A Japanese shipping company, [IINO Lines](https://www.iino.co.jp/kaiun/english/index.html), established and development project with Greywing, late last year, in 2022 to reduce workload of ship managers and reallocate their expertise to projects with higher economic added value and solutions to social issues such as decarbonization. 

A big part of their attempt was the move towards the automation of repetitive tasks in Crew Matrix Planning, the solution for which was not readily available in the market at that time, and after extensive search, Greywing was chosen against other technology companies as the partner for the greenfield project. IINO Lines has collaborated extensively with Greywing to build out this planning engine by feeding intel on its crew planning process and management expertise for Greywing’s crew allocation model. This newly developed product features some of the nonexhaustive functions: 

## Functions: 
1. Automatic real-time crew matrix planning based on the crew on board 

2. Automatic crew succession planning for the next 18 months. 

3. Product Features including Overview of Oil Major Compliances and Modifying Accepted Crew Change Events.

4. User-friendly interface that can be operated intuitively 



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Keitaro Watanabe, Manager of Global Business Sect. of Business Strategy Dept, IINO Lines, said;

> IINO’s working experience with the Greywing team has been nothing but smooth and collaborative. With Greywing’s timely project delivery and Greywing’s further intent to work with, in Greywing’s words - “an agile and cooperative team” like IINO, we plan to further develop this tool and explore additional projects with Greywing in the coming years.

Nick Clarke, CEO of Greywing, commented; 

> What stood out to me about our project with IINO, was the commitment of the IINO team in engaging with Greywing, and ensuring that we maintained a weekly cadence of calls with all stakeholders involved. This enabled us both to work in harmony and to deliver a complex project that had not been previously achieved in the maritime industry. In general, software projects are notorious for being delivered late and over budget. Collaborating with a partner like IINO Lines, enabled us to deliver the project ahead of schedule and under budget, something that is almost unheard of in the maritime technology space. I am grateful for the trust that the IINO Team placed in Greywing, and to the Greywing Team for their hard work to deliver this project successfully.


Kenji Togasaki, Senior Vice President, IINO LINES (U.S.A.) INC. Commented; 

> In the search for an innovation partner to deliver this project we searched high and low, and after a lot of effort, decided on Greywing because they recognize the benefits of collaborating with corporations. They were curious and excited to hear our problems, quick enough to respond and develop the first ever product that most tanker companies are looking for. I am confident that our collaborative product has the power to reshape the industry.


Hrishi Olickel, CTO at Greywing, commented;

> Being able to do months of crew planning in one go was not something we were sure could be accomplished, especially taking into account compliance and other factors on a per-vessel basis. With IINO's help working with the data, we are proud to place Crew Matrix Planning into production as an AI-assisted planning tool.




## About Greywing Pte. Ltd.

Greywing is a digital maritime intelligence and operations platform that helps shipping companies automate their crew changes, crew matrix planning, and Port and Travel Agency Communications. Greywing integrates over thirty vendors, including market-leading crew & voyage management software, travel agents, port agencies with zero start time. Along with the Crew Change Planning Tool and Crew Matrix Planning Engine, Greywing also released a Gen-AI tool and a virtual assistance for email overwhelm in Maritime - SEA-GPT earlier this year. At the core of Greywing’s technology is building products that companies want to solve complex problems in the maritime industry.

Link to the full article in Japanese is [here](https://contents.xj-storage.jp/xcontents/AS00371/d203ffe0/42d1/446f/bbc0/457974eaa18f/20231030104240366s.pdf). 


**Contact:**

Business Strategy Department 
Phone: +65-9099-59-62
Email: operational@grey-wing.com 



IINO Kaiun Kaisha, Ltd. (IINO) has adopted an AI-based Crew Matrix Planning (CMP), program developed in collaboration with Greywing Pte Ltd., a Singapore-based technology startup.

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Release of the first automatic AI-powered Crew Matrix Planning (CMP) Tool in Maritime.

Maritime technology has come far as an industry - but I'm often surprised at the lack of companies in this space, given how large and inextricable shipping is to the modern world. When Greywing started, the field had few players, especially in maritime operations. There are a lot more of us today, but far less than you might expect.

## Maritime software still has a talent problem

Maritime has problems with communication overload, planning issues, industry leavers and worst of all, a lack of digitisation. These issues get worse as the climate becomes more unstable and the world continues to globalise - every customer we speak to cites “email overwhelm” and increased loads of decision making as growing problems. So in an industry with clear problems to solve, good reasons for solving them, and a need for technology, are there too few companies trying?

One of the more obvious reasons is that shipping requires domain knowledge that is hard to come by. In an industry where years of sailing experience is practically mandatory for many jobs, it’s a hard ask to take software engineers with decades of experience and expect them to understand the specifics of port operations or the compliance details of oil majors. That said, I believe there will be an explosion of new technology firms in a few quarters, spurred on by the supply chain crisis, an increase in funding, or the recent misfortunes of the industry that point to a need for technology.
The biggest problems are systemic, and related to the fact that building software (or hardware) in shipping requires companies to solve multiple zero-to-one problems with no common solution. Here are some I have encountered, and why they persist.

## 1. Maritime is massively decentralised

One of the biggest strengths of shipping - in fact the very thing lending it resilience - is also one of its biggest problems. Maritime trade has been fundamentally decentralised for centuries, long before crypto made decentralisation the mot du jour.

Vessels are floating nations in their own right, with crew and cargo that comes from and goes all over the world. Involved in the daily operations of a single vessel at rest are often six or seven different companies, with just as many countries and regulatory bodies. In motion, that number goes up considerably, and navigating this landscape could very well be a sector of its own.

To form a coherent picture of a single vessel, multiple companies and countries need to share data - something the industry has been traditionally resistant to. This is a big reason most new companies are forced to focus on prediction and estimation, rather than work with real information.

As an example, to provide an accurate suggestion for a port of call, we need to know the route of the vessel - from satellite AIS but also the voyage plans of the charterer. We also need to know the visa restrictions involved in moving crew there and back - from the travel provider, as well as the port agency costs and restrictions specific to the port. Once we have these, it’s a simple matter of calculating the fuel cost of deviation, fetching hundreds of flights to filter for corporate requirements, and maintaining an active database of ports and common areas of slowdown to suggest what the best solution might be.

## 2. Maritime technology is still early

Internal digitization in industries often happens in waves. There is usually the first wave of bespoke software to solve specific issues with expensive machines. This is then followed by a second wave of general purpose tools (think MS Office) that have a broader scope and can improve everyday tasks. The third wave comes from a management-led push of internal integration - custom tools are commissioned by separate departments to digitise their workflows. This wave usually encompasses enterprise level softwares. As these systems reach their end-of-life, an unbundling can take place, with externally built single-purpose software taking the place of these individual systems.

Each wave happens as workflows build up inefficiencies to push companies over the hill of spending differently. With enough dissatisfaction - there comes a point where players need to bridge the loss in productivity that comes with trying something new.

