Curtin graduate and Wata Watcha Founder Tamara Berryman
When I finished high school, I was lost and had no idea what I wanted to do with my career.
Growing up, I was always told that education was a privilege, and it would be silly not to take up the opportunity and at least give university life a go.
So, I went to Curtin and studied a Bachelor of Business. For the first time ever, I began to love learning and I was good at it too!
During my studies, I was fortunate to complete an internship in Malaysia, study in Italy, and be involved in many valuable leadership and entrepreneurial programs. Through these experiences, I learnt what it takes to be an entrepreneur and uncovered a burning desire inside of me to be one.
I’ve always been a big idea kind of person, but I was stuck. I wanted my first business to be low risk but align with my personal values of giving back to the community and bettering the planet.
Then, one day my family’s bathroom was ruined, a small leak quickly turned into a burst pipe. This leak caught my family off guard so we trawled the internet to find a device that could easily identify leaks in our house before the damage became irreversible.
Together as a family we created the Wata Watcha, a small inexpensive device that gives access to real-time water usage data and provides notifications of water leaks.
The Wata Watcha simply sits on top of your standard household water meter, reads the in-built leak detector, and wirelessly sends this data to a website and mobile phone app.
At first, we were oblivious to the potential of the Wata Watcha because we were simply using it to monitor our own water usage to ensure we had no leaks in our house. It wasn’t until we shared our story with some friends, that we quickly realised we weren’t alone and soon realised the Wata Watcha could make a big difference.
In fact, 58 per cent of Australians know someone who has experienced household water damage and water leaks, which is more common and costly than fire or burglary.
This got me excited, so I applied for Curtin’s Accelerate program which could provide the guidance and initial funding I needed to take this device from a prototype to a market-ready product.
So far, the Accelerate program has exceeded my expectations. It’s been a fantastic opportunity to gain mentorship, hear honest customer feedback, and develop a support network of other founders who I can bounce ideas off, learn from, and who hold me accountable for meeting project timelines.
The highlight of the program so far has been hearing from Kanopy Founder and Storyd Group Co-Founder and Director Olivia Humphrey.
Olivia is truly an inspiring and courageous female entrepreneur who has upheld her values even in situations where they have cost her company. She also adopted a very innovative pricing model which got me re-thinking mine!
My advice for aspiring innovators is to jump right in and immerse yourself in the entrepreneurship ecosystem because if you don’t try now, you will always regret it. You will also be surprised by how many people want to help you succeed!
Finally, as today is World Water Day, make sure you check out the Water Corporations Water Wise webpage. Simply reading an article a day will surprise you just how quickly you can reduce your water consumption and waste.
Written by
Tamara Berryman, Founder of Wata Watcha and 2023 Curtin Accelerate participant.
While studying Human Resources at Curtin, Tamara worked across a range of industries from events, marketing, human resource management as well as being involved in community projects and development. Since graduating earlier this year with a Master of Human Resources, Tamara is now fulfilling her entrepreneurial dreams as the founder of Wata Watcha with hopes that one day her water-saving device will be installed on every street in Western Australia.
