Thorleif Thorleifsson

Maritime Optima - A new company is born

I know it takes so much hard work to build a tech company. I know we will make mistakes and that we even might fail because, unfortunately, there is no guide like "Follow this instruction manual, and we guarantee you will be able to build a successful tech startup." However, I have learned some hard lessons from my previous tech startups. I truly believe that passion, network, and a lot of hard work together with a great and unified team, will be some of our advantages when we start building our company.

So why do we start this company and what do we intend to create?

I have been working within the maritime industry for almost the whole of my life. I have been working with chartering, operation, S&P, financing, educational programs, projects looking into the export of freshwater from Norway, and how to utilize the Northern Searoute for export of iron ore from Kirkenes in Norway to Shanghai in China.
My dream is to develop and distribute a user-friendly and intelligent software that assists ship owners and operators in optimizing and managing their commercial decisions, on their mobile phones, tablets or laptops/desktops, at very affordable prices. Instead of papers, you can add information and notes in your Maritime Optima. Instead of adding information about vessels several times, you have one place to search, add, store, and reuse vessel data and to share your data

My dream is to create a software releasing more time for value-creating work and building value network because digitalization is about strengthening knowledge and competence. In a world being digitalized, it becomes even more important to be skilled in a subject and to learn to work in teams.

Maritime Optima started as "just an idea" after I sold i-Sea. We did a thoroughly mapping of the software and how the companies organize their work. We visited many ship-operating companies, interviewed people, and discussed our ideas. We started at the StartupLab in Oslo Science Park, but we moved to offices at Aker Brygge just after a couple of months. We are working with our web pages and the first version of our product for the time being.

Brett Fox, a serial entrepreneur from San Francisco, says:
"If you want your startup to win, the essential part of building your startup is not:
The market you choose, the product(s) you sell, nor the amount of money you raise, but it's the company culture!
Your team's belief in the company, and more importantly, their loyalty to the company will be a huge determining factor."
My experience shows that Brett Fox is right :-)

So then, here we go again :-)
Enjoy May 2019!

More updates will follow.

Kristin Omholt-Jensen

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