With each change, the pattern often swings from externally-built to internally-commissioned. Unfortunately there is no ideal solution: bespoke workflows will always fit better when internally directed, but external vendors can aggregate learning and innovation across multiple players to deliver a superior, more holistic product.

Maritime is still stuck between the first and second wave, with early adopters looking ahead. The problem is that there are currently very few standards for data interchange, as most existing pieces were built in silos for individual consumption.

Greywing might be a prime case to see how diverse things are. As of this piece, we connect to 20-30 different companies, and at least twice as many data sources. Our integrations cover simple JSON push and pull APIs, SOAP, sockets, and even xlsx files that are periodically downloaded and parsed. Today, AI makes it possible to add providers that are not digitised - through email as an automate-able medium. SeaGPT has enabled us to further increase the number of participants we can bring into the ecosystem by a factor of 10x and we couldn’t be more proud.

## 3. Maritime data works on an honor system

Most information in maritime still originates from manual entry, and is maintained on an honor system that presumes you're being honest. AIS (Automatic Identification System) - the underlying technology for tracking vessels on their journeys - is self-reported, as is the data for any ports or offshore anchorages that aren't big enough to qualify for an UNLOCODE. The same vessel - or port - can have multiple names and attributes, and it's often hard to tell what the right information is.

“Correct information” turns out often to be the wrong way to think about this data, which needs to be cleaned and coalesced before it can be of any use. Some companies like Spire provide the valuable service of cleaning this data as they provide it, but the output can only be so clean, before you hit a barrier. 

What this means is that failure-tolerance and some level of probabilistic modelling—where the algorithm selects the most correct data instead of looking for 100% truth—need to be worked into any system that consumes maritime data. Some of our internal systems have already moved in this direction, using multiple data points to look for consensus with some level of confidence.

## 4. Maritime UX has yet to stabilise

Software interfaces in shipping have yet to find an equilibrium, with the fundamental interface primitives for the industry not having been designed yet. Like smartphones in the early 2000s, or ridesharing apps at the very beginning, interfaces are still experimental (or worse, ancient), with no real connection to the underlying information or the users in front of them.

Most interfaces in shipping look exactly like the things they replace - spreadsheets. This makes complete sense when attempting to replace a workflow built on spreadsheets, as it involves less training for users. However, this can also hold back progression, as it takes a fair few cycles of iteration before other primitives can take hold and perform on par or better.

We are taking a big risk by making the map our base primitive, and building a new interface for crew changes that relies on contextual visual representation - show not tell - and cutting down information when unnecessary. I wrote about button syndrome some time ago, which turned out to be quite polarising. Users are often split between power users who hate a loss of control, and others that would like less information overload on their screens.

I expect these to be the formative years of shipping interfaces, and the companies formed this half-decade will be the ones defining it.

## 5. Maritime still needs reinventing the wheel

This is one of the biggest hurdles we've had to solve. Maritime is simply missing a lot of the base tooling that we take for granted in other fields.

A good example - among many - is routing. Most data in shipping is closely tied to a vessel's route, which can be a complex path between two ports. Ships prefer to use highways when possible, to avoid congestion and increase speeds in deeper water, which makes straight-line paths often the least efficient. Yet most platforms today still use straight lines to convert port calls to a route, or skip this process altogether.

Almost every company that does have routing has had to build it in-house, as have we. We might soon see startups that focus on these individual problems - as there already are - and try to deliver a general-purpose solution to each one. Further unbundling might be ahead of us. Atleast, we remain optimistic about that. Despite these problems, shipping can be an exciting place to work, for one big reason.

## 6. Maritime’s problems are exciting

Some of the most interesting problems are zero-to-one problems. It can be hard to get them right, and only time will confirm your hypotheses, but they allow for creative solutions that have the potential to redefine how we do things.

The problems of maritime are sometimes hard, but they are not new under the sun. They are the same problems faced by every industry as we try to find new ways to do things that were better than before. A path lined with just as many eureka moments as there are setbacks, I'm happy to be solving them every day. What has been repeatedly clear, is that there is not a boring day in sight for quite a while.




Why there aren't many software firms in shipping


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Software still isn’t eating maritime, here’s why

In our ongoing "Meet the Team" series, we're taking you behind the scenes to meet more of the minds powering Greywing's mission. 

Today, we're talking with Albert Shim, Front End Engineer at Greywing. Albert shares how the company's one-week sprints have become the heartbeat of innovation, allowing Greywing to navigate the complex waters of the maritime industry..

## Setting Sail With A New Way Forward

Albert Shim is a firm believer in iterative development, and at Greywing, one-week sprints are the cornerstone.

"We plan on Tuesdays, discuss blockers on Thursdays, and by the end of Wednesday the following week, we release something new," Albert explains.

These one-week sprints allow Greywing to adapt quickly to the ever-changing maritime landscape. "In an industry as dynamic as maritime, a week can be a lifetime. Our one-week sprints enable us to pivot rapidly, whether adapting to new regulations or responding to customer feedback," Albert elaborates.

## Pushing The Digital Horizon Every 7 Days

When Albert first joined Greywing, he was struck by the maritime industry's digital lag. "It's an old-school sector with a lot of room for digital transformation," he says. 

But Greywing is not just about digitizing existing processes; it's about reimagining them at a pace that was previously unthinkable. "We're not just making things digital; every week, we're making them better, more efficient, and more user-friendly," Albert adds.

One of the ways that Greywing is encouraging this is by our remote-first culture. "Working with a global team infuses our product with diverse perspectives and creativity," Albert notes. This flexibility complements our innovation approach, allowing for a seamless flow of ideas and rapid iterations. "The remote-first culture is not just a work arrangement; it's a strategic advantage. It allows us to tap into global talent and insights, which is invaluable in an industry as global as maritime." Greywing’s approach means that no matter where in the world the team is, we're all synced up, focused, and driving forward together.

## “Aye Aye Captain” - Listening In For A Customer-First Approach

Albert also plays a role in client meetings, gathering valuable feedback to steer the product in the right direction. "Our development cycle is deeply influenced by our customer's needs. We create, we get feedback, and we improve," he says. This rapid feedback loop ensures that Greywing always aligns with its customers' most pressing needs.

Greywing's approach depends on this customer-centric philosophy. "Listening to our customers doesn't just make our product better; it makes our entire approach more agile. We can quickly adjust our development priorities based on real-world feedback, ensuring that we're always focused on delivering the most value," Albert emphasises.

## Navigating For The Tech-Voyage Beyond

As Greywing continues to innovate, our methodologies focus on digital transformation, embrace remote work, and tune into the innovation needs of the industry; it’s setting new benchmarks in the maritime sector. Albert Shim and the rest of the team are at the helm of this exciting journey, and they're just getting started.

"If you're not moving forward, you're falling behind. And in an industry as dynamic as maritime, standing still is not an option. That's why we're committed to continuous innovation and improvement," Albert concludes.

If you're a maritime enthusiast looking to keep up with these developments, subscribe to our monthly technology updates [here](https://webforms.pipedrive.com/f/1ACD2U6Wbhf391kyuqCQMZlJky5fGZGnzb84tGZXmIbG589x06jjIVWkWCzgyUlVN), so you can witness the real-time changes being put out to the maritime industry. 



