Hip-hip hooray!
Last month we celebrated our company’s second birthday. Two years! Where has the time gone?! Like every startup’s journey, ours has been ever-winding, ever-surprising, and ever-exciting. This past year has seen us grow in more ways than one, and when you really stop to take stock, it kind of hits you just how vastly different 1 year old MariHealth was to its current self. There is so much to be grateful for over the last year. And so it is with much nostalgia and gratitude that I touch on some of the highlights, inflection points of growth and change, as well as our biggest “take home messages” from some of our experiences.
Conferences
The year commenced with MariHealth’s first conference attendance and exhibition at the International Abalone Symposium in Auckland. The process leading up to it was intermingled with closing our Seed round, so by this point we were old hats at juggling different roles. As with any early stage startup, budgets are tight and hiring a marketing company to develop our marketing material and banners was out of the question. After working on a simple marketing strategy for the event, I took to nurturing my creative flair. Canva became my best friend in the evenings. Coupled with extensive reading about advertising at conferences, the do’s and don’ts, this proved to be a decent recipe to develop and iterate on our marketing material. Although this was a great learning experience for us, allowing me to present my PhD research and connect with experts, as well as further emboldening our identity through marketing, our takeaway message is to be very selective of the conferences you choose to attend and exhibit at. Being such a niche industry, which was our initial focus before our pivot to fish farming, this meant the conference was on the smaller side and was very focused on more academic endeavors as opposed to industry. But having said that, it was really interesting and humbling to see the kind of value Māori people place on abalone, and what it means to their culture. I was also really lucky to tick a bucket list item off - visiting Hobbiton, something my dad would have loved!
2. In-person accelerators
As most of you know, this year was a big one for us in terms of entering the Norwegian aquaculture industry. I have blogged extensively about my 3 months in Norway during their spring, thanks to the Olaisen Blue program. Following this amazing opportunity to learn more about salmon farming, and engage with people throughout the supply chain and understand their pain points, I revisited old connections and met with new ones for a second time during autumn. This second stint in Norway was yet another amazing opportunity to further foster good relations with clients, engage with experts and investors in the industry, as well as gather insight on the registration process for a foreign entity. I met with such helpful, kind and knowledgeable people in Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger, Lovund and Oslo. To cut a long story short (because let’s be honest, I have the gift of the gab once I get started), the 5 months spent in Norway this year has been utterly invaluable in steering the proverbial MariHealth ship to more prosperous waters. As most of my blog posts talk to, the Norwegian aquaculture industry is poised for innovation, advancement and collaboration, and so our plan to enter this market is only further supported by this. Norway and the many people I have met with have been pivotal in the massive growth both myself and our company has experienced. Through this journey, I have developed some amazing friendships and learnt a lot about myself and our resilience in times of adversity. One of the things I have come to truly realise on this crazy startup journey is how incredibly important it is to love what you do and to surround yourself with the right team. I have reached a point of genuine happiness despite the challenging journey and hard work, and I finally feel that I have a sense of purpose in the world and what we are trying to achieve with MariHealth, which is a great driving force.
3. European startup scene
The 5 months spent in Europe this year were also useful in gaining better insight into the different countries’ innovation hubs and the support they provide startups. From Copenhagen to Dusseldorf, London and Amsterdam, it was exciting to see the respective hubs and how they operate, particularly from a South African perspective. One of the things that was really great to see was the soft-landing support offered by many startup/innovation hubs, particularly for companies looking to enter a new market and establish an offshore entity. Some countries tackle offshoring differently, but the ecosystems are built for success. In The Netherlands, for example, startups/companies looking to enter the market are required to enroll with a facilitator program geared for development, being offered a startup visa to enable business growth and market penetration. While biotech startups looking to enter Denmark are offered publicly funded access to incubation space and R&D facilities at the growing BioInnovation Institute. The Startup Genome and the Global Entrepreneurship Network annually release reports on the global startup ecosystem, highlighting the drivers of entrepreneurial success and promoting the robust policies and programs that enable lasting change around the world. They’re a great source of information on the different global hubs supporting specific industries. The many engagements I had in the various ecosystems provided a good glimpse of how interdisciplinary support can promote the success of startups in niche industries/markets.
4. Company strategy & the team
With all this information, a major strategy session with one of our investors was planned on my return. And boy did we strategize! In the end, it was pointedly clear that our startup needed to set its sights on other markets overseas, ones that could feasibly integrate our offering into their operations and enable our own growth. And with the opportunity of being in Norway and salmon farming being one of the largest exports, an industry that is constantly iterating and evolving with new tech/advancements, it started to make a lot more sense to seriously consider offshoring. A process seemingly simple on paper, just copy paste your company in one country to another, offshoring is anything BUT that. We are pedantic about doing things right the first time round, and so we have now subsequently embarked on detailing this process and the regulatory channels with professionals. One thing we will always advise: anything tax or legal should unequivocally be undertaken by professionals. Spend the money to get it right, because trying to undo mistakes can be a lot more costly otherwise. Just don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Other milestones MariHealth achieved over the last year include stepping out of the university environment and creating our own working space, alongside one of our collaborators. Being off campus is great for our growth, mindset and strategy to become more independent. Our office is pretty amazing too - overlooking Devil’s Peak and a bit of Table Mountain is something to get lost in for sure. We also began working with 2 new clients, and developing several collaborations and relationships, one of which included formally welcoming Dr Brandon Spolander to our team. Being an aquaculture vet, a very niche vocation, he is a fountain of knowledge and has been part of our journey from rather early on. We are super excited to be working with him and have valued his candor and belief in what we are achieving with proteomics in the aquaculture space. We will also be welcoming a new member to our growing team in January 2024, who will be contributing to the bioinformatics aspect of our offering.
So much can happen in a year, and we never thought we’d be at this point in our journey, at least not so soon. We have been so fortunate to have the support of the RC&I team at the University of Cape Town, Wayne from the University Technology Fund, as well as Stine from Olaisen Blue. These people have been instrumental in providing invaluable guidance and encouragement in our journey, even more so now that we are expanding internationally. It does really take a village to raise a child, and our proverbial baby (MariHealth) has been in good hands so far, so a HUGE thank you to you all for backing us so fervently. To the many people I have met with this year and who have been so incredibly kind and generous with sharing their knowledge and advice, thank you for doing so with such willingness. We never stop learning and I continue to be humbled by this. I have grown in so many ways through my experiences over the last 12 months, both on a personal and professional level. Life really does shine a little brighter when you get to do what you love, while being surrounded by people who believe in you.
My take-home message: your net worth is your network. Surround yourself with good, kind people and be humble and willing to learn and ask questions. There will always be people in your corner to support you.
Here’s to another year around the Sun for MariHealth!
