By Mika Tienhaara
Over the recent years we have seen industry moving towards digitization and automation, in order to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. This is also supporting ESG measures and enabling the reduction of the overall carbon footprint.
However, a key area of improvement potential in process industries and manufacturing, is linked to operating conditions where unwanted matter such as solid deposits and unwanted emulsions, a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Such harsh process conditions are cause for sensors and measuring devices failures, which in turn leads to faulty process signals ruining monitoring and control. What can happen is sudden process shutdowns, with high costs for maintenance, loss of production. Also, various reports and research shows that very high pollution and emission levels occur.
At ROCSOLE, we are commercializing academia research, utilizing electrical tomography paired with AI and machine learning, which has led us to being able to provide unique actionable insights from own sensor data. Our focus is on the harsh conditions which are cause for major upsets, shutdowns, cost and emissions. Our solutions have brought us to work with major international corporates globally.
Many entrepreneurs and startups stall at the objective of scaling up – a scary phase with so many unknowns with time of the essence and constant troubleshooting. Every startup should however attempt to scale-up, there is so much learning and competence gathered in this phase, and the result might be very rewarding. Dare to win – go for the scale-up.
Of course, there are several elements that needs to be in right shape and size. What is your most important asset? People – your team. If you have the right diverse core team, you will have the capabilities to execute your plans. For the implementation you will need funding to have a sufficient cash runway to get to your next major milestones. Ensure to have the right finance people in your team to ensure you have good control. Marketing and sales need to ensure that you are providing something valuable to the right customers. The users’ feedback will also be highly relevant, as the assessment of this, can help you to pivot and improve your offerings. You might detect some unserved niches and allow you to enter and dominate this area. Additionally, you need the product, service or technology, that is part of your core and unique identity.
Bringing these above aspects together and you will have the right implementation capabilities. Always remember that the scale-up course needs constant supervision with a strong hands-on mentality. Don’t love your product – love your business, meaning that you need to have an agile mindset and be ready to improve and pivot, again and again. At the end you might become the master of the universe!
At ROCSOLE we started commercializing in the oil and gas with the “worst first” approach. The oil and gas operations have a variety of operational inefficiencies that we are tackling with our data. The target is to integrate our type of insights into our clients’ business solutions, this way you can get scale and portfolio-wide improvements. We are also seeing the ripple effects, as a variety of industries have the similar challenges with deposits and solids. Our mission is to make industry safer and better, that also is good for our planet.
Most recently ROCSOLE closed the Series A fund raising round successfully, indicating the relevance, potential and traction we have in the market space. Our next chapter as a company is surely going to be the most exciting one.
As a CEO, I try to learn something new every day, at the same time using my capacity as a leader for my team, guide them and challenge them to climb the next peak. Clear communication is key, be genuine and passionate. Have a big idea and ensure that your stakeholders are onboard. Even if life can be stressful and chaotic in the whirlwind of the scale-up, I try to assess constantly the effectiveness and parity of the key factors people, funding, sales, marketing and execution strategy. The solution is in constant motion, ensure to have your team with you, as the scaling-up you cannot do alone as a one-man-show. Being a serial entrepreneur, I love to see how the team is building confidence, grit and the winner mentality. Learning from mistakes we build the success formula. Dare to win!