Eline van Beest
Where do you work?
I work at NightBalance. I am the founder and managing director. After studying Industrial Design Engineering I started my company NightBalance at YES!Delft, the high tech incubator of the Delft University of Technology. NightBalance developed the Sleep Position Trainer; a new innovation for the treatment of sleep apnea. Two Venture Capital firms invested into the company and we launched our first device early 2012. We now are three years down the road and employ nine people. Within the team, me and my companion Thijs van Oorschot (also graduated from IDE), guide everything from consumer research, clinical research, product design and production, to setting up marketing, sales and distribution throughout Europe as well as arranging the ordinary business needs like logistics and financials.
What have you learned from your study at IDE?
IDE is an extremely diverse education that covers an abundant amount of relevant aspects within the product development process. I have found this has many advantages. Knowing something about practically everything and being able scale up to an expert level in a relatively short amount of time means you can be of great value as an IDE graduate on practically all areas. During my education I've seen all topics in depth and I have learned to quickly adapt and learn new things. As a result, practically everything we come across within our company is manageable within our capacities. I think an IDE graduate is a super flexible generalists that can fill any job within the whole product development process; from initial research to product branding or technical detailing.
