First on the scene with life-saving app

Jaco Gerrits is founder and CEO of CrashDetech. He tells Margaret Harris that to start a business and make it a success, you have to overcome serious mental hurdles, irrespective of the industry

CrashDetech is a smartphone app that auto-detects a serious car crash, pinpoints your location and immediately notifies our emergency call centre, which dispatches the nearest ambulance and supplies paramedics with your medical information. This reduces emergency response times and ensures correct medical treatment, which could save your life.

What led you to develop the app?

Nearly 1.3 million people are killed and 50 million are injured on the world’s roads each year. Global road death and injury is a major public health problem with a broad range of social and economic consequences. The UN General Assembly proclaimed the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020. One of the key pillars of the Decade of Action is post-crash response.

You have won awards for the app — did this surprise you?

Yes, it’s always an honour when your efforts are recognised. I’ve also had the privilege to represent our country against 26 others in New York earlier this year, which was an amazing experience.

I have to commend Chivas Regal on The Venture, a global competition encouraging and supporting social entrepreneurs. They offer a $1-million [about R14-million] fund to empower extraordinary start-ups that use business to create positive social change. More than just a competition, they have an overarching mission to inspire entrepreneurial thinkers.

You have been involved in tech for many years. What do you think is behind your success?

Starting a business requires hard work, and you can expect numerous challenges along the way. There are external challenges such as funding, talent acquisition and technology. More importantly, there are internal challenges such as stress, fear and self-doubt. You have to power through serious mental hurdles in order to start a business and make it a success, irrespective of the industry. You’re guaranteed to experience setbacks and failures along the start-up journey.

Adopting a positive mindset in order to learn from and constructively deal with these setbacks is a key ingredient for success.

What qualifications do you have, and how do they help you do your job?

I have a comprehensive programming diploma. I spent a lot of time developing my own software solutions in the early years. I made the classic mistake of trying to perfect my products before I launched, not testing my assumptions against my prospective market, and was very surprised when nobody showed interest when I was finally ready to show my product to the world.

However, I’m grateful for the experience and lessons learnt. It allowed me to build up good technical skills — skills that I use to this day. I also think completely differently about commercialising ideas nowadays.

How did your participation in Mr South Africa help you in other ventures?

I saw Mr South Africa as a good platform to engage with stakeholders around entrepreneurship and other topics I’m passionate about. I’ve always loved the idea that entrepreneurship and business can be used as a force for good.

As an entrepreneur, I’m continuously on the lookout to solve problems in new and unique ways. The reality is that we face social problems on a global scale, which require innovative and AUTO RESPONSE: After trying a few ideas without first doing market research, Jaco Gerrits got wise to doing his prep sustainable solutions to drive forward positive change. There are few things as rewarding as the ability to positively contribute towards the lives of others, while doing what you love.

The Mr South Africa platform allowed me to establish new business and media relationships, helping me to work towards my goals.

What did you want to be when you were a child?

A fighter pilot. I’ve always loved flying, and I think I have my parents to blame. They owned a small aeroplane (a Cessna), and most weekends were spent at the airfield when I was a boy. I started with my [private pilot licence] a couple of years ago, but never had a chance to finish it. I’d love to start flying again, if only I could find the time.

What other career would you like to pursue, given the chance?

Advocate. If you ask others, they’ll tell you that I love negotiating. Personally, I think I’ve watched too many episodes of Suits (step aside, Harvey). What part of your job do you wish you didn’t have to do? Dismissals.