Scannable

In Founder Focus we introduce entrepreneurs and change-makers working on innovative startups, social enterprises and SME’s around Aotearoa New Zealand.

At a glance

Founders: Rob Stirling and Gene Dower

Business: Scannable

Founded: 2020

HQ: Otago

Can you tell us a bit about your business?

Scannable exists to streamline safety equipment management for ‘work-at-height’ industries, such as tree care, rope access, lifting, rigging and rescue.

Safety and compliance currently comes with a huge administrative burden. There are strict regulations globally that require safety equipment owners to inventory and inspect 10s of 1000s of items of equipment in a single company, and the status quo today is manual reading of itemised serial numbers, and typing into spreadsheets.

Scannable removes the admin burden. With a tap of a phone, equipment owners and users can now scan any item of equipment, reference it’s instructions, record an inspection, and check the status of equipment within their organisation.

We do this with our three core focuses:

We’ve built the easiest apps for equipment management
We’ve built the world’s smallest NFC tags, specifically to tag carabiners and ropes
We’ve aggregated the world’s biggest collection of safety products, so equipment owners don’t need to do ANY manual data entry

All of this saves 90+% time spent on equipment management, and allows users to focus on safety checks, not paperwork.

What’s the backstory for your business idea?

Before founding Scannable, I (Rob) worked in the UK as a product manager of safety equipment. I’d tried to solve this problem once before, using RFID (UHF) technology and working within one brand/manufacturer. But after 6+ years of market feedback, the results were in. The safety world wanted two things:

A mobile phone solution to identify and manage their equipment
An agnostic solution to manage any/all equipment from any brand/manufacturer

So when Covid hit, and my wife and I made a split decision to move back to NZ, I knew what I had to do. We sold the house in the UK, and started prototyping to get solutions into the customers hands.

I was always on the lookout for a technical cofounder, and found Gene in Queenstown when Sarah and I moved to Wanaka.

Gene has a tonne of experience building great tech solutions and was looking for an industry problem to get stuck into.

What programmes, learning or mentoring, or resources have been of assistance so far?

First off, I signed up for Business Mentors NZ. Apparently it can be a bit hit and miss, but I struck gold. I got introduced to Greg Fahey, from Bison in Dunedin. He’s been a solid mentor and friend since.

I applied for Startup Dunedin’s incubator. Again, some can be hit and miss, but Angus and Rachel were legends throughout the next 12 months when I started raising capital. They introduced me to a bunch of network, and gave me a bunch of chances to pitch and work out how to raise capital.

I have listened to a tonne of podcasts and YouTube. I’d recommend First Round’s In Depth podcast, and SlideBean’s YouTube channel on all things startup.