Yorso and Fish 2.0: small step for the seafood industry huge impact
November 5–6th in Stanford the culmination of the global fish and seafood innovation forum organized by Fish 2.0 took place. TOP-40 technology entrepreneurs selected by the strong scoring process got a chance to pitch their products to investors, government regulator, scientists and industry representatives. Yorso — SaaS managed supply chain for the fish and seafood industry — was among those innovators. Before voted as the best pitch and business opportunity in the supply chain transformation and being awarded as the Top innovator in the Ocean and Seafood Yorso passed a long way before the final and in this small article I’ll try to uncover this process step-by-step.
What is the Fish 2.0?
They call themselves as a place where “Seafood Businesses and Investors Connect”. I got to know about this initiatives from my friend — CEO and founder of Sinay — who suggested me to participate. After a quick research I was impressed: Fish 2.0 is really unique community I was looking for a long time.
Fish industry is quite old-school and reluctant to innovations so when one visits the Brussel or Boston or Qingdao seafood show you rarely meet companies who are opened to any sort of digital transformation. On the other hand, visiting TechCrunch Disrupt or Slush or any other VC/Tech related events you rarely meet someone who knows about the fish industry anything but “Oh, I love tuna!”.
Fish 2.0 combines all the sides: seafood innovators and entrepreneurs, investors, corporates within the industry, scientists:
This fact impressed me a lot and we decided that YORSO must be a part of it.
The selection, scoring, preparation
In a nutshell the process was divided into three main phases:
Stage 1. Application. The first step was quite simple and took in total about 1 hour. It included the overview summary about the business, problem-solution statement, market opportunities and team description. We applied in March and already end of April we received the Email about being accepted for the Stage 2. I was really surprised and impressed that it was not just an acceptance message but an extremely useful 2-page scoring sheet with the numeric and textual feedback for:
- Business and Value proposition — largest score!
- Customer, Market and Competition
- Social and Environmental Impacts
- Team
- Motivation
- Opportunity for Investors or Strategic partners — next largest score!
Stage 2. Extended application. Based on the first step feedback the hardest part started to begin. I would say that it was one of the heaviest business plan I ever did before and it took about a week to think deeper on YORSO
- Go-To market and scaling strategy
- Social and environment impacts on the way of reaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
- Advancing the Sustainable Seafood (SSF) system
- Business and financial projections and modeling
Just doing the 2nd step application already applied a huge contribution for our product and made us rethink a lot strategically while being all the time in tactic implementation. Completed the application by deadline of July 28th we got the next “Congratulations!” Email end of August. The precise scoring sheet is the one I appreciated most: useful feedback with emphasis on key weak points we had in the project is definitely the next positive input on becoming a better copy of ourselves :)
Stage 3. Preparation for the event. It left less than 3 months for the event to begin but the Fish 2.0 team was not going to leave us waiting: it was a great shot to show how things must be organized in the right manner: thanks for this!
- We received precise instructions for accommodation, travel, presentation requirements and event schedule
- We got a chance to have four 30-min session with brilliant pitch coaches: Nathan Gold and Claudio Sennhauser. This was an absolutely priceless help to nail our presentation skills and be able to deliver key product information in just 90 seconds. Each session was recorded and provided with the scoring sheet for the presentation key components: slides, delivery, understanding, gestures, etc. I highly recommend anyone who is going to pitch or present anything important to work with both these professionals and you’ll definitely reach absolutely new level in your presentation skills
- We were guided regularly on any updates, received reminders: well, I can’t say it could be better at this point!
Final days in Stanford
Stanford is a special place: just being on the territory you immediately get inspired with the unique spirit and combination of science and entrepreneurship. For us it started with a surprise: already first day I sat down on the same table with one of our key competitors in what we do in the European market — Seafood portal project CEO and founder Eirik Talhaug. I must say a big thank here for Fish 2.0 again: we become good friends and had absolutely opened discussion on similar problems, non-working approaches and difficulties turning the fish and seafood industry in the digital space
During the event all projects were separated into 4 groups
- First 17 projects had a 90-second pitch in the section “Innovations from around the globe”
- Next three groups included 7 teams each with the 90-sec pitch, 3 min Q&A section and tracks for cutting edge supply chain solutions, advances in aquaculture production, technology and feeds, innovations that give back to investors and the oceans
Each pitch session included the real-time voting for the presentation delivery and business opportunities. YORSO was ranked the highest in the supply chain track while I’d also highlight other pitch winners: Minnowtech, Montana Microbial Products and Aquaai.
In the meanwhile between pitches we had seen great panel discussions with previous Fish2.0 alumni, investors, scientists and NOAA representatives about the future of the seafood industry and aquaculture trends. Everyone understands the huge potential of the new era of digital and innovation to come into the fish and seafood sector though it is still slow and more companies needed to look into this space.
The final part included the awards in six nominations based on TOP scoring during the selection process and YORSO was really honored and surprised to be nominated too. Those are include:
- Ocean and Seafood Technology: Yorso, SaaS managed supply chain that operates internationally and integrates with buyers’ and sellers’ ERP systems providing the set of sales and analytics tools for the fish and seafood industry.
- Global Seafood: Fortuna, a Philippines-based company whose Fortuna Cooler is the first fish transport box made of natural, locally sourced materials. The durable cooler replaces polystyrene containers.
- U.S. Seafood: Montana Microbial Products, which produces high-quality barley protein concentrates for fish feed, a new fish-free alternative to traditional feeds.
- Australian Seafood: Australian Crayfish Hatchery, whose state-of-the-art facility supplies antibiotics-free, pathogen-free hatchlings to farmers of the lobster-like crayfish in Australia and internationally.
- Aquaculture: Aquaai, whose Fish as a Service platform is based on a robotic fish outfitted with cameras and sensors that monitor conditions in offshore fish farms.
- Supply Chain Change: Wholechain, a user-friendly, blockchain-based traceability solution that provides transparency throughout the seafood supply chain.
Postmortem
Unfortunately, this year is the last the Fish 2.0. I hope more and more similar initiatives will start to appear in the fish and seafood sector. Top-notch teams and entrepreneurs helping to bring more sustainability and safety in the fish industry making huge impact at all levels: reaching 17SDG, developing the consumer and harvesting cultures, bringing efficiency and worldwide trade access to developing countries.
As for YORSO — we found really great friends and Partners, signed new clients, were noted by the media and definitely knew a little more on what other teams do in this space.
I’d really love to thank Monica Jain, Cole Mellino and Remy Garderet to make this happen to us and please: keep up doing greater things to make other people’s lives better!
