Elevator pitch, UK Women in Innovation Awards

Hello everyone – I’m Anna and I run a startup called Safe Travels. It’s an app for young people wanting to work or travel abroad in the wake of the pandemic, and aims to help them make confident, informed decisions in these uncertain times.

In a nutshell: the app allows users to compare how well countries have responded to COVID-19. The main measure is excess deaths, as these are more reliable than government figures that may exclude data sets like care homes. But users can also compare the speed with which lockdowns were implemented, the effectiveness of Test & Trace systems, and the gender, political stance and risk attitude of leaders.

The results can be viewed in tabular or map form, and are colour-coded from yellow (the countries doing best) through to black (the pariah states).

What’s my plan if Safe Travels takes off? To move to New Zealand.