TrueOcean took part in Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) session 1 on the 6th of September. Founder Jann Wendt got the chance to hear what some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, investors and sector experts had to say about TrueOcean’s ambitions and strategy as a Software-as-a-Service company specializing in marine data.
CDL session 1 took place at the PIER Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Hosted by CDL-Atlantic, under the CDL Oceans stream at the Rowe School of Business, Dalhousie University, TrueOcean was one of 19 other blue economy startups to attend. This initial group of participants were selected from more than 80 applicants who applied to the 2022 Oceans stream program.
This was the first of 5 meetings that form the framework of TrueOcean’s journey into CDL. CDL is a nonprofit organization that delivers an objectives-based program for massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies started by Professor Ajay Agrawal at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management in 2012.
World-class mentors
Today CDL is recognized for its world-class mentorship designed to guide businesses as they scale their operations from an idea to a successful commercial entity. The focus is on leveraging the knowledge and experience of proven entrepreneurs who have successfully built and advise multi-million and even billion-dollar companies.
“We don’t normally have access to these kind of mentors, but the philanthropic nature of CDL has given us a fantastic opportunity to work with some amazing people,” explained Jann. “These are people who want to give something back. They have already created and scaled successful products, innovations and companies, and now they want to share their knowledge to help new technology ventures follow the same path.”
While being a part of CDL is totally free of charge, the application process is challenging, and businesses are certainly expected to earn their place in such a sought-after program. The meeting format is focused on tasking founders to develop a series of objectives prior to small group meetings (SGM) with pairs of carefully selected mentors specializing in a particular area of business such as finance or IT.
Growth and development
“We had just three minutes between meetings, so the pressure was on to present a clear and concise picture of TrueOcean and its objectives,” said Jann. “Our job is to continuously demonstrate to the mentors that we are ready to move to the next phase of growth and development, with their support along the way.”
With the face-to-face meetings complete, the second phase of the day was the large group meeting (LGM) discussion, where appointed objective-setters discuss and critique each business in regards to main objectives. Founders are given the opportunity to listen as their company is discussed in front of the entire audience of accomplished professionals.
“You are asked to come forward but it’s not you pitching to the mentors, which I thought was a very interesting approach,” explained Jann. “I was able to listen on as they discussed our vision, potential for scalability and the objectives we had developed to focus on going forward. There is so much business knowledge in the room from the mentors that you can’t help but learn a lot during this session.”
A positive environment
Jann returned from Halifax with two mentors committing to support TrueOcean with their time and knowledge until the second session is held, its first sprint of the program year. Our job now is to work on addressing the objectives taken away from the meeting, which focus on infrastructure costs, market engagement and business unit milestone.
Crucially, while we are now in sprint mode, TrueOcean’s participation in CDL is certainly not a race or contest. The aim is to provide the catalyst for scalability and business development through mentorship and collaboration. Reaching the company’s current set of objectives is the aim of course, but how it gets there is just as important in the long term.
“The environment really brings the best out of everyone involved. Certainly, there was some robust feedback on our original three objectives, with mentors suggesting that we set the bar even higher before we finalized them for the next sprint,” adds Jann. “Progress so far is great. Work on the objectives is delivering quantifiable results and we are looking forward to providing an update and engaging with new mentors as the program progresses.”
TrueOcean’s second CDL session meeting takes place remotely at the end of January 2023.
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