Learn more about what building in maritime looks like as we build in public.

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Behind the Curtain: Albert Shim on How Greywing's One-Week Sprints Are Charting a New Course in Maritime Tech

The collaboration will drive significant advancements in crew planning and management, thereby enhancing efficiency and improving the overall experience for seafarers.

"In IINO Lines we found a co-creation partner that we were in harmony with, who had a similar view of how digitalisation might be brought into the maritime industry. We did not actually have the tool they needed and we had to build it from scratch. We could see widespread demand for better technology in the crewing industry surrounding crew matrix planning and it made sense to develop this for our wider customer base. Our experience of partnering with IINO has been through engaged weekly meetings, responsive feedback and a sense that they value us as a strategic partner in helping them develop their business. They are an ideal partner and we look forward to further mutual innovation projects together," said Nick Clarke, CEO and Co-Founder of Greywing, a leading provider of maritime technology solutions that seeks to automate Crew Changes.

As part of this partnership, Greywing and IINO Lines have developed a bespoke Crew Matrix Planning tool designed specifically for chemical, CPP and crude carriers. This innovative solution will automate crew planning processes up to six to twelve months out in line with Oil Majors and charterer requirements, as well as optimise for crew chemistry, training, experience, holiday schedules, and more. 

A first look at the tool was showcased at the Maritime Expo hosted by Plug and Play Ventures in Antwerp, Belgium on the 13th of June. The joint presentation with IINO Lines provided an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the new solutions to maritime industry leaders, investors, and enthusiasts. Watch a snippet of the presentation here. 

Crew changes are a critical aspect of the maritime industry, and inefficiencies in crew planning can lead to significant operational challenges, financial implications, and most importantly, impact the well-being of seafarers. With this partnership, Greywing and IINO Lines are committed to addressing these challenges head-on and driving positive change within the industry.

This collaboration marks a transformative milestone in crew planning and management within the maritime industry. Together, we are revolutionizing the future of crew operations and setting new standards for collaboration in the maritime ecosystem."


14 JUNE 2023, SINGAPORE/JAPAN - IINO Lines, a renowned global chemical carrier based in Japan, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange [9119:TYO] is tapping on Greywing’s maritimetech expertise via a new strategic partnership to co-create new solutions for crew changes.


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Greywing and IINO Lines will Co-Create to Streamline Crew Change Operations

Greywing has launched SeaGPT, a new AI chatbot to help shipping companies navigate port agency communication hurdles.

With a simple query sent to SeaGPT via email and Greywing’s platform, fleet managers can now access all the port, immigration and travel details they need to decide on a crew change. To summon the AI-powered bot, users simply need to address questions to "SeaGPT" in a message or via the push-to-talk voice feature. Future possible integrations includes Slack, Microsoft Teams, Whatsapp and SMS.

“SeaGPT is the answer to the number one challenge crew managers have been asking us to solve – email overwhelm. Since maritime companies already depend on Greywing’s platform to plan their crew changes, this was the natural next tool we wanted to create. With today’s AI advancements we’ve finally found a solution to solve our customers biggest problem. ,” said Nick Clarke, Chief Executive Officer at Greywing a maritimetech company building solutions to automate crew changes.
Until now, much of this process has been analog. Crew changes are often planned through spreadsheets, and flight bookings are done through email or phone. For instance, a manager of a vessel chartered to a third-party may only find out its next destination by emailing the ship’s captain. 

Putting a crew change into action is an elaborate process simply because the data set itself is complex. Crew managers have to stay on top of changing immigration restrictions in hundreds of countries and thousands of ports around the world. To complicate things further, many crews include members of different nationalities, who are often subject to different immigration or vaccination restrictions.

With the introduction of SeaGPT, emails related to port agency communication can be instantly automated. SeaGPT can handle all the emails, clarify any questions, and provide the information crew managers are looking for, saving hours of time and reducing the risk of errors or miscommunications.

SeaGPT's natural language capabilities go beyond simple queries too. It can make complex edits, and even book flights or provide specific information related to port restrictions and visa requirements. 

SeaGPT can also handle conversations in any language, meaning a crew manager can have details easily translated from business-language English to be shared with seafarers in Hindi, Greek, Russian, Mandarin and more.

“What makes SeaGPT such a breakthrough for crews everywhere is that it is purely text-based. Onboard vessels, in the real world, solutions cannot be tech heavy simply because of connectivity constraints. SeaGPT can be used via existing communication channels with requires very low data requirements such as SMS or even Whatsapp, making it very simple to adopt and introduce to existing workflows. We’ve made it easy to inspect and understand situations – there’s no black box system here,” said Hrishi Olickel, Chief Technology Officer at Greywing 
SeaGPT is already being used in the field for Greywing’s clients today and is fit to scale beyond crewing capabilities into commercial applications, and more.

SeaGPT is coded so it can accurately interpret maritime and port-specific data. This is possible because SeaGPT sources intel direct from Greywing’s proprietary dataset which includes official insights and databases from over 18,300 ports. Unlike AI-powered chatbots for generic mainstream use, SeaGPT does not allow hallucinations. This means if the requested details are not available, SeaGPT will never assume or impersonate information but flag that there is missing data instead.

Greywing has made SeaGPT available to its customers, and giving away access to the first 100 crew managers to sign up. To access the application visit: http://seagpt.ai



With SeaGPT, masters on board ships can manage their entire crew with a simple conversation.


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Greywing’s new AI for maritime, SeaGPT, untangles crew change hurdles with a simple conversation

The best products are almost invisible, allowing users to effortlessly do what they need to without thinking about the systems they’re interacting with. Yet behind each frictionless action are invisible depths: thousands upon thousands of hours of research & development, sales & marketing, and the cumulative work of a team. 

We want to shine a light on the people powering the Greywing mission in this new series of Meet the Team interviews. In this first conversation, software engineer Shi Yuan shared the importance of building systems that can scale for uncertainty, the interesting challenges that come from working at a nexus of different solutions, and the untapped opportunities in maritime tech that are ripe for technological innovation. 

## Engineering foundations for shifting seas


Before joining Greywing, Shi Yuan was a software engineering generalist so brought a fairly big picture approach to the team. When thinking about the challenges for developing maritimetech, he reflected that really “all companies face the same challenge: build quick and dirty, or take the time to organise so building on top is easier in future.” This tension between short-term gains and long-term investment is not an easy one: “it’s hard to build something quickly that’s neat enough to build on top of in future.” No matter the industry, software engineers are generally united in focusing on building effectively, while maintaining high standards to deliver usable products. “You’ve got to think about accuracy: does the UI work when I click this button? Is the server doing what it’s meant to? Is the data being saved in the right format?” 

While maritimetech shares this challenge with its peers in other industries, Shi Yuan thinks there’s a layer of consideration missing when thinking about quality code. “We need to build with the specifications we have today, but in an organized way that we can adapt to changing tools or standards in future,” he reflected, adding that: “focusing on the modularity or neatness of the code is often overlooked.” 

