The story behind Rockslice — and why it started with a garage
The best startup stories begin in a garage. So did this one.
Three years ago, Jesper Tveit just wanted to build a garage on his sloped, rocky property. But before he could pour concrete, he had to remove solid rock — and in a tight-knit neighborhood, that’s no small thing.
What followed was a string of complications:
Special insurance just to get started
A contractor inspecting every neighbor’s foundation and window
Safety measures to secure the rock
Loud blasting in a residential zone
Road closures for hauling mass away
And here’s the kicker: when you blast rock, it expands. One cubic meter becomes 1.5 — and now you’ve got even more to remove. Suddenly, trucks needed to weave through narrow streets with no room for two cars to pass. And all that, just to make way for a single garage.
Then came the next phase: framing, pouring, and all the standard construction chaos.
Jesper had been here before. He’d split rock manually before — drilling holes and using wedges and shims to break it apart. It was exhausting. He also loved working with stone in his garden — but finding pieces that fit, adjusting them, cutting by hand? It took forever.
So he paused. And asked:
“Does it really have to be this slow, noisy, and destructive?
Isn’t there a smarter way?”
When Minecraft meets hydropower
A few days later, watching his son play Minecraft, an idea began to form. Jesper zoned out — just for a second — and saw something: what if you could cut the rock like slicing into blocks? What if the stone you removed could be used to build walls or foundations?
He grabbed a pen and started sketching.
Jesper’s background in engineering, combined with a lifelong fascination with water turbines, sparked the concept:
A rock-cutting blade, powered by pressurized water — using the same principle as a hydropower turbine.
He envisioned a compact, motorless cutting head, driven entirely by water. A slim, self-guiding system that could dig deeper as it moved — because it fit into its own cut.
No vibration. No noise. No waste.
A prototype in the garage — and a working solution
He built the first version himself. In that same garage. And it worked.
The blade cut through the rock with precision. The removed material stayed intact, like usable bricks. No explosions, no rubble, no truckloads to dispose of.
This wasn’t just a workaround — it was a breakthrough.
A better way to build
That early prototype laid the foundation for Rockslice:
A patented system inspired by hydropower
A unique cutting head with no motor, just water pressure
A way to turn stubborn rock into clean, reusable stone
And a smarter way to tackle tight, complex construction sites
Today, Rockslice is scaling up — with a team of engineers, a new prototype in development, and growing interest across sectors. But it all started with a simple frustration: There has to be a better way.
Turns out, there was. And it started in a garage.
