StrayHat - Mobile and Smart Tagging Solution for Parents & Schools

Kids lose things all the time and it can be expensive, inconvenient and frustrating to find lost items. Let’s be honest, with 80% of kids losing stuff, the traditional way is not working. Two Sydney dads, Patrick Chye and Leighton Jenkins asked themselves if there is a better way; researched the market, created a startup and developed StrayHat. 

StrayHat took two things that parents use today and made small but significant improvements - the colourful name label was made readable by a smartphone app, to create a unique solution for busy parents.

"Parents can choose from a range of colours, and even iron-on labels" noted Leighton Jenkins, a StrayHat founder.

The StrayHat app is FREE for any users to download from the app store. This allows users to find and scan lost items, including parents, school staff, friends and family. For an annual subscription fee, StrayHat users get unique and personalised name labels and access to the lost and found system.  

"With StrayHat, parents get control of lost items and will be notified what item is found, when it was found and a map of where it was left - all securely to an email account." said Patrick Chye, the other founder. When you find it and scan it in, your item list is updated automatically. When you find a friends item and you scan it, then they get an email telling them that their item was found. Working collaboratively, the school community can crowdsource the finding of kids lost property, saving time, money and reducing the stress.

Initially, the target market will be parents of Primary and Secondary aged children. However, it can also be used by universities, taxi, rail and bus companies to notify owners of the whereabouts of their lost items

"StrayHat is a powerful platform, that provides an end-to-end solution for low cost assets. We envisage working with label print companies from around the world to add their own label designs, to licence the platform and the mobile apps" stated Chye. The smartphone app is designed for both the iPhone and Android platforms.