{"id":36494,"date":"2023-10-20T14:44:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/kids-in-cars-reminder-could-be-a-lifesaver-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:44:27","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:44:27","slug":"kids-in-cars-reminder-could-be-a-lifesaver-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/kids-in-cars-reminder-could-be-a-lifesaver-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Kids in cars reminder could be a lifesaver – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last January, at the peak of another scorching Australian summer, media outlets were again tragically reporting the deaths of children who\u2019d been locked in overheated cars.<\/p>\n

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At the same time, Sarina Kilham and her partner, Ednilson Santos, welcomed their second child.<\/p>\n

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Determined to prevent parents like themselves losing a child to such a cruel fate, the pair set about finding a product to ease their minds with little success.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe found it incredible that there was nothing on the market yet,\u201d Kilham says.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s what motivated her to create RememberMe<\/a>, a sensor device fitted to a child\u2019s car seat that sends alerts to a parent\u2019s smartphone if they leave their child inside the vehicle.<\/p>\n

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If the alert isn\u2019t received by the driver, the device then starts to call a list of emergency contacts.<\/p>\n

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The idea, still in its prototype phase, won Kilham and Santos the $5000 first place prize at the University of Technology Sydney Project Pitch competition in September.<\/p>\n

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But while the startup community showed its support for RememberMe, not everyone has been so encouraging.<\/p>\n

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One of Kilham\u2019s friends, a mother-of-four, called the idea \u201cterrible\u201d, saying she\u2019d never leave her baby unattended in a car.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHearing that feedback really rocked me,\u201d Kilham says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe research says it can happen to anyone. It\u2019s not linked to parenting ability, profession or socioeconomic class.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kilham says children are most often left in cars when there\u2019s been a change in the family\u2019s daily routine.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt might not have been dad\u2019s day to drop the baby at daycare, and he just keeps driving to work,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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The duo plan to overcome the possibility of parents not admitting they need the device by targeting the baby shower market.<\/p>\n

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Kilham also says families who hand over their kids to grandparents will want one fitted in their car too, allaying need for constant worry.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re looking at it as a peace-of-mind product,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou pay your car and house insurance even though you never expect it could happen to you, and it\u2019s the same with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kilham and Santos are now looking for an app developer that can create the software to complement their pressure-pad device. Then they\u2019ll crowdfund to have RememberMe industrially manufactured.<\/p>\n

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While the Sydneysiders might be new to entrepreneurship, Kilham says they\u2019ve been energised by their interactions with the startup scene.<\/p>\n

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\u201cRealising there\u2019s a whole community out there is exciting because it makes your idea possible,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>, and <\/i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last January, at the peak of another scorching Australian summer, media outlets were again tragically reporting the deaths of children<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36494"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}