From Ego-System to Eco-System: Lessons from My Time at OSP
Editor’s Note : As Karey Billyard moves on from her role as Ecosystem Navigator with the Ocean Startup Project to pursue another incredible opportunity, we want to take a moment to say thank you. Karey brought enthusiasm, care and genuine passion to her work supporting ocean founders and helping drive Canada’s ocean startup ecosystem forward. Her contributions have made a meaningful impact on the entrepreneurs, partners and communities we work with across the country. Before she begins this next chapter, we asked Karey to reflect on her time at OSP, the founders she has supported and what continues to inspire her about Canada’s growing ocean innovation ecosystem. Karey, we wish you the very best in what comes next. We are so grateful for all you have brought to OSP, and we will miss you!
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By Karey Billyard
A metal fabrication student stands beside a forestry manager and a crab fisherman, pitching an ocean innovation idea they built together just hours earlier. The day before, they were strangers. Now, backed by mentors, ecosystem leaders, and innovation partners from across British Columbia, they are presenting real-world solutions to a room full of colleagues, founders, and supporters. Less than 24 hours later, they are standing on stage at the Victoria Conference Centre presenting those same ideas to an audience of over 200 industry leaders.
Watching moments like this unfold fundamentally changed the way I understand leadership.
When I joined Ocean Startup Project as an Ocean Ecosystem Navigator in 2024, I still viewed leadership primarily through the lens of innovation itself: driving change, accelerating ideas, and pushing momentum forward. But one month into the role, I also began my MBA in Sustainable Innovation at the University of Victoria, where I was introduced to Otto Scharmer’s concept of moving from “ego-system awareness” to “eco-system awareness.”
Suddenly, what I was witnessing every day inside OSP clicked into focus.
The real power of innovation was not coming from any one founder, institution, or organization. It was emerging from the ecosystem itself: people from entirely different backgrounds coming together to support, challenge, mentor, and build alongside one another. Ego-system awareness prioritizes individual or organizational success, often optimizing for growth, performance, and competitive advantage. Eco-system awareness asks something much bigger: how do we create the conditions for entire systems - people, communities, organizations, and ideas - to grow stronger together over time?
At its core, OSP embodies that ecosystem approach to innovation. It is not simply a funding program. It is a national network designed to bridge academia, industry, government, investors, entrepreneurs, and regional partners in order to support early-stage ocean innovation across Canada. The goal is not just to help companies survive, but to create the conditions where innovators, ideas, and communities can grow together.
As my MBA experience and my work at OSP unfolded in parallel, I began to see how deeply complementary the two worlds were. In the classroom, we discussed systems thinking, regenerative leadership, and the future of sustainable innovation. At work, I watched those concepts come alive in real time through founders navigating uncertainty, ecosystem partners collaborating across sectors, and teams working quietly behind the scenes to help innovators succeed.
What struck me most during my time with OSP is that ecosystem building is deeply human work.
Behind every founder navigating customer discovery, funding applications, pilot projects, and uncertainty, there are layers of support quietly working in the background. Mentors. Program managers. Ecosystem navigators. Academic institutions. Technical experts. Investors. Regional champions. People willing to open doors, answer calls, make introductions, and believe in ideas before they are fully formed.
One of the clearest examples of this was seeing the consistent “Founders First” philosophy championed by OSP’s Challenge Director, our mighty leader - Natasha Legay. That mantra shaped the culture around us. It reminded me repeatedly that supporting innovation is not about institutional ego or visibility. It is about genuinely asking: what do founders need in order to succeed?
That shift in perspective changed how I understand leadership entirely.
Some of the most meaningful moments during my time with OSP were not tied to funding announcements or polished presentations, but to watching unlikely groups of people come together with shared intention.
While leading the Ocean Startup Activator alongside incredible partners including COAST, the UVic Innovation Centre, Jerome Etwaroo, and K. Waterman, I watched students, innovators, founders, and professionals from completely different backgrounds collaborate in ways that felt genuinely hopeful.
There were participants from regional institutions like North Island College. There were students from Camosun College with metalworking backgrounds. There were young professionals who had never pitched an idea publicly in their lives.
By the end of the experience, those same participants I described at the beginning of this article were standing confidently in front of more than 200 people presenting ideas they had built together in less than 24 hours.
Watching that transformation happen in real time was one of the clearest examples of regenerative leadership I have experienced.
Not because one individual led the room, but because the ecosystem itself held people up long enough for confidence, creativity, and collaboration to emerge.
The future of the blue economy will not be built by isolated organizations competing for visibility. It will be built through interconnected ecosystems willing to share knowledge, bridge sectors, reduce barriers, and support people through uncertainty. Programs like OSP matter because they offer more than funding. They offer connection, trust, guidance, and the practical tools innovators need to move from idea to impact.
Most importantly, they remind us that innovation is never a solo act.
Through this experience, I came to understand that leadership is not just about building things, but about building people who build things… together.