As maritimetech continues to develop at a considered pace, we have an opportunity to set a new standard in quality development practices that could make future iterations easier. Given the sheer complexity of some maritime interactions, this could save thousands of dollars and hours of building time for complex projects, such as logistics management.

## Deep dive into the intersections of logistics



Getting into the challenges of engineering logistics solutions that integrate multiple data types from a multitude of sources has been one of Shi Yuan’s most interesting challenges in entering the maritimetech space. Greywing “wants to get crew changes right” but it’s a lot more complicated than it sounds on paper. 

“You’ve got some people to offboard, and then some people to onboard,” Shi Yuan laid out. To plan a crew change, “you have to find the best place for crew members to swap, based on the ports on the route, and the flight prices.” Underneath this exchange are multiple different logistics systems: transport providers, ticketing agencies, and so on. The challenges “are not so much in building a solution to this problem - it’s more about understanding the industry, where to get information from, and how to best use that information.” 

So how does a generalist software engineer submerge themselves in the nuances of the maritime industry? “It’s really fun to work with people who are excited to build,” Shi Yuan reflected. “It’s genuinely interesting, learning how all these different industries work, and developing technologies to try to meet their needs.” Being interested in the problems he was solving at work was important to Shi Yuan in his job search; though he lacked maritime expertise, he enjoys working alongside domain experts: “at Greywing, everyone really wants to get the product right… everyone is really approachable and easy to talk to; they really want to invest their time in you.” Yet as maritimetech continues to develop as an emerging industry, there’s still plenty more challenges in need of solutions. 

## Delving into maritime’s unexplored depths


The maritime sector is slowly embarking on an innovation revolution, but there’s still a bit of a gap when you compare the technology to more mainstream technologies, like fintech or medtech. As Shi Yuan reflected: “I think shipping didn’t get as much love until lately.” But this poses an interesting challenge for engineers: “I feel there’s still a lot of room to get good software out in the industry; there are still plenty of new problems to be solved… I think that’s kind of fun.”

When considering how to get more engineering talent to look at maritime’s innovation opportunities, Shi Yuan recommended that maritime starts “to be more open about their processes; as it’s very hard for someone with no expertise to address industries they don’t know about … where do you even begin?” By bringing together driven domain experts with software engineering talent, Shi Yuan can see huge potential opportunities for good software that can help “overcome the hurdles facing legacy industries.”

While shipping remains a fairly overlooked component of most people’s daily lives, powering the supply chain that stocks global markets, there’s still plenty of space for interested innovators to dive in and tackle some exciting challenges and develop software in an as-yet-uncrowded playing field.

If you’re an emerging maritime innovator, looking to connect across the industry with other disruptive developers, you may want to join the [Ocean Founders Alliance](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://grey-wing.com/blog/ocean-founders-alliance&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1678887625899044&usg=AOvVaw2i4UzdvETLZ-QyG1L_buQN): a network of startups and industry leaders supporting each other to build new solutions to these global-scale challenges.


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Behind the curtain: Shi Yuan talks engineering adaptable systems, simplifying complicated logistics, and the opportunities in maritime.

## Why Shipping?


In September 2022, I shared my move from the fast paced tech environment working at one of the top food delivery platforms in the UK and Asia to join the maritime sector with my network. I was a Data Analyst for the last 5 years, and was now going to move to a “laggard industry” to try a new role. I was warned, in shipping, data is still a major concern. Siloed information prohibits collaboration and makes it very hard to work collaboratively. Shipping is capex heavy and does not work like fast-paced industries when it comes to implementing new technology.

I discovered that the naysayers missed out on some nuances. The environment here was much more fast paced than given credit for. While I was used to being in the bare minimum of meetings, my first day at Greywing, I was speaking with crewing directors, managers, travel management companies, port agencies and various other parts of the industry. I used a three step process to understand the space: the first step was to take notes, the second step was to ask questions, and the third step was to connect the dots. It worked like a charm and I was able to grasp the most important information. To mark the end of my first five months, I'm reflecting on the most interesting lessons I've learned so far. 

## Sales Calls: The perfect place to collect customer stories!


As part of my onboarding journey, for the first time in my life, I sat in on a sales meeting with a client worth over US$300K ARR. I learned about our product through the sales demo, and also the prospect’s pain points, which could in-turn feedback our product fit. The sales call with a shipping company selling a tech product is a unique one for the industry. It highlighted how customer needs and expectations are always changing due to the way each player in the industry operates. So businesses need to be equipped to provide customized solutions, or flexible enough to take them into consideration. 

Note: Customers are who we build our apps for, so we want to give them what they want and need, while empathizing with their struggles and frustrations. We at Greywing are on a journey to build an automation that doesn’t exist, and at this initial phase of digitization the importance of the human touch in building it can’t be ignored. Once you have a fully-functional product and you’ve got your customer’s interest for a demo, you've got insights. This allows for an improved understanding of the customer experience and greater customer satisfaction. Greywing's sales calls are informed by its customer-centric approach, which strives to ensure that customers feel heard throughout the sales process.

## SPC (Smart Port Challenge) Accelerator Program (Pier71): Rethink your assumptions!


Late last year, Greywing was accepted into Pier71’s Smart Port Challenge to accelerate the next wave of maritime innovation in Singapore. This 8-week market validation and customer discovery programme has incomparably bridged my knowledge gap in the maritime industry. Listening to other startups, I deepened my knowledge around bunkering, cargo, optimisation, alternative fuels, spare-parts, sustainability and so much more. Since maritime is the thread that connects the global supply chain, connecting with founders is a scaled down version to build collaboration, working together on a shared vision of a more efficient ecosystem.

The domain expert-led sessions not only gave me a bird’s eye view in maritime, but also polished my knowledge around entrepreneurship. One of the early sessions I joined with our CTO, CEO, and Head of Growth was the Value and Assumption Mapping workshop. Alongside my new colleagues, I was not just learning about our existing business, but also creating an impact on the direction we would take as Greywing. Was it bunkering? Spare-Parting? Data Lakes? This activity kick-started the brewing behind closed doors that would soon come out in 2023, and I was a part of that ideation! 

 ![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/Screenshot_2023_02_21_at_11_00_07_AM_0c3ca34a9f.png) 

## The North Stars: The value of working with C-Suite

One of the reasons I joined a startup was to witness and learn from “the life of a CEO”. There are a few places where an u30 gets an opportunity to work this close with Management. And the work of a Product Manager is to understand both perspectives of the CEO and the CTO, bring the revenue and tech team closer together, and be the bridge between teams. You’re not a part of a team, but rather, a part of all teams. This position enables you to gain a holistic view of the product development process and make informed decisions that will benefit its success. You can also provide guidance and support to all teams, making sure everyone is working together towards a common goal. It has been eye opening to witness the drive and sacrifices made for collective success. Being in this position motivates me to work harder each day, and excites me to turn on my laptop. With a smaller team, it is easier to ensure that the product is meeting customer needs while innovating to anticipate new problems. 

