Przemek Gorzelanczyk moved from Poland to Ireland in 2005 with an engineering background and a long-standing ambition to build something of his own. That ambition, however, started much earlier.

As a child, Przemek was drawn to designing, fixing and building things. He bought himself a tiny set of screwdrivers and kept them in his pocket. Whenever something broke at school, he would try to fix it as much as he could. At home, he had even created his own imaginary company, complete with a name and logo, offering his services to extended family and grandparents. His customers never actually paid him, but that was hardly the point.

If there was something he wanted but could not afford, his instinct was often to try to build it himself. He would take apart broken toys and discarded equipment, use whatever materials he could find, sketch ideas and then try to turn them into working devices.

As a teenager, he went as far as building a motorbike from scrap. He rode it for a day before passing it on to someone else who could enjoy it, freeing up space for his next project. Cars, motorbikes, electronics and mechanical projects all became part of the same pattern: design something, build it, fix it and see if it works.

He initially studied as an aviation technician and expected to pursue a career in aircraft engineering. However, during work experience at an aircraft maintenance and repair facility, he discovered that the slow-moving corporate environment was not for him. He realised that what attracted him most was not simply engineering, but the freedom to design and build things himself.

After moving to Ireland in 2005, Przemek initially joined a kitchen furniture manufacturing company. He quickly progressed through the business, eventually becoming machine room supervisor and production manager. During his time there, he redesigned the factory layout and production process, helping increase output from around 80 to 180 kitchens per week within the same timeframe.

Outside working hours, however, his attention was already turning towards another idea — a business of his own based around manufacturing. Designing and building things had always been his passion, and he increasingly wanted to create something where engineering and manufacturing could go hand in hand.

That ambition eventually became Alpha View.

Today, Przemek is the founder and Managing Director of the multimillion-euro Irish technology company. From its beginnings as a bootstrapped venture, Alpha View has developed into a modern manufacturing and technology facility, designing, developing and manufacturing LED displays, digital signage, electronic scoreboards and bespoke technology for commercial, sporting and public-sector applications. The business has also created employment in Ireland.

The company was built without outside investment. When Przemek started, he and his teenage sweetheart, who would later become his wife, put virtually all of the savings they had built up together into the business. They made that decision during the recession, knowing that if things went wrong, they risked losing everything they had saved. With their second child on the way, it was a significant personal and financial risk.

The early years were far from easy. For roughly the first ten years, most of what the business generated was reinvested back into the company. Przemek and his family lived from month to month while the business gradually developed. Throughout that period, his wife was a constant source of support, encouraging him through the difficult periods and, perhaps just as importantly, continuing to believe in many of the ideas that could sometimes seem a little unconventional.

Przemek graduated with an Engineering degree and a Master's degree from the University of Technology and Life Sciences in Poland. His technical background has remained central to the business. Over the years, he has designed a range of products that Alpha View has subsequently manufactured, combining engineering, electronics, software and production.

The company's technology is now visible across Ireland. Alpha View has supplied highly innovative electronic scoreboards to a large proportion of GAA clubs throughout the country. It is also the largest supplier of variable message signs to Ireland's toll plazas, with its signs installed at almost every toll plaza in the country, making the company's technology part of everyday infrastructure for thousands of motorists.

One of the more unusual projects was the development of a large-scale rotating digital display for the international gaming industry. Standing at over two metres in height, the device combined a physical spinning wheel with a high-resolution digital screen and was designed by Przemek and manufactured by Alpha View. One of the key engineering challenges was designing the structure so that the wheel could be folded for transportation and shipping without compromising the large display element or its operation. The technology was supplied primarily to the American market, as well as to customers in other parts of the world.

Yet the underlying approach has remained remarkably similar to the one Przemek had as a child: take an idea, work out how to make it possible, build it and improve it.

For someone who has always been impatient to move from a drawing on paper to something tangible, entrepreneurship became a natural direction. Building his own company gave him the freedom to do what had always attracted him most — design, engineer and build things that did not previously exist.

Now an Irish and Polish citizen, Przemek has built his professional life in Ireland. His story is ultimately not just about starting a company. It is about turning a lifelong fascination with making things into an Irish technology business with products used throughout the country and, in some cases, around the world.

For clients working with Alpha View, the story behind the company provides some context for the way the business operates today. The company remains closely connected to its engineering and manufacturing roots, with Przemek continuing to be involved in product development and technical decisions. For a business entrusted with complex projects and long-term installations, that hands-on approach is an important part of Alpha View's identity.