Meet The Maker
REGULAR
f you’ve got an idea for a world-beating
product, but you don’t quite know how to
get it off the ground, you’ll need someone
to help you out. Someone who can design a
PCB for you before it goes to the factory, write
software, establish a proof of concept that you
can take to investors, or build a prototype that you
can use to iron out the creases before you make that
first factory run.
That’s exactly what DefProc Engineering, run by
Jen and Patrick Fenner, does. This pair work with
clients big and small to make one-off and small-run
electronics-based products – and they started out in
their local makerspace using the same equipment as
the rest of their local maker community. We spoke to
co-founder and managing director Jen Fenner to find
out what it takes to go from sharing soldering irons to
working on government contracts.
“We started our business in 2010. We didn’t have
full-time jobs; we had some money to live on, and we
just started. We were only 27, so we didn’t know
what we were doing, but we started it in my mum and
dad’s spare room. We initially had this idea to design a
human-powered vehicle – they were all the rage at the
time, but there wasn’t a really good, affordable
version. So we had this big idea that we were going to
produce a human-powered vehicle and design this kit,
and we worked on that for about a year or so.
“We found that when it came to building our first
prototype, none of the manufacturers would talk to
us. They either didn’t get back to us with a quote, or
the one that did get back to us took eleven weeks to
get the quote, and it was astronomically expensive.
So, we decided to scale back. We found DoESLiverpool, which had started the year before. Pat
went and learned how to use a laser cutter, how to
design for laser cutting, how to design for 3D printing,
all sorts of little electronic bits. Somebody offered him
a piece of work – they asked him about a device they
were trying to make, but didn’t know how to get
started making it. They had the idea, but they just
were having difficulty executing it.“He started offering advice to people, and eventually
they just asked him: ‘would you be able to make it for
us?’. We basically set up a business to make things for
people within the makerspace. People would come to
us and ask us to make things. That’s how it started.
“Our business has changed over time. We still do
fundamentally what we did when we were there; we
just do it for slightly higher-paying clients, and we’ve
got our own equipment now. The shared equipment
is good, but you want your own professional tools.
We’ve got quite high-end soldering irons now,
whereas the space we were in, it was good at the
start, having access to all that equipment – I think we
actually bought some equipment and put it in the
space so everyone could use it. We really loved it
there, and we wouldn’t have the business we haveI
Meet The Maker:
DefProc Engineering
Making dreams come true
Right^
Made Invaders is a
real, physical version
of the classic Space
Invaders game. We
would have had
a go if it hadn’t
been surrounded
by children. Those
pesky kids!We basically set up a
business to make things
for people within
the makerspace
”
”