How a failed shooting safety business became a successful mechanical hazards warning business had members sitting up and taking notice at the club meeting this week. John Bishop reports
Michael Scott is the founder and CEO of Seen Safety which despite the clunky name is an export success story selling sensors used in industrial workplaces so people like forklift drivers can detect hazards more easily.
Michael told the club that 85% of the company’s sales were made overseas. “Our sensors are used in twenty countries, and we have sales staff in five international locations.”
The initial staff of four had grown to 25 in under three years after the first sale of a sensor to a smelter in Queensland in 2019.
The sensors are a rectangular black box smaller than a shoe box and they sell for around $1000 each and are used mostly in materials handling.
It wasn’t always like this. The first venture by Michael and his partner, both industrial designers by training, was an iris sensor intended to be used by hunters to tell the difference between deer and humans. It was a response to the all too frequent incidents of deer hunters shooting each other by mistake.
The product failed despite strong media coverage and enthusiasm from just about everyone concerned about safe hunting, except for the hunters themselves.
“They all thought it was great product for those people who have hunting accidents but not for me,” Michael said.