A Farewell, and a Reflection on What OSP Made Possible
By Paula Mendonça
It is hard to believe this is my last week as Executive Director of the Ocean Startup Project.
I have been part of OSP since before its official launch, supporting the development and delivery of the Lab2Market Oceans program, and for nearly three years, I have had the privilege of serving as ED. I look at what OSP has accomplished and can’t help but smile, proud to have been a small part of its success.
What I will carry with me most, though, is the opportunity to work with an incredible team across the country, committed to putting founders’ needs first, and the incredible innovators I had the privilege of meeting along the way. I learned from their challenges, celebrated their successes, and watched them navigate - pun intended - the difficult but rewarding path of entrepreneurship.
When OSP launched in 2020, Canada's ocean innovation ecosystem lacked a dedicated mechanism for supporting the earliest-stage ocean founders. Researchers with commercially viable ideas, students with fresh perspectives, and first-time entrepreneurs had no clear pathway to test, validate, or launch their ventures. OSP was designed to fill that gap.
Six years later, the results speak for themselves. OSP has built a national pipeline that has funded 253 teams, created more than 500 jobs, and generated more than $ 27 million in revenue from alumni companies. The model has proven that when founders receive dedicated support at the earliest stage, they succeed and that success benefits the entire economy.
OSP generated 46 net-new startups over the past two years alone. These are entirely new companies that would not exist without dedicated early-stage support. The OSP's ability to sustain and grow net-new startup formation speaks directly to the critical importance of targeted, early-stage funding mechanisms.
Founding teams that received their first source of support, researchers who transitioned into entrepreneurs, and startups that progressed from OSP programs to CDL Oceans, accelerators such as Y Combinator, to leading projects with Canada's Ocean Supercluster, and ultimately to market. Each of these companies scaling across the country represents a bridge that OSP built between an idea and its impact.
That is perhaps what I am most proud of: helping demonstrate what can happen when founders are given the support, resources, and confidence to take the risk.
None of this happened by accident. The success of this model has been enabled by a dedicated OSP team, a committed Steering Committee, forward-thinking funders, and a national network of collaborators who recognized that early-stage support is a prerequisite for a thriving ocean economy. That collaboration produced demonstrable financial and ecosystem-wide returns on investment.
As I return to my role at Memorial University, I will continue to support OSP's mandate and am eager to see where the next steps will take this important initiative and the founders shaping Canada’s ocean economy. Thank you to the OSP team, founders, partners, funders and collaborators who made these past three years so meaningful.
