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Friday, October 25, 2019 3 Brooklin Town Crier A Special BTC Feature An invention that fills a "safe" niche By Richard Bercuson The scene is set: A family wedding in Collingwood. A bike ride has been arranged. Brooklin resident Daryl Gibson happens to be watching a fellow prepare for the ride by stuffing his valuables into a backpack, covering it with his jacket and setting the pile aside before riding off. "It was the weirdest thing," he says now, nearly three and a half years later. "It was almost like slow mo and kind of comedic watching him try to hide his stuff. And yet we all do it all the time. That's when it sort of struck me that there has to be a better way to lock up your valuables." Fast forward to the present and his company Havlar (havlar.com) could very well become the next big thing. With his brother, Kyle, and father, Tom, assisting in a massive business venture, the Havlar personal safe is about to venture into crowdfunding through Indiegogo. However, the path to this point has not in any way been a straight one. Lots of paperwork Obtaining patents, wading through mounds of legal issues, creating a viable business plan, and funding the project are just some of the obstacles he's faced to make the project come to fruition. "Yes, it's been pretty expensive," Gibson, 35, says. "Into the six fig- ures for certain. Having access to funds was the most challenging part of this." He teamed up with his brother and father and together they asked themselves, "What do we want to lock up in this thing." They settled on a safe, about the dimensions of an 8 ½ x 11" piece of paper, yet deep enough to house keys, cell phone, wallet, money, passport and even a tablet. The safe would have a four-digit mechanical combination lock and could be tethered to, say, a pole by a cable, having a similar combination lock much like a bicycle lock. They wanted a cable that couldn't be cut easily, short of a snatch 'n' grab thief carting around an ax. As well, the safe's casing had to be durable and water resistant. One key though was that the device, the finished product being about 5 lbs., could also be hidden in a backpack or bag. "I suppose if you gave someone a half hour and a sledgehammer, they could get into it. We had to consider security vs. weight and went the route of making it a bit heavier to make it more secure," Gibson remarks. The safe will be manufactured in Barrie and ultimately shipped from Pickering. Ideas from TV Gibson says he's watched the TV series Shark Tank and Dragon's Den and has always been interested in what people come up with, asking himself, "Why didn't I think of that?" His father, meanwhile, had been pulling back from his full time occupation in the business world when the idea first took hold. "We had to pay some bills," Tom Gibson recalls, "and because of my business experience, I agreed to sign up to help." This included a business plan, not to mention ensuring the bills were paid and the approach stayed on track. "We basically had two challenges: One was to get a product that was different and has a lot of features and benefits. We needed a product road map. The second was creating a brand and image." Special skills As well, he had to see to it that his two sons didn't waste their money, not to mention sometimes having to keep the peace. They recognized it was okay to have their differences. What did arise though was that each of Daryl and Kyle brought very specific skill sets to the undertaking. Kyle, for instance, turned out to be particularly adept at social media and web site design. They agreed on a target market, the U.S., for two reasons, Tom Gibson explains. "Canada is about 1/10 the size. Plus, we're not a nation that embraces crowdfunding the way the U.S. does." Moreover, many of the business decisions came about after working with Georgian College's Henry Bernick Entrepreneurship Centre in Barrie, which, Daryl says, was instrumental in getting the project going. As for the name Havlar, Daryl fell upon it quite by accident. Seeking a single word domain was not easy till he happened upon the ancient Norse word havlar which roughly translated meant rock or defender. "I love that word," he recalls thinking. The Havlar safe will retail for $129. However, early proponents can go to havlar.com, sign up and get an early bird 30% discount when manufacturing begins in the first quarter of 2020. The indiegogo campaign is expected to start around March. BTC Publication Changes Please note these changes to the publication dates and deadlines for our next four issues: Publish Nov. 15 Deadline Nov. 8 Publish Nov. 29 Deadline Nov. 22 Publish Dec. 13 Deadline Dec. 6 Publish Jan. 10 Deadline Jan. 3 The Gibsons (from the left): Daryl, Tom, Kyle