 ![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/Screenshot_2023_02_21_at_11_00_24_AM_256d93d743.png) 

## Conclusion


Moving to a new company: Greywing, a brand new role: Product Manager, and to a new industry: Maritime, the unknowns are real. Amidst that the warmth and the closeness of the community has been nothing but a blessing. SPC, road to series A and the fast-paced environment, I could not have asked for anything more! 
I have learned that roles in smaller startups can be a great way to gain experience, learn new skills, and encourage innovative thinking. I would encourage others to take the leap and apply for roles that might take them out of their comfort zone. The maritime industry is a unique and interesting space where innovation and collaboration are key. Working with a smaller team has allowed for faster idea collation, and creative solutions that might not have been possible otherwise. With the right people on board, there is potential for great success in this industry. Additionally, I would invite other product people in the maritime industry to connect and share learnings with one another.



Maritime, Shipping, Product Management & Beyond


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Lessons of a data analyst setting sail into maritime product management

The ongoing supply chain crisis isn’t a recent phenomenon. It’s a symptom of a deeper sickness finally coming to a head - of systemic issues that industry observers have long railed against.
 
Chief among the maritime industry’s maladies: data continues to be siloed across the value chain, and players struggle to operate efficiently.

The lack of data sharing has resulted in maritime players navigating troubled waters without a clear north star. Ports, for example, saw prolonged wait times and worsened congestion despite a drop in cargo volumes in mid-2021.
 
 ![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/Screenshot_2023_02_15_at_11_42_18_AM_119c18c867.png) 
    GRAPH SOURCE: IMF


Maritime has highly decentralised roots, but its future lies in a highly connected ecosystem. Bridging value chains via platform integrations can be the answer.
 
The crisis in the last three years of unmanageable, unpredictable, and unbudgeted costs, drive home the importance of a more interconnected maritime sector. It’s part of the industry’s natural evolution, and industry pioneers who get on board will be first to solve efficiency leakages.
 
## Integrated data drives real-time decision-making

 
In a dynamic world filled with uncertainties and rapidly changing conditions, connected data is the key to making sense of a messy situation and enables easier decision-making that focuses on key factors.
 
Platform integrations give maritime players a fuller picture of a ship’s voyage and operations by centralizing data from a variety of sources.
 
Greywing currently connects 10 different companies with at least twice as many data sources - each data source offering an additional dimension of empowerment.
 
When maritime players share critical data with key customers and suppliers, they also enhance their resilience against shocks since new insights are rapidly incorporated into overall decision-making.
 
## Integrated systems are more cost-efficient and less labor-intensive than siloed data

 

By enabling further transparency of real information, platform integrations minimise wastage and make closer to accurate predictions.
 
Take Greywing’s integration with Dataloy System’s voyage management data feeds.
 
While disparate platforms could yield similar benefits with some degree of manual effort, the streamlined data from the integration not only automatically consolidates insights, but also magnifies their impact.
 
Alone, Greywing promises crew change efficiency. But together with Dataloy, users can effect crew changes that are cheaper, quicker, and also lower in emissions.
 
The virtues of real-world data aggregation aren’t lost on other maritime players. In fact, a global push towards leveling data discrepancies may already be taking shape.  

The Smart Maritime Council, for one, launched a standardized vessel dataset earlier this month. A follow-up to a successful proof-of-concept by shipping lines OSM Maritime, Thome Group, and V.Ships, it promises to make data collection and analysis easier for any maritime player.    

Platform integrations also free up limited resources by automating recurring processes. That frees up the crew to handle more important tasks, and cuts the search for skilled maritime labour shorter. Seafarers end up being the end benefactor of these improvements and firms see better crew retention as a result of welfare improvements.
 
## Platform integrations level barriers across the maritime playing field


A key reason why few shipping software firms exist is that the bulk of information in maritime is still manually entered, and largely maintained on an honour system. 

Such a system naturally gives rise to inconsistencies in data input. Noon reports, a critical document that’s exchanged daily, are still done manually in most maritime firms according to individual standards and guidelines. Formats that important files are exported in also differ widely. 

Without high-quality, interoperable data, maritime players run their ships only as well as their own data reporting allows. 

Two solutions arise: one, a standardised list of data points to report; two, seamless consolidation and analysis of data via platform integrations. 

The proof-of-concept project established by OSM Maritime, Thome Group, and V.Ships is exploring the former, but the large variance in ship sizes and data reporting needs will likely invite significant friction. 

Platform integrations, on the other hand, handle standardising quietly in the background. Time to familiarise with the software notwithstanding, they enable businesses to rapidly take in new insights and use them just as quickly. 

## Integrations are the future


Maritime connects the world, but the industry remains a mess of data islands. Recent supply chain shocks have finally brought its consequences to the fore. 

There’s much maritime can - and should - do to bridge the gaps. Platform integrations are the low-hanging fruit firms can easily seize. Especially while startups like Greywing continue to prioritze these partnerships at no cost to the partners. 

Still, even that comes with its own challenges. Maritime consists of many players who still share apprehensions over data sharing. 

But integrations are necessary if firms across the value chain want to thrive in the future. They will lay the groundwork for proper data stewardship and offer a springboard for maritime to truly scale up. It’s still early days, and that also gives the industry a chance to carefully consider what sort of data it requires and how to use them - and avoid Big Tech’s mistakes. 

Whether you’re a data provider looking to integrate your feeds into other platforms to make life easier for your customers, or you’re a maritime company looking for more detailed data to expedite data-driven decision-making, we’d love to hear from you on how we can make maritime even more efficient. 




COVID-19. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Extreme weather. The past three years have hit maritime hard, with each subsequent crisis laying bare how disjointed global seabound value chains really are.


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Dollars, Time, and Strategy: Why Maritime Needs Integrated Systems 

How does ChatGPT connect to a 1-click crew change, in how AI-based tools will change complex enterprise workflows?

## Where it started

89 days, or 12 weeks ago, Nick - my co-founder and our CEO - sends me this message.

 ![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/nickmessage_daa178015f.webp) 

Implied was a question that he later made explicit over coffee - can we do this? Can we make a 1-click crew change? Can we, in a single click, decide where to stop a vessel, which flights to buy, which visas to consider, which agents to engage, and which seafarers to board and disembark at what time - such that a crew change happens?

My first reaction I think, was just shock at the sheer audacity of this question for simply existing in the world. A crew change - an exchange of fresh crew with people that are coming to the end of their contract and being flown home - is a complex dance of real-world restrictions, changing prices, ship routing, fuel estimation, and many more things.

Could it be automated? This is a question I was used to wondering about, but in the occasional sense; a lot like wondering about designer babies and interstellar travel. Maybe someday - and we're definitely getting closer - but how absurd to ask if it can be done tomorrow!

The next instant had me realizing that we could do it - that for the first time in three years, we had solved enough problems that we could deliver a 1-click crew change. Not without issue, and not as a replacement for the men and women who do this job, but it was possible to deliver this as an aid that helped improve things.

