Entrepreneurs Win NBR Online Audacious Readers’ Choice Award

28 October 2011

Entrepreneurs Decisively Win NBR Online Audacious Readers’ Choice Award

A software solution to data collection problems in the fishing industry designed by Otago Polytechnic students has won an online award recognising entrepreneurship by an overwhelming majority – receiving more than three times as many votes as its nearest competitor.

The National Business Review’s Online Audacious Entrepreneur Readers’ Choice Award winner was decided by online public voting and announced today.

Fisherman Network Technologies’ Fish Basket is the brainchild of third-year Otago Polytechnic Bachelor of Information Technology students, Rimu Boddy and Jeff Hardisty. It is software that offers fishers and their companies more time to sell their catches on the floating fish market, and allows them to provide data to the Ministry of Fisheries online, rather than through unwieldy paper forms.

“FN Tech aims to add value to one of New Zealand’s most lucrative industries through bringing much needed logistical and communications support to inshore fishing fleets nationwide,” says Rimu. “Our business philosophy is to add value at every opportunity through technology that fosters both our seafood industry’s sustainability and its profitability. Our technology is proven and we have built both a working model and a sound business model around it. We aim to establish the technology first in New Zealand, with a greater vision of exporting our business.”

The pair wins a $2000 cash prize from the National Business Review.

A record 237 entries were received for this year’s competition. Two of the five finalists were businesses developed by Otago Polytechnic Bachelor of Information Technology students.

Otago Polytechnic’s Associate Professor of Information Technology, Samuel Mann, says he is immensely proud of Rimu and Jeff. “To come out on top of a prestigious competition such as this is a remarkable achievement, and it’s incredibly gratifying to see their entrepreneurship and innovation recognised in this way. I will be following their progress in business with great interest,” he says.

“I think competitions like this are brilliant because they send a message to students that entrepreneurship is a viable career option,” he adds.

ENDS