When you talk to Pete Horsley about his career in tech, it doesn’t take long to see that his work is deeply personal.
His eldest sister, Jo, was born blind, autistic, and with an intellectual disability. That experience shaped the way he views the world, as he explains to Majella Campbell on episode 29 of the Startup 360 show.
Listen here
As a child, Pete loved showing off Jo’s talents, like her uncanny ability to tell you the day you were born from the date.. It taught him an important lesson: value doesn’t always look the way society expects.
Pete is the founder of Remarkable, the accelerator backed by the Cerebral Palsy Alliance supporting startups building technology for people with disabilities.
He’s also a passionate voice for inclusive design, reminding us that technology we take for granted – the keyboard, speech-to-text, touchscreens – were first created to solve accessibility challenges.
On Startup 360, Pete shares why disability isn’t about “some of us”, it’s about all of us. When we design for diversity, we don’t just build better products, we build a better world.
Oh and details on the Remarkable Disability Tech Summit on November 11 mentioned by Pete are available here.
One of the latest startups supported by Remarkable is Hailo in Brisbane, cofounded by Santiago Velasquez.
Born blind, he quickly discovered that public transport wasn’t designed for people like him. Buses would pass by because he couldn’t hail them, or he’d be dropped off at the wrong stop late at night with no easy way to get home.
“They didn’t let me drive for some reason or another. And because I couldn’t see a bus to hail it or I couldn’t see the map to know when to press the stop button, I was either being left behind by buses or being dropped off at the incorrect stop,” Santi explains.
“When you’re blind and it’s 11pm and it’s the last bus… getting back home and telling a taxi driver where you are, it’s a little bit hard.”
Hailo is an app that will transform the way people with disability navigate public transport. As Simon remarks, the idea has the potential to make public transport easier for everyone.
Santi’s visual impairment inspired his life as an entrepreneur – the only blind startup CTO in the Southern Hemisphere, he jokes. After failing a uni subject in his electrical engineering degree because the course materials weren’t available in an accessible format, he sent out to invent a solution. It was the spark that lit his first startup and set Santi on the path to solving problems not just for himself, but for millions.
His ambitions are boundless, including being the first blind person on the Moon. If anyone can, Santi will.
Also this week, Simon and Majella discuss the latest data from Blackbird on investing in female founders, and the end of the Sydney Startup Hub as we know it.
Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human.
Watch here
Startup 360 is supported by Vanta helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.
Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on Spotify
Watch previous episodes here.
Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don’t forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!
Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, this week with help from Mikey Marren.
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.