Creativity, passion and a good sense of humor
Six months ago Create it REAL was looking for a CEO to help the company in a commercial direction. We needed someone who had done it before and the right person was found in the space industry, where Jacob Nissen has been part of growing some of the most successful companies like Gomspace A/S and Space Inventor ApS.
Like the new space industry, additive manufacturing is also a young industry, where the technology experts have been evolving together with the technology. After his first six months at the company it is proper to give a more formal introduction to our CEO and his thoughts about the industry and in particular Create it REAL.
How did you get to CIR? Could you tell the story briefly?
I worked quite a long time in the space domain. And then I was actually contacted by a headhunter company working for Create it REAL, that they’re looking for a CEO for the company. So, I had some initial discussions with the recruiter. And then I went into a full formal recruitment process. Quite a heavy recruitment process, I would say, they really went through all kinds of interviews, and I was also having meetings with the founder, Jeremie Gay.
What is your relation to 3D printing?
I must say, before I joined Create it REAL I had seen 3D printing. We used it for mock ups for the space industry. But prior to that, I don’t have any real experience with it. So it’s a quite new industry for me.
But it’s quite exciting, and also all the things that you can do with 3D printing is amazing. And I think we still have a lot to see in this domain because people are not taking all the really nice benefits of 3D printing. They are still looking at traditional manufacturing methods of the components instead of taking advantage of additive manufacturing. I also find it quite exciting that you can print with all kinds of materials from metal printing to plastic printing, and then also with these very soft TPUs that we are doing. And also bioprinting, for instance, is going to be huge.
What do you like the most about working at CIR?
I must admit, it’s the people. It’s the people that are around in the company and this kind of creativity and kind of interest in finding new solutions and new things to print. That is, that is incredible. Working with people that are so curious about new things and not limiting themselves to what we normally do. So they are always open to a new challenge of things to print. That is the most thing I really like about it and the positive atmosphere we have, we can do everything. That kind of attitude is what I really, really like.
That’s also something that I’ve always worked with. The companies that I’ve worked with have always been the “go-to” companies, if you can’t make it, you go to these companies. And I think Create it REAL is the same kind of company, Create it REAL is where you go to if you can’t find a way of printing stuff. And then we will find a way. That’s what makes it most amazing to be at Create it REAL.
Say three words that best describe CIR.
Three words describing Create it REAL…I would say creativity, passion, and a good sense of humor.
How do you see CIR in 5 years?
I think the 3D printing technologies will really increase and develop over the next five years and I really see Create it REAL will be one of the top players in being a technology provider. Both for our slicing technologies, the product that we are launching now with REALvision Pro, and our REALvision Online will be huge products. But also, we will be making more and more specialized products to make decentralized production of many, many different kinds of things. So, I see a big potential for Create it REAL. And it’s not just one thing, I think we’ll have a big palette of different products that we are offering. And that we can really, really spread out, is the use of 3D printing to many different industries as such. So, it’s not only for the health care industry, it will be also in car manufacturing and all kinds of other industries.
What challenges do you see in doing business in 3D printing?
I think the biggest challenge at the moment is to convince people that 3D printing is good enough now. That it’s not just for prototyping, but you can actually make real products now, with 3D printing. I think that is the biggest challenge at the moment, convincing people that this technology is there, we are ready to go into real production and not just prototyping.
What gets you out of bed in the morning, what`s your motivation?
I like to drive a company, I like to drive an organization to become better and better every day and try to find new customers. Having this interaction with people every day that’s what drives me, and really bringing a company to its best. I want to be a part of success as well. I always like to get up from the bed and I never say oh, I need to go to work. I always enjoy coming here.
What are the craziest things you ever have done?
The craziest thing I have ever done…one of them was, with some of our friends we took our tractor to go to a discotheque. So we have parked the tractor, in front of the discotheque that we call a party.
And then one of my friends was sitting in the back and he had his hand in the window. And the window was open. And then my other friend, he was not used to driving a tractor, he bumped into the sidewalk. The window slapped in and it broke his little finger. But since we were doing this crazy thing, you know, he didn’t go to the hospital and he didn’t dare to say anything to anyone. So today, his little finger is still pointing outwards. It has never been corrected…
And maybe the craziest thing I did was also moving in together with my girlfriend after I just met her. We moved together after two months. It was not well seen upon, let me say so. My wife comes from a traditional family. It has been 35 years ago and we are still married, so it worked out.
