A Week in Rhode Island with Cohort V: Innovation Roadshow
22 November 2024
Between November 12-15, SeaAhead and the New England Aquarium toured BlueSwell Cohort V around Rhode Island, thanks to the support of the University of Rhode Island Research Foundation. The group visited Providence, Bristol, and Newport to learn about the resources, opportunities, and different ocean stakeholders in the Ocean State.
Rhode Island has evolved into an innovation ecosystem dedicated to supporting bluetech through incentives, grants, and special programs. We are proud to partner with many members of this tight-knit, open-innovation environment that makes Rhode Island a strategic location to start and scale bluetech startups.
Packed schedules aside, this trip wasn’t just an excuse to hang out in Rhode Island (though we ate at some great restaurants like Brick Pizza and Lucia). It was about getting a boots-on-the-ground perspective of the ecosystem that could soon play a critical role in their journeys. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at how it all unfolded: early mornings loaded with coffee, pitch practice, founder lunches, and everything in-between.
Description: Founders, URI professors, and BlueSwell Program members pose outside the Ocean Technology Center (OTC) on URI’s Bay Campus
Day One:
We spent the first day with our friends at the University of Rhode Island's Bay Campus. We met with professors at the Graduate School of Oceanography and Ocean Engineering who offered feedback to the BlueSwell startups on their solutions in wastewater mitigation, digital twinning, acoustic monitoring, and ocean data, just to name a few.
Description: Cohort Members gather in a URI lab
Next was Journey Mapping with Giant Shoulders, another key partner of the BlueSwell program. This workshop captured the importance of a crystal-clear understanding of a customer’s decision-making process and general interaction with your company.
Description: Cohort V completes a customer experience group exercise with Tino Chow, Founder & CEO of Giant Shoulders
Day Two:
Individual meetings were the key focus of the second day. We invited corporate partners to CIC Providence and set up a dozen meetings in one-on-one and small group formats. The sessions allowed the startups to understand how they could work with existing corporate partners, and ask open questions about the headwinds and tailwinds facing various industries.
We ended the day with the annual Ocean Startups in the Ocean State event, co-hosted by SeaAhead, the New England Aquarium, and the URI Research Foundation. Each Cohort V startup delivered a three-minute pitch to a room of colleagues, stakeholders, and decision-makers. Attendees were given the chance to ask a few questions to each startup before we transitioned to the networking portion of the evening, enjoying drinks and an array of food provided by CIC Providence.
Description: Scenes and snapshots from the startup pitches
Photo Credit: Many thanks to Jonathan Clancy at Blue Wave Imagery for the wonderful photography
Day Three:
Our journey continued Thursday. We kicked off the day with Koty Sharp at Roger Williams University, where the cohort learned about the resources at the Center for Economic and Environmental Development (CEED). CEED houses the Shellfish Hatchery and Farm, Aquaculture and Aquarium Science Wet Lab, Temperate Corals & Microbial Ecology at the Sharp Lab, and Aquatic Diagnostic Laboratory. We were excited to get an inside look at the facilities, including their live animal tanks.
Description: Cohort founders and RWU staff at the docks
We then travelled to Bristol to connect with Flux Marine. The BlueSwell founders got the opportunity to ask Christine Parker, Director of Talent, about her experience expanding the company from a small, core founding team to around forty employees. The crux of the conversation landed on how to manage people at a pivotal stage of high growth where every new team member counts towards the success of the company.
Finally, we hopped back in the van and arrived in Newport to meet with Mollie Williams, Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Innovate Newport, and Linda Larsen, Operations Manager at 401 Tech Bridge. Our meeting with them underlined the resources that the Ocean State has developed to help early-stage founders thrive – whether they are in-state, or if they’re looking to expand their business to the new region.
Day Four:
We closed our visit to Rhode Island on Friday morning with an engaging conversation led by Steve Kirkpatrick, a member of the SeaAhead BlueAngels investor group. Over breakfast sandwiches and coffee, we discussed the cohort’s biggest questions around early fundraising and covered the basic considerations and principles entrepreneurs should keep in mind when pursuing investment.
Description: Cohort V poses at the RWU dock with BlueSwell Program Manager, Julia Pangan
Photo Credit: Thank you to Marisa Bernal from the New England Aquarium!
Thank you for catching up with Cohort V! Learn more about our programming at SeaAhead and the New England Aquarium below.
About SeaAhead
SeaAhead is a startup and innovation platform dedicated to the blue economy. We bring together entrepreneurs, investors, industry leaders, and stakeholders to accelerate the commercial development of emerging technologies focused on ocean, coastal, and climate resilience. Through our growing community of partners, the BlueSwell Program, and our Blue Angels investor group, we support founders seeking to scale their early startups.
About the New England Aquarium
The New England Aquarium is a nonprofit research and conservation organization that has protected and cared for our ocean and marine animals for more than 50 years. We provide science-based solutions and help shape policies that create measurable change to address threats the ocean faces. We inspire action through discovery and help create engaged, resilient communities.