It wasn't a high priority, so it took me a week to double-check my assumptions and another week to figure out the UI into some sketches:

 ![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/1c3sketch_40da7258ed.webp) 

Two weeks after the message, we had it in the development schedule.

Three weeks after we had the feature merged to production, and had conducted the world's first one-click crew change assessment.

 ![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/1c3_d9dea7fd91.gif) 

The interesting thing was that we then released it without much fanfare. You could get a crew change assessment in a single click, but it was never 100%. We didn't want to talk about something if we couldn't promise a strong user experience that always improved things. At release, it was more meaningful as a technology demonstrator to us than it was to our customers - or so we felt.

So why talk about it now? Is it better? Yes - but not enough that I would consider the results at a hundred percent. I'm writing about it now because it has changed the way we work - in a way I think relates to the future of AI-driven tools. I'm writing about it because it has shown us a new workflow - a corrective one instead of a constructive one - that I think holds a lot of potential in AI-based automation.

I'd also like to talk about the problems and solutions we've gone through to actually get this far. If you want to skip ahead to the part about corrective workflows - and I've done my best to make as much of it make sense despite your cruel skip - you can click [here](https://olickel.com/one-click-crew-changes-ai-corrective-interfaces#whatisacorrectiveworkflow).

## Problem Zero - Relationships

Maritime is an industry with a large number of players - big and small - stratified into different parts of the industry. A single crew change might involve multiple manning agents, crew managers, technical managers, travel agents, port agents, and more. These are often people that work for different companies that sit in different offices in different countries. Trying to get a sense of the right decision means understanding not only the workflows and preferences of each individual and company, but connecting to the massive repository of (analog) information they use to do their jobs.

Trying to build software for vessel operations, we weren't travel agents, manning agents or crew managers - and we certainly didn't know what the good ones knew after decades of experience. We needed them to teach us, and to work with us to bring their expertise and knowledge online.

This means the same thing it does in any industry - relationships. Partnerships and relationships have been, in retrospect, the thing we have been most successful at as a company. Being able to connect to multiple companies in each segment has made the process much smoother. So has our offering, which is a completely new product in the crew intelligence vertical - which I'm pretty sure we invented. (It was, however, a vote of confidence to hear this year that we have some competition in this vertical).

I don't think any of the further problems I will list could have had a chance at troubling us, had we not solved this one. Had it not been for the wonderful first customers and partners in this space taking the time and effort to teach us how to do things their way, and to make sense of what they knew, we would never have gotten off the ground.

## Problem One - Data

This is something I've [written about before](https://olickel.com/zero-to-one-maritime), so I'll be brief. After we had found partners that were willing to let us use their data, we had the problem of the data itself. Most of maritime data works on an honor system, which means lots of typos, false and invalid rows, and not always knowing which is which. This was also around the time that I discovered that none of the companies I worked with agreed on a list of countries in the world.

This is a problem we're still solving today, but it's also one we have gotten exceedingly good at. We have ways of incorporating probabilistic estimates of data, adding aliases so things can have multiple references, compond primary keys so multiple joined fields can be used to refer to the uniqueness of something, on and on.

It's often said that the FAA's regulations for aircraft are [written in blood](https://www.cfinotebook.net/notebook/rules-and-regulations/rules-and-regulations#:~:text=There%20is%20a%20saying%20that,resulted%20in%20loss%20of%20life). Our data processing code and guidelines are similarly, written in bugs - each line and procedure exists because something about the underlying data caused problems that needed this fix.

## Problem Two - Algorithms

The next step - also covered in [zero to one problems in maritime](https://olickel.com/zero-to-one-maritime), is that we needed to build infrastructure that was only tangentially related to the problem we were solving. Some of these problems were products or companies in their own right, but they were also lego blocks we needed in solving crew changes. An example is routing. Another is building translation engines for timezones related to flights, connections, ports, etc. Today, we have a routing engine, fuel table processor, currency converter, and many other modules that simply serve to transform data into useful prediction blocks for automation.

## Problem Three - Parameters & Preferences

This was the first focus of 2022 for us - at least for the most part. If you solve the hard backend and data problems, you are now presented with the final parts of delivering a successful solution - UI/UX. This wasn't trivial in our case - I've expanded on two of the many problems with crew change interfaces before. If you'd like to read about them, look for button syndrome and telegraphing.

The short version is that crew changes have no real digital interface we can learn from, except Excel and Email. We borrowed from both, but neither lend themselves well to our priorities. What we wanted was an interface that was self-teaching - which indicated what the next logical action was, where to look for certain controls, and hid away anything the user's context did not need. If you were looking for flights, you did not need a port selector.

We ended up using the map as the base primitive - everything we displayed had coordinates, be it a vessel, a flight, a port or an airport. Building from this, we built a counterclockwise flow that moved you through the stages of planning a crew change - select crew, select ports, select flights and send out booking requests.

What this enabled us to do was to add slow nudges through each stage which added more advice and automation from us. For example:

 ![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/portstask_279e96d382.webp) 

Once we were relatively confident of our ordering of potential ports for a crew change, we could have the user click next to auto-select the top three ports from the list.

 ![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/portsscreenshot_27733f3387.webp) 

## Problem Four - Workflow

The final part and focus for most of 2022 was the workflow. How can we design something which supports 100% of use cases? What we found - or believed, given the lack of statistically significant data - is that 80% of cases could be simplified or automated entirely. Maybe another 10% could be covered with some more control over the process. The final 10% - especially the last 1% - needed absolute fine control over the choices being made, and this control was often critical. Looking for flights? Do you need to filter by airline? By layover time? By individal minimum layover? By overall flight length? By maximum layover?

The threat was that for the 80% of cases this complexity would prove to be a hassle that got in the way of users and scared new users into leaving.

Our solution so far has been to slowly add complexity as users ask for it - and to be aggresive about taking it away, or hiding it. Each new control gives us something we could potentially automate, if the rules surrounding it are simple enough.

## Connecting the strings

When you put these solutions together, and have them work well, a one-click crew change becomes pretty simple. In our case, our first solution was to literally click (in software) the next button on our wizard until we reached the end. 1-click Crew Change!

It's gotten more complex since then, but the basics are still the same. If the interface breaks down complexity, if your parameters and controls are self-tuning, if you have a data-aware system that understands input, and you connect to and understand the reasons for why people do what they do, automation becomes as simple as clicking Next. Anyone could do it.

 ![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/clickedcrewchange_538fb39bd9.gif) 

## What is a corrective workflow?

We run a lot - I mean a lot - of crew change assessments as a company. Multiple reports for QA, every time we test a related feature, demos - we have been one of the biggest consumers of our own product.

So it surprised me when the 1-click crew change became the default way we generated reports overnight. Instead of going through the stages of selecting crew, finding ports, picking flights, and adjusting filters, the workflow became:

Click 1-click Crew Change-> Click away to youtube or other distraction -> Come back in two minutes -> Fix what may not be to your liking on the report.

