Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Safety at sea strikes right chord

By Kiri Gillespie
Bay of Plenty Times·
18 Sep, 2012 11:08 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

When Ian Wills registered to take part in the Tauranga StartUp Weekend he had no idea what his product would be but won the entrepreneurial challenge with a simple mobile app for boaties.

The event has been likened to television show Dragon's Den, where contestants present ideas to be launched as business models.

While registering without a game plan is generally not the done thing, Mr Wills was not worried.

''I'd had plenty of ideas in the past that I'd just not executed. I thought it would be real good to go along and see what happens in a really quick space and what the barriers are from getting an idea into a reality,'' Mr Wills said.

Mr Wills, who is passionate about the water, came up with the idea of a mobile app enabling boaties of smaller craft heading out to sea a simple method of checking in with Coastguard when they leave, telling it where they will be and when they will return.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The name StandBy came about as a play on words associated with radio communication.

After each of the 22 ideas were pitched to a crowd on Friday night, voting began for the most popular including Mr Will's StandBy.

''People just started congregating around the idea and how to execute it.''

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mr Wills was joined by Phil Harris, Justin Scott, Clare Kemeys, Rachel Donald, Rochelle Alder, Mike Jansen and Kelvin Trask.

The team spent the rest of the night working on their minimum viable product - the least you need to go to market with it-and ''sort of smashed it over the next two days''.

''It's a lot of long hours and effort for everyone involved. It's really dynamic, fast and hard but I'd recommend it to anyone,'' Mr Wills said.

Mr Wills works as lead designer at Comvita, Paengaroa.

''Through my career, I work on branding. I enjoy the design thing and taking business forward.''

A meeting has been set up between the StandBy team and Coastguard to discuss the future of the app.

The four judges were Brett Roberts, Candace Kinser, Cheryl Reynolds and Lance Wiggs.

Chief organiser Sheldon Nesdale said the StandBy concept was ''awesome'' because it was about people.

''It was a community-based product that we could relate to. A lot of us have friends and family who go boating and might forget to check in with Coastguard. It's fantastic,'' Mr Nesdale said.

The StandBy team won $4000 worth of accounting services and business advice from KPMG, eight coaching sessions worth $2000 from Catalyst Management Services, a StartUp Law Pack worth $2000 from Loundes Jordon, three-month hot desk in San Francisco worth US$1500 ($1814) from Kiwi Landing Pad and lifetime membership for mobile app mockups worth $1548/year from FluidUi.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

'The man I once trusted violently raped me': Man jailed for attacking ex-wife next to sleeping child

07 Jul 08:00 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

'Do it now, run him over'. Teen who ran over mother's partner twice can finally be named

07 Jul 07:00 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Hunter who feeds the hungry named Volunteer of the Year

07 Jul 06:56 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

'The man I once trusted violently raped me': Man jailed for attacking ex-wife next to sleeping child

'The man I once trusted violently raped me': Man jailed for attacking ex-wife next to sleeping child

07 Jul 08:00 AM

The man apologised to his victim, but pleaded not guilty.

'Do it now, run him over'. Teen who ran over mother's partner twice can finally be named

'Do it now, run him over'. Teen who ran over mother's partner twice can finally be named

07 Jul 07:00 AM
Hunter who feeds the hungry named Volunteer of the Year

Hunter who feeds the hungry named Volunteer of the Year

07 Jul 06:56 AM
Downhill mountain bikers impress on world stage

Downhill mountain bikers impress on world stage

07 Jul 06:38 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP