Modern Entrepreneur Profile: Mississauga's Ashwin Chunchu

In conversation with Mississauga's Ashwin Chunchu, creator of StepSafe Kids (SSK.)

1. What inspired you to create SSK?

I read that nearly half of children with autism will wander from safety, and that drowning is the most common way it ends badly. 

I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I started talking to parents. Every family described the same moment, turning around and their kid isn't there. But they all said the same second thing: the tools meant to help cost more than they could afford. The market leader charges up to $1,200 a year in subscription alone. One mother told me she'd applied for a charity sponsorship just to track her own son. Another said she'd priced it out twice and closed the tab both times.

That's what made me angry enough to build something. The technology to keep these kids safe already exists. It's just priced so that the families who need it most can't have it.

2. How exactly does SSK work?

It's a small clip-on device, about the size of a key fob, that uses real cellular GPS. Cheaper trackers like AirTags use Bluetooth, which only works when someone else's phone is nearby. That's fine in a mall and useless on an empty trail, which is exactly where a wandering child ends up.

StepSafe connects to the cellular network the same way a phone does. Parents see live location, draw safe zones around home or school, and get an alert the moment their child crosses one.

The part parents care about most is what it doesn't do. The microphone is permanently disabled. It can't listen, record, or be switched on by anyone, including us. Parents told me repeatedly that listen-in trackers get banned from classrooms on privacy grounds, which leaves kids unprotected during exactly the hours they're most likely to bolt. Removing that feature is what gets the device through the school door.

It's $9.99 a month, or a one-time payment for lifetime service (Kickstarter backers special) with no monthly bill at all.

3. What were the most challenging parts in developing SSK?

Everything I didn't know existed. I expected the hard part to be the product. It wasn't.

The hard part was regulatory. I've spent months learning FCC certification, Canadian ISED requirements, CPSIA children's product law, customs classification, import duties, and lithium battery shipping regulations. I learned it through calls with certification engineers who were probably wondering why a high school student was asking.

And being 17 means every conversation starts with proving you're serious. I couldn't sign the Kickstarter myself because creators have to be eighteen, so it's held under my mother's name.

4. What's been the most rewarding aspect so far?

The messages. Parents write to me, and tell me things they clearly haven't told many people.

One mother described her two children as runners, and said the thing that frightens her most isn't that they run, it's that they run toward danger without any awareness of it. Another told me her son is so trusting that her fear isn't him getting lost, it's him walking off with a stranger.

I've built things before, but I've never had anyone write me a paragraph about their child because of something I made. That's the reason I kept going through the parts that weren't fun.

5. What are your goals for the next two years with SSK?

Ship to backers in February 2027, and ship well. A safety device that fails is worse than no device, so I'd rather be late than wrong.

After that, get the price down further as volume increases, and build the attachment options parents keep asking for, particularly a secure fastening that a child can't remove on their own. Longer term, adults with Dementia and Alzheimer's face nearly the same problem, and families ask me about it constantly.

6. How can others support you?

We launch on Kickstarter on Tuesday, August 4. Backing us there is the most direct help, and early backers get the lowest price we'll ever offer.

If you don't have a child who wanders, there's a Gift a Family tier. You fund a device for a family who can't afford one, and we cover their first year of service ourselves. That was the part I most wanted to build in, because the whole problem I started with was families being priced out.

Beyond that, share it with a family who might need it. And our wandering safety resources at stepsafekids.com/resources are free to anyone, whether or not they ever buy anything from us.