StrayHat - crowdsourcing to stop kids losing stuff at school

Back to school often means buying new items and replacement items for items lost last year. 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 asked themselves if there is a better way? Patrick Chye and Leighton Jenkins think there is and its called StrayHat. StrayHat takes two things that parents use today and made small but significant improvements - they made the colourful name label readable by a smartphone, and created a smartphone app to manage kids school items, 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 app stores. 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. 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, we can crowdsource the finding of stuff, all save time, money and reduce the stress. 

StrayHat is a complete solution for a busy parent, with the Smartphone app providing a powerful way to manage all the items that kids need at school. "StrayHat's annual subscription is less than $20 per family, per year - and is significantly less than a musical instrument or a tablet PC that may be lost" stated Chye.