Our community boats a vibrant group of startups, each with a unique journey and story. The Startup Spotlight series introduces their ventures, exploring their inspirations, challenges, and successes. This week we feature Greg Dziemidowicz, the founder of MarineVerse the startup offering realistic sailing experiences from home. Here, Greg explains his motivation for starting MarineVerse and how he plans on democratising sailing.
How did you come up with the idea for the business?
I grew up near a lake, far from the sea. One winter, we learned about Safety & Sea Survival in a classroom, which felt very abstract compared to a real disaster scenario. Years later, when I tried VR, I realised this technology could greatly enhance sailor training, much like it's used for pilots and fire fighters. With VR equipment becoming affordable for home use, we started MarineVerse to democratise access to sailing and improve training.
Why does the industry need the solution you're providing?
There’s untapped potential for growth in the yachting industry by reaching new people and keeping sailors engaged year-round. While sailing is growing as a sustainable lifestyle and competitive sport, it remains intimidating for some due to high costs, time, and skill requirements. This is especially true for newcomers without access to experienced sailors or nearby water.
This is where MarineVerse comes in.
Using affordable VR headsets, MarineVerse offers realistic sailing experiences from home. Sail anytime, practice regularly, and build confidence without the logistical challenges of real-world sailing. Our platform engages both new and experienced sailors with various virtual activities.
In partnership with NauticEd Online Sailing School, we provide structured training for navigation rules and docking, making it easy to acquire and retain critical skills.
What makes me happiest is seeing our vibrant, accessible sailing community. Through daily races and multiplayer options, people of all ages and locations share thrilling moments and often connect outside the game. I wake up every day excited about our mission to inspire more people to become sailors, helping to grow the sailing industry in the process.
What have you enjoyed most about starting your own company?
The freedom to execute and iterate our product quickly has been incredibly rewarding. We can ship updates to users worldwide, receive feedback overnight, and release improved versions the next day.
This rapid cycle of shipping and enhancing our product is highly addictive. As a startup, we can move swiftly with minimal bureaucracy.
What challenges did you have to overcome at the beginning of your journey?
Two main challenges were defining our scope and adapting to VR equipment changes. Our vision was to build "the world’s largest sailing club," but deciding where to start was tough. Should we focus on casual, relaxing sailing, training, or esports racing? Over the years, we've had to constantly adapt and pivot our focus between these areas.
Initially, our software was built in 2016 for PC-based VR headsets, which required gaming PCs and never became mainstream. When standalone VR headsets like Meta Quest launched in 2019, they were more affordable but had significantly less computing power. This required us to rewrite our software from scratch to fit these new devices.
Any bits of advice for entrepreneurs getting started in this space?
If you're planning to build VR software, be prepared to iterate and learn continuously. Develop a prototype quickly and share it with the community or private beta testers through platforms like SideQuest or App Lab. This will help you gather valuable feedback early and improve your product.
What's the plan for the future of the business? Where do you see the company in 3-5 years?
Our plan is to grow MarineVerse into the world’s largest virtual sailing club.
With VR technology evolving rapidly, we aim to leverage these advancements to expand our offerings with more immersive training modules, esports competitions, and casual sailing experiences.
We'll also focus on growing our platform and bringing in new partners to enhance the realism of MarineVerse with real boats, sails, and gear.
By continuously integrating the latest VR and AI innovations, we envision providing high-quality, accessible sailing experiences to users everywhere, democratising the sport and inspiring a new generation of sailors.
Great interview. I love MarineVerse