About Nyckle Sijtsma

Prefer a traditional CV? It’s here.
Also, feel free to reach out personally at hi@nyckle.eu.

• Hi! I’m Nyckle.
  Please let me tell you a little story about my life.

  
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• In 1994 I was born in Fryslân, in the north of the Netherlands. We have our very own language. Hence my exotic and sometimes hard-to-pronounce name.

  

• I was an ever observing and curious little man. I was a boy full of ideas.

  

• After school, I spent a lot of time tinkering, making stop-motion videos and designing websites for small businesses.

  

• From 2012–2015 I followed the bachelor’s programme of Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology.*

  * Average grade: 8.0
  Final project grade: 10.0
  Cum laude.

• In 2014, I worked as an intern at senz°, the innovative Delft-based company behind the original storm umbrella.

  
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• In 2014 I co-founded Repareer.com: a service that aims to make repairing a product just as easy as buying a new product.

  

• In 2017 I worked as an R&D apprentice at Philips, developing new working principles for floor cleaning: it led to two granted patents, in Europe, the US and Asia.

  

• In early 2019, I obtained my Master of Science degree in Integrated Product Design at the Delft University of Technology.*

  * Average grade: 8.4
  Thesis grade: 8.5

• For my MSc graduation thesis I worked with Ford Motor Company.

  
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• In September 2019 I joined the IoT company SODAQ, and from 2020 I led its industrial design team, creating (solar) trackers for mass manufacturing.

  

• Then I started the design company New Things Lab to create and sell original products, the first of which was Time Smiles.

  
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• In 2021 the minister and I gave the start signal for the Innovatiestrook: my student concept, now built along the A58.

  
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• In 2023 we launched MEMO, a wallet that unfolds into a whiteboard. It was funded 1,380% on Kickstarter.

  

• In 2024 MEMO won an iF Design Award. Today it’s in the pockets of more than 10,000 people.

  
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• In 2025 came the ZONE Productivity Timer: $306,380 on Kickstarter, and another iF Design Award.

  

• Time Smiles grew up too. The second edition won an iF Design Award in 2025, and in December 2026 comes a watch.

  
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• That’s my story so far. Let’s make something new together: hi@nyckle.eu