This past January I was at WeWork Labs to present to a group of maritime startups.  Just before I stood up to speak, my sponsor Elizabeth Scallon casually mentioned that I would be presenting using a digital whiteboard.  She told me I should just mark up the board with comments, and she’d send everyone the meeting notes with the full discussion.

Now normally I misunderstand or break virtually anything even vaguely mechanical.  So I was not expecting this to go well.  But the overall experience proved incredibly intuitive.  I asked Elizabeth where she found the whiteboard.  Turns out the company, Vibe, is another WeWork Labs startup; they had launched in July and were looking for user feedback.  So I wrote and asked if I could try one out.  They very kindly delivered one portable smartboard to my house for me to play with (break).

I’m sure many of you have been following the news about the spread of the Coronavirus, and the resulting advice being offered businesses.  Avoid travel, avoid in person meetings, work from home.  But the need for collaboration doesn’t stop.

I was planning to play with Vibe more before writing about it.  But given these recent headlines I thought it made more sense to let you know about the company now.  You decide if this is something you might find useful.

Didn’t mean to erase that

Whiteboards have been around since the 90’s and are used to solve problems, visualize ideas, and define workflows.

Vibe board was designed from scratch to fill a gap left behind by Samsung, Microsoft, and Google whose solutions tend to be expensive and/or restrictive. Vibe features a digital whiteboard, video conferencing, wireless screen-casting, and integrates with a wide range of third party applications (e.g. Slack, Google Drive, Office, Dropbox, Zoom) to allow teams to collaborate remotely and seamlessly at a more affordable price (under $3000).  Teams can share Vibe boards easily through a simple code – no Vibe device necessary – and Vibe keeps the content safe in the cloud.

Here’s Vibe’s take on how they compare.

Vibe feels your pain

Source: Vibe

“The problems we set out to solve were the same problems that we faced ourselves. Before Vibe was created, we used a stack of independent apps and software to collaborate across China and U.S. We wanted to create one tool – an immersive virtual environment that could enable effortless communication from anywhere, all with a dash of magic — kind of like our product’s namesake, the “vibes” of the Harry Potter universe.”  Charles Yang, founder and CEO

Vibe is actively working with customers on new feature requests.  So if you have been considering using a digital white board for collaborating during Coronavirus, now might be the time to act.

*This Nobel Prize winner wrote Love in the Time of Cholera which is well worth reading.

Marine biology program.  Emergency physician practice. Technology to extract contaminants.  Data and insights platform. Trucking app and online platform. Fishing gear recycling program.  Least-cost ballast water treatment system.  White fish jerky.  Zero-emission electric outboard motor. Battery-powered energy storage system. Exhaust gas after treatment system.

Okay, the headline may have tipped you off. They are all innovations from startups participating in the Maritime Blue Innovation Accelerator, the first of its kind in Washington State.

About the Maritime Blue Innovation Accelerator

On January 6, WeWork Labs, the Port of Seattle and WA Department of Commerce’s Maritime Blue kicked off their Maritime Blue Innovation Accelerator.  The program aims to establish the region as an innovation hub for maritime tech.  They also want to make the industry more environmentally friendly.

The program is highly competitive. Out of 100 applications, only 11 companies were selected.

WeWork Labs of Seattle is housing these startups and will provide programming over an accelerated 4-month period.  Participating startups will receive mentorship from Maritime Blue’s coalition of industry experts. They will get opportunities for enterprise pilots and sales. And they will leave with strong connections to the vast, global maritime industry.  The program concludes in April with a demo day, where the startups will pitch to investors and government officials.

I had the opportunity to lead the innovation accelerator’s first program session, Conducting Market Research. We covered four key research questions startups must address, and some approaches they could take.

I was struck by how quickly they were able to start helping each other. Participants generously offered insights, resources and contacts.  Because they share the same eco-system and a commitment to doing something larger for the environment, the conversations were immediately fruitful.  I have no doubt these relationships will prove valuable over time.

Come On In – The Water’s Warm(ing)!

Focusing on a single industry also brings important critical mass.  It’s heartening to see what can be accomplished when we apply tech and innovation resources to mature industries.  Innovation potential is everywhere.  And future startup accelerators should consider more approaches like this.

For a full list of participants, and more details about the program please see the Port of Seattle’s announcement here.

Photo courtesy of WeWork. Thanks to Esther Lee, WeWork Labs’ Head of Curriculum; Lauren Levy, WeWork Labs’ Operations Coordinator; and Elizabeth Scallon, WeWorks Lab Head of Northern California (SF) & Northwest.