Taking up golf gave Mount Beauty resident Andy Shuttleworth the idea to begin his tech company.

The start-up, 36tee, provides virtual tours of golf courses online and for golfers out on the green through a tap-and-tee system. 

Mr Shuttleworth claimed this business idea had not been pursued before. 

“If a golfer has never played a course before, they can tap their phone on a sign - like tapping a credit card - to receive a quick, 20-second computer-generated video of the hole,” he said.

“It points out hazards and the best way to play it.”

Mr Shuttleworth, who started playing golf only four years ago, realised amateur golfers would look up a course online before playing to one-up their competitors.

“I thought something like this app must be out there, but it wasn't,” he said. 

So far, Mr Shuttleworth has delivered his product to five golf clubs along the Murray.

“But there's something like 1800 courses in Australia,” he said.

“I'm going to aim for tourist courses, because private courses aren't really interested in bringing new people in.”

Mr Shuttleworth often works in Albury's start-up hub Possum Works, which is run by Jack Hurley. 

Previously based in Sydney, Mr Hurley had visited similar start-up hubs in metropolitan cities but noticed nothing much was offered on the Border to facilitate the founding of start-ups.

But he said this attitude had changed with the help of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s ideas boom rhetoric. 

Unsurprisingly, figures released in February by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed the number of trading businesses in the country had increased for the second year in a row.

“NSW industries are very proactive on the regional approach to start-up hubs,” Mr Hurley said.

“Having like-minded people in the same place who are very proactive and positive around building their own businesses really starts an ecosystem of technology transfers.” 

Driving buses to earn a living at present, Mr Shuttleworth hoped to grow his tech business by connecting with like-minded entrepreneurs at Possum Works.