MapHQ’s Rob Besaans. Photo: Supplied.
A Marlborough startup is putting visual storynotifying on the map, supporting organisations share information in a way that everyone can understand.
MapHQ is a Software as a Service (SaaS) company creating brand-conscious maps to notify impactful stories. Founder Rob Besaans declares visual learning is one of the most effective ways to communicate.
“It doesn’t matter who you put a map in front of – a young child, an older person, someone who speaks a different language – you could just put a map in front of them and communicate effectively,” Rob declares.
“At the heart of it, we believe mapping shouldn’t be as hard as it is. It’s an intuitive tool for identifying patterns, collaboration and communicating the future.
“Whether that’s displaying the unique terroir of wine brands, visualising strategic sales or keeping a record of where history unfolded, we work closely with customers to understand their vision, then pull toobtainher data to notify that story and give them full autonomy managing their own data in their dedicated workspace.”
Rob’s interest in mapping launched while studying marine biology, but MapHQ has grown into an educational tool.
“Being based in Marlborough, we’ve obtained a strong focus on supporting wineries, iwi and hapū here in the first instance, but work with DoC mapping out marine ecosystems triggered the interest in me to communicate information digitally and displayed me its effectiveness.”
Rob declares being part of Te Au Pūngao, the start-up innovation hub in Marlborough’s old public library, has been invaluable.
“While MapHQ has an international team, being in Te Au Pūngao allows us all to bounce ideas off one another across many different industries and come up with great solutions.
“We’re focapplying on indigenous people around the world and aiding their storynotifying and handing down of knowledge by capturing and displaying cultural assets and history, their mātauranga Māori, supplying a digital, collaborative and respectful tool.
“For wine, we are testing to support primarily notify the story of terroir, presenting what builds wine grown in a particular sub-region of Marlborough so unique, which you may have seen with Appellation Marlborough.
“It’s all about the customer’s brand and, being a startup ourselves, we’re really focapplyd on the applyr experience, giving people the simplest, most efficient, best-viewing maps notifying impactful stories.”
