campus, Carriganore, Waterford.

Hailing from Graiguenamanagh in County Kilkenny, he worked in sales, supporting customers in the DACH region for ZEUS Industrial Products from Donegal, and also as an R&D Process Development Engineer in Bausch Health in Waterford.

Support on his journey

He embarked on Phase 2 of the programme with Motoklik. He is currently at product launch, and New Frontiers gave him the support needed to start his journey.

Explaining why he chose to apply for Phase 2 of the New Frontiers Programme at WIT, Jens explains “at the age of 27, I didn’t have a lot of experience in industry, let alone how to run your own business.

Always learning

New Frontiers was a supportive and open environment that gave a soft landing into the world of entrepreneurship where you never stop learning.”

Jens says the most useful element of the programme was “giving myself the time to really understand the opportunity I envisaged and determine if it was worth pursuing or not, was the market opportunity big enough, was our offering unique enough, and how much time and funding would we need to do it.”

Like minded-people

He found the following benefits from learning alongside people with businesses/business ideas.

“The greatest benefit was having a group of like-minded people who understood the stresses and risks to the same level as you. It’s a very trying period in start-up mode and being able to call on someone who is trying to solve the same problems as you is very reassuring.”

What Motoklik is

Motoklik is an electronic device used to improve performance and safety in Motorsports. It does this by giving off-road motorcycle racers unique insights into their suspension’s performance, and through lap time analysis. Motoklik have recently raised €300,000 in private investment alongside Enterprise Ireland and are supported by the European Space Agency

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