Turns out humans - or at least, us Greylings - prefer correcting machines rather than working with them. This is what I've come to call the corrective workflow - where some process of automation, be that ChatGPT (see I did bring it back), or another kind of AI-based generative tool, takes the first step of doing what it thinks you want. Only after this point does the UI kick in, and it's pointed towards letting you fix what was wrong, and to re-instruct the system for the future.

This is a rather powerful workflow that gets around the growing problem (which might take years) of AI, that things are unlikely to be perfectly accurate for a long time. Rather, they're unlikely to be acceptably accurate for a long time - simply because when it comes to machines, we have much higher standards of what is acceptably accurate. Ask self-driving cars.

The alternative is what I'll call the constructive workflow, where the user starts from scratch and the automation offers help or takes over at certain points.

Here's two examples to illustrate the difference.

A constructive AI-based writer would let the user start on a blank page, and offer suggestions to complete their sentence, or correct a word - or write entire paragraphs as they start them.

 ![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/gmail_53d9cdfdb7.webp) 

A corrective AI-based writer might write the entire email, and highlight the areas it was most unsure about (or it felt were most deserving of the sender's attention), and offer the opportunity for corrections, or provider alternatives. Each decision by the user can be used to improve performance in the future.

A constructive crew-change planner lets the user start planning on their own, and highlights options and settings to indicate the system's preference for what the ideal answers might be. Users can choose the recommended option, or go in a different direction.

A corrective crew-change planner emails users a crew-change plan as soon as it can, with a link to an interface where the plan can be critiqued and amended.

## What this means for the future

This is a workflow we will be experimenting with more in 2023. There are still some open problems, like how we incorporate user corrections into our automation, and how to make the UI for this feel smooth and intentional, that we intend to solve in the coming months.

As with a lot of things, I believe the complexity lies in the presentation to the user, and the implied workflow in the piece of software. We're still working on figuring it out.


And why corrective workflows might be the future of AI-based automation


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What it took to do a crew change in a single click

**We're thankful for the overwhelming support from the industry for Ocean Founders launch. It's exciting to see a growing number of applicants coming through but do bear with us as we'll need some time to follow up with everyone in the coming weeks.*

## Why do this?

When solving for an issue as complex as a supply chain, it’s misguided at best, and an inefficient waste of time, at worst, for maritimetech founders to go it alone. The maritime supply chain consists of verticals and collaborators, which is why startups working in that space need to find ways to collaborate amongst themselves. Innovation ecosystems are strengthening. From startup incubators to a buzzing conference scene, we’re witnessing a growing basis of support. Yet, in maritime tech, there is a clear gap in founder support. 

Developing communities that provide solidarity and support on the operational challenges of running a maritimetech startup is important. Unsurprisingly, the lack of community also means that there’s a lack of a unified voice advocating for industry support and regulatory change. These identifiable hurdles obstruct the hockey-stick growth potential of startups in shipping and supply chain.

Rather than lament the state of the startup community in maritime, we decided to spring into action. Greywing is delighted to announce that its Co-Founders, Nick, and Hrishi, will be spearheading Ocean Founders alongside our industry peers from Portcast & Shipskart. 

## Connections with fellow founders

It can be lonely building from zero to one, especially when taking on the ambitious goal of disrupting  decades of status quo. Ocean Founders connect founders working at the forefront of maritime tech innovation, in both private and public forums. We will create space to discuss founders’ challenges - and share strategies on how to overcome them. This will inform an annual report on the state of maritime tech, which will give the industry insights into the progress that startups are making, the hurdles in their way, most importantly, the gaps that could be opportunities.

In creating these spaces of connection, we are creating the conditions for spontaneous serendipity. We have all seen the positive impacts and sparks generated at industry events in the last year. Ocean Founders is looking to supercharge those moments, and create a lasting culture of innovation.

## Collaboration with industry leaders

While creating space for conversation is important, we appreciate the ability to use corporate expertise when it comes to enacting these insights. That’s why Motion Venture’s Alliance will be extending a hand to support the Ocean Founders initiative. Their 60-strong community of executives and leaders, many of whom are veterans of the industry hailing from Wilhelmsen, HHLA, IMC, Signal, MOL, and more, will provide valuable guidance and horsepower to the initiatives undertaken by the Ocean Founders. Just as much as we want to hear from their experiences, these leaders want to understand the concerns and the opportunities that maritime founders are facing. 

In dialogue, we will connect frontline realities with the strategic priorities of public and private players in maritime. Through this open approach to communication, we will be able to better understand each other’s needs and wants More than that, we’ll be able to build new ways of collaborating on an industry-wide scale. And instead of being disruptive, we have a chance to co-revolutionize the sector.

## Making waves for future founders 


Innovation goes beyond the present moment. In addition to strengthening support for today’s founders, we want to ensure a sustainable pipeline of future innovators. Ocean Founders is not restricted to a certain scale of startup: it is open to emerging or potential founders. This includes maritime corporate employees or entrepreneurial students with an interest in the sector. By connecting with future founders at an early stage in their careers, we will develop a rich talent pipeline and fill the industry with new ideas. 

By creating mentorship opportunities for these emerging leaders, we are also enriching current maritime tech founders. This will serve as two-way capacity building; aspiring entrepreneurs get exclusive insights into the hands-on work of innovation, while founders keep connected with the way the industry is continuing to build.

## Conclusion


The shipping industry is the beating heart of the global supply chain; within maritime tech, it’s the people who keep it pumping. Ocean Founders is creating space for industry new-joiners  to connect and learn from each other, to discuss and analyse the hurdles they face, to discover potential opportunities, and to connect emerging talent to the challenges they’ll face tomorrow. This is the small step in which Greywing wants to lay down  the foundation for a sustainable maritime industry that continues to innovate. We can’t do this alone, and have an open call for startup founders of today or tomorrow to apply to set sail with us at oceanfounders.co. 

Greywing spearheads initiative to form an alliance of maritimetech founders.

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Helping maritime startups make a bigger splash: the Ocean Founders Alliance

Pier 71’s Smart Port Challenge was the hardest maritime accelerator to get into.

🥇 When I applied to [Entrepreneur First](https://www.joinef.com/), I got in on the first try.  

🥇 When Hrishi and I applied to the [Captains Table](http://www.ypsnhk.com/captain.html) we got in on the first try.

🥈 When we applied to [Y-Combinator](https://www.ycombinator.com/) we got in on the second try.

🥉 We made it into [Pier 71](https://pier71.sg/) third time lucky! 🍀 

Proof that persistence pays off!

God loves a trier.

On a serious note we were excited to join Pier 71’s Smart Port Challenge.  It is the pre-eminent incubator for maritime start ups globally and has seen great success (the likes of [Ent-Vision](https://www.ent-vision.com/) and [DLT Ledgers](https://dlt.sg/)). I had often wondered to myself as I hopped on a plane to Hamburg, Athens or Cyprus to see customers whether it would be better to work with customers at our doorstep. So we began our journey to build closer relationships in Singapore with the local shipping community this September. 

