Angela Nicholls is the Queensland female co-founder of Spatial Innovation, which is a small Brisbane-based company providing data visualisation and mapping solutions to real business problems.
Angela and her co-founder and husband, Victor Nicholls, believe that everyone should have access to the best information as possible when making decisions. So, at Spatial Innovation, they are dedicated to bringing that information to life in the simplest way possible through maps and data visualisations. It not only saves time and resources, but also ensures that quality information is delivered.
We spoke to Angela about Spatial Innovation and her journey as a Queensland female co-founder.
What inspired you to start your business?
I think like any business you see a problem and work out how to fix it. We were working in the mapping space as consultants and saw a void in the market for a lightweight online mapping solution that we could control and customise to meet specific needs within our chosen market, and in state and local government and others.
What milestones have you reached?
Migration of the business from consulting to a predominantly products business has been vital to secure future growth and unlimited scalability. Those products reaching maturity and initial commercialisation with real customers has validated our decision to build those products out and given us the confidence to keep focusing our efforts.
What business achievements are you most proud of to date?
Building our own geographic information system (GIS), specifically to take advantage of these opportunities to develop products, such as the Flood Information Portal (FloodQuery) and Viewdata that have become central to delivering exceptional value to our customers. And the bonus is that products like FloodQuery have a real impact on people’s lives and decisions. Plus building a small but great team of people who are dedicated to making our vision happen.
Have you participated in any Advance Queensland programs, or received any support from Advance Queensland to date?
We have been fortunate enough to receive grant funding on three occasions from 2018 through to 2021, and also received an Ignite Ideas Fund grant this year. This funding has helped accelerate our plans from two to three years down to one, which is crucial in a very competitive market.
I have also accessed the Mentoring for Growth Program, which is an absolute must if you are starting out in business. Highly recommend it.
What’s your advice for other female entrepreneurs and businesses starting out on their entrepreneurship journey?
Just get started! Think about your end goals – what do you want to achieve, where would you like your business to be in five years’ time? Then work backwards by setting some smaller goals – say three years, then two years, even month by month.
Don’t wait for the planets to be in ‘alignment’ or for everything to be perfect. Just get started!!!
