Mapping out memories

A Marlborough startup is putting visual storytelling on the map, helping organisations share information in a way that everyone can understand.

MapHQ is a Software as a Service (SaaS) company creating brand-conscious maps to tell impactful stories. Founder Rob Besaans says visual learning is one of the most effective ways to communicate.

“It doesn’t matter who you put a map in front of – a young child, an older person, someone who speaks a different language – you could just put a map in front of them and communicate effectively,” Rob says.

“At the heart of it, we believe mapping shouldn’t be as hard as it is. It’s an intuitive tool for identifying patterns, collaboration and communicating the future.

“Whether that’s showing the unique terroir of wine brands, visualising strategic sales or keeping a record of where history unfolded, we work closely with customers to understand their vision, then pull together data to tell that story and give them full autonomy managing their own data in their dedicated workspace.”

Rob’s interest in mapping began while studying marine biology, but MapHQ has grown into an educational tool.

"Being based in Marlborough, we’ve got a strong focus on helping wineries, iwi and hapū here in the first instance, but work with DoC mapping out marine ecosystems triggered the interest in me to communicate information digitally and showed me its effectiveness.”

Rob says being part of Te Au Pūngao, the start-up innovation hub in Marlborough’s old public library, has been invaluable.

“While MapHQ has an international team, being in Te Au Pūngao allows us all to bounce ideas off one another across many different industries and come up with great solutions.

"We’re focusing on indigenous people around the world and aiding their storytelling and handing down of knowledge by capturing and displaying cultural assets and history, their mātauranga Māori, supplying a digital, collaborative and respectful tool.

“For wine, we are trying to help primarily tell the story of terroir, presenting what makes wine grown in a particular sub-region of Marlborough so unique, which you may have seen with Appellation Marlborough.

“It’s all about the customer’s brand and, being a startup ourselves, we’re really focused on the user experience, giving people the simplest, most efficient, best-looking maps telling impactful stories.”