SUCCESS
with Sarah Blinco
Local
innovation goStandby promises to be the next big thing in travel apps, and it’s been developed right here on the Gold Coast. Sarah Blinco meets Nathan Challen and his team behind the tech ho is involved in the development of goStandby? We are Nathan Challen (CEO), Britney Marsden (Graphic and UI / UX designer), Jacob Turner (marketing/ branding and finance) and Justin McPherson (iOS developer). What’s goStandby all about? It’s an innovative mobile app targeting the last minute tours and activities market. The app offers tourists and locals the ability to instantly book quality tours and activities departing today or tomorrow directly from their iPhone. Gone are the days of calling around tour desks and checking availability on websites to see if you can get on a tour at the last minute. Simply look, book and go! What initially inspired the idea? With a background in the Inbound Tourism Industry, I identified an opportunity in the day tours and activities space. Similar to the well-known hotel booking app HotelTonight, goStandby app only offers committed tour departures in the next 48 hours, we offer genuine ‘last minute’ availability and pricing for the convenience of mobile travelers in the area to book. How’s it all going so far? It is rewarding to hear all the compliments about the app and the problem we are solving for both consumers and the industry. We have had travel suppliers as far as Broome WA wanting to list their product and industry experts as far as the USA complimenting us on the solution we have designed. Closer to home, we were just last month ranked 7th in Anthill Magazines’ September 2014
(a business /entrepreneur publication) annual SMART 100 competition which was a great honour. What are your aims for developing it this year? We would like to see goStandby become the new way of finding things to do in Australia. We also have our sights set on selected markets internationally. Here on the Gold Coast there are so many great tours and attractions in our own backyard. goStandby is a platform where local operators can release an offer depending on the weather and demand. We would love to see this dynamic pricing enable Gold Coast families and day trippers to enjoy more of what is on offer in this great place. How did your team all end up together working on this project? goStandby were the winners of the first Gold Coast Startup Weekend in 2013, a startup event run in cities right across the globe, and have since knuckled down to turn the winning concept into a reality. What’s your view of the future when it comes to app technology? The beauty of apps is in their simplicity. They generally solve a single, simple problem for the user but do it really well. What makes the best apps remarkable is how they seamlessly integrate technology into our daily lives. The turning point for the mass appeal of apps was when smartphones became aware of our surroundings and linking our physical world into the connected online world.Geo location awareness,the camera, maps, scanning, integration with social networks 30
technology are just a few examples of how we integrate the traveller through the goStandby app. The next wave for apps is potentially around sensor and beacon technology where we further integrate with our environments such as our homes, shopping centres, streets, car and airports. We are already experiencing that wave and the next will be around our interaction with devices, a smartwatch, Google glass, mind reading − only the future will tell! How we interact with apps and further extending the connections into the cloud is the future. What’s your success mantra? Build or create something you are passionate about, solve a problem or provide a service that you yourself would use. It is far more rewarding when you invest your time and energy into a product or service that genuinely interests you. It wasn’t hard for our team to get excited about being in the travel industry. When you’re not working, where would we find you hanging out on the GC? Startup events and co-working spaces are a great place to hang out and meet new and interesting people, and you will often find our team attending many local events. Check out the Silicon Lakes website or the Meetup app for Silicon Beach events. We all enjoy getting out to many of the Gold Coast’s cafes, as well as the beaches, and with families; Hinterland and parks are always great because it’s a chance to get away from our desks and computer screens. Stay up to date with the latest on goStandby on Facebook.com/gostandby