Ocean Startup Project Calls for Sustainable Ocean Ideas For New Market Validation Competition
CANADA, (March 10, 2022) – The Ocean Startup Project, a national organization making Canada the best place to start and grow an ocean venture, has opened applications for its first-ever Ocean Idea Challenge. The competition connects aspiring entrepreneurs with potential co-founders, and encourages them to identify an ocean sustainability program, then validate their proposed solution for a chance to win up to $10,000.
Over four weeks, participants will undergo skills training, access programming and focus on conducting at least 25 customer discovery interviews to gain a thorough understanding of their potential customers’ situations, needs and pain points. Up to $10,000 will be awarded to successful teams who can demonstrate proven market interest, and be introduced to local innovation hubs to continue building out their idea.
“Bringing together aspiring founders to explore some pressing ocean sustainability issues will have a tremendous impact on ocean health and the burgeoning ocean startup ecosystem in Canada,” said Don Grant, Executive Director at the Ocean Startup Project. “As these teams explore their idea and develop proven market interest in the Ocean Idea Challenge, we will build more momentum in a rapidly expanding ocean sector in Canada.”
The competition begins with a welcome and networking session on April 21 to connect prospective co-founders and encourage the formation of teams. From there, teams will explore the ocean sustainability problem they identified, and validate their idea during a two-week customer discovery sprint, where at least 25 potential customers will be interviewed to develop proven market interest. Awards will be announced after final presentations on May 17, 2022.
Individuals or teams that are interested in exploring ideas around reducing the environmental impact industries have on the ocean; improving ocean health; or developing a new or enhanced method to do more with less ocean-based resources, are encouraged to register. Participants must be at least 18 years of age and older, and cannot be an existing startup that is earning revenue or have a product in market.
Registration for the Ocean Idea Challenge is open until April 19, 2022 and can be found on the Ocean Startup Project website. An information session will be held on Monday, April 5 at 12pm PDT/4pm ADT/4:30pm NDT and anyone interested in participating is encouraged to attend.