Wildlife through technology
Nadav Ossendryver is the founder and CEO of Latest Sightings, an online community that connects people with wildlife through technology. Ossendryver’s website has an online community of over 700 000 wildlife lovers. During the recent cover shoot for Thriving Magazine, he explained how he turned a hobby into an entrepreneurial venture.
Tell us how Latest Sightings came about
I founded Latest Sightings to create a community that allows people to share their wildlife experiences in real time. Basically it is about helping people maximise their trips on safaris and to game reserves. The website and an App allow them to have a better time by sighting wild animals and to be connected to wildlife. I founded it when I was 15 years old and have been growing it since.
Why did you choose wildlife for a business base?
For me it was actually not business. It was something that I just loved. I have been visiting game reserves since I was eight years old and I just fell in love with it. I will never forget the first time I saw a lion, that feeling of turning a corner and there were four of them in the road. So starting Latest Sightings was me wanting to see more of wildlife and wanting other people to see more wildlife and literally it’s something that I never thought would be a business. I wanted to have a better time and I think that’s one of the best ways to start something because you are already doing it for the passion and not for any other reason.
How does the Latest Sightings App work?
It is an App that can be downloaded on IOS and Android. You register or log in through Facebook. When you come across a lion, a leopard or an elephant, simply post the sighting on the App. When you post it, it shares your location so that other people in the area know where you are. If they pass through this road and turn this way, they might see something cool because someone has just seen it, as opposed to going straight and missing it completely. And that’s the point.
What are the skills needed to run a successful website?
To run a successful website and to get people to join it, you as the owner of the site have to love what you are doing. It’s a cliché but I just started it because I wanted to. I really love wildlife. Even though no one joined in the first few weeks, it didn’t demotivate me because I still loved what I was doing, whether I had a lot of followers or not. The passion gives you the drive to continue. So that’s what happened for me, when people passionate about wildlife started following, the numbers grew.
What have been the challenges of running the website?
The major challenges that come to mind were technical and backing issues. The technical, like the lack of signals in game reserves, is something we had to overcome. On our App we had to work hard on developing it to make it work offline. When you are offline and there is no signal, you can still share sightings and it will work. The other tricky thing was to convince an older generation that technology and wildlife can go together. The biggest challenge was changing their minds. Many people believe that wildlife and technology have no synergy.
