It will soon be clear for the unveiling of a product that is expected to be of great importance to hospitals and other health institutions that care for patients both at home and abroad. The Kongsvinger woman Anne Høstad With is behind the innovation, which has been developed in collaboration with Stantek AS.
-This would not have gone so painlessly without good and professional help from Stantek. It has been only positive from day one. They are very responsive and have understood what it is I am looking for. I have felt in safe hands all the way, says Høstad With.
Both exciting and interesting
It takes less than a month for the prototype to be ready. Anne is both expectant and excited.
-This is thrilling and I’m so excited, she smiles.
The energetic, sympathetic and imaginative pensioner has long been on first names with both Hallvard (Sletmoen) and Sveneric (Skoglund), and is unsure of which of them is the general manager and who is responsible for marketing and customers. They have just looked at the third and final drawing of the product, which will soon become a reality.
-It’s probably been about a year since we met Anne for the first time. It was Klosser Innovation who had recommended her to contact us, and we immediately got a good impression of both the lady and her product idea. We understood the function, and found the project both exciting and interesting, Sletmoen and Skoglund says.
See to do something about it
The story of the innovation, which has been given the catchy name Pre Infect, began several years ago.
-When I worked as an anesthesia nurse, I did not think about it. But when I started teaching nursing students in practice, I was frustrated that there was no such aid that would relieve and take care of a lot.
In the more than 20 years she worked as a college lecturer at the nursing education in Kongsvinger, the product idea lay dormant without her having either the time or the opportunity to do anything about it. But when she both retired, the idea resurfaced. She came to mention the case to her lawyer son.
-He said that if it is that simple, then you will see to do something about it, Anne smiles.
Well received everywhere
It is a couple of years ago now that she sat down with a paper and pencil, and began to make sketches of the ideas she had in her head. First, she established a sole proprietorship. Later, the boat engineer Arne Ingvaldsen from Vestland county came into the picture. Together they decided to establish the company WIA AS, which saw the current in April 2021. Equipped with courage, product sketches, descriptions and good argumentation, as Anne herself puts it, the company was well received by Innovation Norway, Klosser Innovation and all other agencies and places she has been in contact with.
-We have received both market clarification funds and mentor support, and it has been a good help along the way. A big thank you to Klosser, too, for putting us in touch with the people here at Stantek, says the lady, who has received help from Sentrum upper secondary school to make a logo.
– They should have helped us with brochures and animation as well, but unfortunately they were unable due to the pandemic.
Intense and laborious
There is still quite a bit of secrecy surrounding the new product by Anne Høstad With. There is far too much work and effort behind her that she is interested in someone snapping the product idea on the run-up side, and there are still some fine-tuning, testing and testing in pilot projects before the product is ready to be released on the market.
-There are a number of extra requirements for this product as it is to be used in a demanding environment, the three says, and say further that they had regular meetings about product development throughout the past year.
-We have made a new draft, and then Anne has come up with comments and input based on it. We have probably had almost weekly meetings lately. Anne has been here with us, and then we have had Arne with us on Teams from the westside of Norway. It has been intense and laborious at times, but that’s how we like to work. It is really meaningful to be able to contribute to entrepreneurs and imaginative people realizing their product idea, says general manager Sletmoen and marketing and customer manager Skoglund at Stantek AS, who has great faith that the new product of Anne Høstad With will work well in the market.
