Kate Mounter, co-founder of Parachute First Aid, talks to Tom Raynel about starting a business with an unexpected friend, and how raising awareness of injuries helps prevent them. Each Monday, we interview a small business owner, which is now a regular feature of NZME’s editorial campaign On The Up, showcasing
Small Business: How a fishing show led to the creation of Parachute First Aid
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I used to work with Matt Watson on the ITM Fishing Show up in Kerikeri, and I was doing all of the logistics and that kind of thing. Then we employed Amber’s [Shaw, co-founder] husband, Dave, on the fishing show.
Eventually, I left when I had children, Dave left to create his own shows, and Amber, who was a pharmacist, was then in charge of all the health and safety for the guys when they went out on their hunting shoots.
She said to me that she couldn’t find any first aid kits and I said I’ve always been the same. She suggested we put all of our skills together and off we went.
How did you decide what goes into the kits?
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Because Amber was originally a pharmacist, she knew we had to have quality fillers in the kit. We work with Aero Healthcare, which is an Australian-based company, to get hospital-grade dressings and things like tourniquets. If your arm has been bitten by a shark, you don’t want your tourniquet to come from Temu.
That has been one of the challenges in this day and age is when people are looking for cheap items or throwaways, actually, first aid is one of the things in life you don’t want to skimp on. Trying to convince people that it is worth paying a little bit more for good quality kits is probably one of our struggles.
Do you have plans for expansion?
We’re in The Sleep Store, which is perhaps New Zealand’s biggest go-to store for parents. Stores like that, having them recognise our product, is awesome. Then, The Memo in Australia, which is their version of The Sleep Store, reached out as well, so that was a really good feather in our cap.
We do like to keep it in-house as well, so we wouldn’t be going into big retailers. Although Chemist Warehouse would be awesome, but I can’t see that happening because it’s still just the two of us.
We do everything. We create the kits, we run the websites, we do all the orders, you know, so it’s the two of us. Any upscaling that we could do would be awesome.
You started the business roughly four years ago. What was it like starting during Covid?
We both have other businesses. My family has a farming business and our kids were still getting fed, even though we weren’t making any sales in the beginning. It wasn’t like our lives relied on the business to sustain our family.
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Not having that pressure was great. It just means you can take the time to do things as you want them to be, rather than feeling the pressure to just get something out there or lower your standards.
Amber has her husband with two TV shows, so it’s a nice little side hustle for both of us that we can fit in with our kids and our other jobs at the same time.
What would be your advice to a budding entrepreneur wanting to start a business?
I think you need to figure out what you love, and you have to really feel passionate about what you’re doing as well. You can’t just go into it thinking you want to make money, because it could be quite a few years before any money gets made.
You’ve got to see if there’s a market for it as well, see what else is out there and what you’re wanting to do. Make a real plan and get some people involved in it.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
