Making Waves at WHOI with the Ocean MBA
Last week, we splashed down at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to host another fun Ocean MBA, which featured over 30 WHOI researchers, engineers, staff, and students, along with scientists from Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. Dozens of mentors and instructors joined us to share their knowledge and learn more about the WHOI teams’ work. The feedback from all teams was overwhelmingly positive, emphasizing the entrepreneurial insights gained and the invaluable support from our mentors.
Day 1: Jan 24th
Day one aimed to demystify startups and venture capital for academics, highlighting how Propeller collaborates with WHOI to bring cutting-edge ocean science startups to market.
Thanks to Rick Murray (Deputy Director and VP for Science and Engineering at WHOI) for kicking things off and highlighting the significance of the Propeller-WHOI partnership for ocean entrepreneurship. Our friend Blaine Grimes (Chief Ventures Officer at GMRI) gave a masterclass on Blue Economy Markets, and entrepreneur Bob Jones delivered personal narratives that vividly captured the entrepreneurial journey and its invaluable lessons.
We then invited the whole class plus many more friends of Propeller to join us at the Coonamessett Inn for a lively reception and even more cross-pollination of concepts for commercialization.
Day 2: Jan 25th
Day two concentrated on the initial steps of startup formation, including customer discovery, intellectual property (IP) strategy, and how to deliver a killer pitch. Our special guest Dr. Matt Eisaman (cofounder of our portfolio company Ebb Carbon) joined us for a fireside chat to share his experience and journey leading a dual career as an entrepreneur and academic (hint: 80%/20% time split seems to work well, even when your 100% is more than 40h/week).
Noteworthy sessions included Marty Gomez, partner at Goodwin (our event supporters) who provided a solid foundation for approaching IP in hard tech startups (hint: get a good lawyer, this is complicated); Britt Gardner (Executive Director, Startup Banking at JP Morgan), who educated us on financial modeling for startups (hint: think of your financial model as a simulation of your business, and the most time consuming part is getting the assumptions right); and Will Lutz (co-founder of BlueX), who outlined some concrete tactics for customer discovery (hint: for every 5 customers you interview, review and improve your interview guide, and if you want honest answers, don’t tell your customers about your solution).
After a focused working session with expert advisors, the day concluded with the teams pitching their ideas and receiving feedback from Propeller partners Brian, Julie, Reece, Rodrigo, and Steven. We all left energized by the founders, their ideas, and their potential to have a massive impact.
What’s next?
In addition to continuing to accelerate our work at WHOI, preparations are underway for our next Ocean MBA, scheduled for May 7-10th, 2024.This will be our fifth cohort in two years, and the program just keeps getting better. Applications are now open! If you’re a founder (or potential founder) anywhere from idea to seed stage, apply here.