*“Like all well laid plans, Greywing did not survive first contact with the customer.”*

SPC was a great opportunity to build our profile in the APAC region, amongst the circa 100 vessel operators, who are within a couple of miles of where we have offices in Singapore. If I am honest, I wasn’t sure about going into SPC given how many man hours it would take - as a company trying to get to market before Series A - we felt like we may have been a little too far along to afford that kind of investment.

But as it turned out we were at just the right stage to go through SPC. The mentoring team encouraged us to break away from pre-conceptions that we had about what we were doing and to focus on engaging with customers and exploring their needs.

If you had spoken to me heading into SPC, I would have said something along the lines of 

“Well we optimise anything that gets on or off a ship, except for cargo - right now we are focused on crew changes.” 

…with the polish and flair of someone who has said those lines perhaps 10,000 times over the past three years (A little like my Chopstick Story… those who know, know) I would intone…

*“We have already solved crew changes, I think the big question that we would like to answer at SPC is whether we focus on optimising spare parts , ships stores, consumables, lubes or bunkers?”*

I’d have said this whilst all along being certain that the next vertical we would automate in optimising what gets on or off a vessel would have been spare parts.  I was convinced our talks with customers would bear out my intuition.  

It was the obvious next step.

Of course, like all well laid plans it did not survive first contact with the customer. We heard time and time again that we were barking up the wrong tree. It became apparent that there were some other problems in the maritime industry that we were better positioned to solve. We had unique expertise that we had developed in operations, crewing, coordination, integration of our customer's supply chains and delivery of delightful User Experiences and as it turns out what we have learnt so far at SPC is that we wont be applying that experience to Spare Parts, at least not next.

So what was the key insight about what we should work on from the customers? 

Well thats still under wraps for the moment, but all I’ll say is that if you operate vessels carrying hydrocarbons, or like software that pre-empts your planning requirements - get in touch with us.

SPC has been a lot fun and there are some great mentors and fellow participants in the programme, I am forever grateful that they serve dinner before we kick off on a Thursday as inevitably I have not eaten by the time I turn up.

We have a roadmap built out for an exciting new product that will leverage our experience in AI, and it will be awesome to get into the market, customers are excited - and so are we!

Our CEO's reflections on Greywing's journey with the Smart Port Challenge.

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Greywing's journey with Pier71.

Maritime technology has come far as an industry - but I'm often surprised at the lack of companies in the space, given how large and inextricable shipping is to the modern world. When [Greywing](https://grey-wing.com/) started, the field had few players, especially in maritime operations. There are a lot more of us today, but far less than you might expect.

## Why is this the case?


It isn't a lack of fruitful problems to solve. I have covered the reasons maritime needs technology before, and all of those reasons still hold water. It's certainly not a lack of talent, or application. In a world where engineers look to have real impact on tangible industries, shipping feels like a strong place to work. So why indeed?

Some of the more obvious reasons might be that shipping requires domain knowledge that may be hard to come by, and that the immediate rates of return may not be as lucrative as that of finance or crypto. That said, I believe there will be an explosion of new technology firms in a few quarters, spurred on by the supply chain crisis, an increase in funding, or the recent misfortunes of the industry that point to a need for technology.

The biggest problems are systemic, and related to the fact that building software (or hardware) in shipping requires companies to solve multiple zero-to-one problems with no common solution. Here are some I have encounted, and why they persist.

## 1. Maritime is massively decentralized


One of the biggest strengths of shipping - in fact the very thing lending it resilience - is also one of its biggest problems. Maritime trade has been fundamentally decentralized for centuries, long before crypto made decentralization the mot du jour.

Vessels are floating nations in their own right, with crew and cargo that comes from and goes all over the world. Involved in the daily operations of a single vessel at rest are often six or seven different companies, with just as many countries and regulatory bodies. In motion, that number goes up considerably, and navigating this landscape could very well be a sector of its own.

To form a coherent picture of a single vessel, multiple companies and countries need to share data - something the industry has been traditionally resistant to. This is a big reason most new companies are forced to focus on prediction and estimation, rather than work with real information.

## 2. Maritime technology is still early


Internal digitization in industries often happens in waves. There is usually the first wave of custom, purpose built software to solve specific issues with expensive machines, followed by a second wave of general purpose tools (think Excel and email) that improve everyday tasks. Next comes a the management-led wave of internal integration, where custom tools are once again commissioned by separate departments to digitize their workflows. As these systems reach their end-of-life, an unbundling can take place, with externally built single-purpose software taking the place of these systems.

Each wave happens as workflows build up inefficiencies to push companies over the hill of spending differently. Enough dissatisfaction with the way things are needs to exist in order to bridge the loss in productivity that comes with trying something new.

With each change, the pattern often swings from externally-built to internally-commissioned. Unfortunately there is no ideal solution: bespoke workflows will always fit better when internally directed, but external vendors can aggregate learning and innovation across multiple players to deliver a superior product.

Maritime is still in the third wave, with early adopters looking ahead. The problem is that there are currently very few standards for data interchange, as most existing pieces were built in siloes for individual consumption.

Greywing might be a prime case to see how diverse things are. As of this piece, we connect to 20-30 different companies, and at least twice as many data sources. Our integrations cover simple JSON push and pull APIs, SOAP, sockets, and even xlsx files that are periodically downloaded and parsed.

## 3. Maritime data works on an honor system


Most information in maritime still originates from manual entry, and is maintained on an honor system that presumes you're being honest. AIS - the underlying technology for tracking vessels on their journeys - is self-reported, as is the data for any ports or offshore anchorages that aren't big enough to qualify for an UNLOCODE. The same vessel - or port - can have multiple names and attributes, and it's often hard to tell what the right information is.

Correct information turns out often to be the wrong way to think about this data, which needs to be cleaned and coalesced before it can be of any use. Some companies like Spire provide the valuable service of cleaning this data as they provide it, but the output can only be so clean.

What this means is that failure-tolerance and some level of probabilistic modelling need to be worked into any system that consumes maritime data. Some of our internal systems have already moved in this direction, using multiple data points to look for consensus with some level of confidence.

## 4. Maritime UX has yet to stabilize

Software interfaces in shipping have yet to find an equilibrium, with the fundamental interface primitives for the industry not having been designed yet. Like smartphones in the early 2000s, or ridesharing apps at the very beginning, interfaces are still experimental (or worse, ancient), with no real connection to the underlying information or the users in front of them.

Most interfaces in shipping look exactly like the things they replace - spreadsheets. This makes complete sense when attempting to replace a workflow built on spreadsheets, as it involves less training for users. However, this can also hold back progression, as it takes a fair few cycles of iteration before other primitives can take hold and perform on par or better.

We are taking a big risk by making the map our base primitive, and building a new interface for crew changes that relies on contextual visual representation - show not tell - and cutting down information when unnecessary. I wrote about button syndrome some time ago, which turned out to be quite polarising. Users are often split between power users who hate a loss of control, and others that would like less information overload on their screens.

 ![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/v2_7d04fb086b.webp) 
I expect these to be the formative years of shipping interfaces, and the companies formed this half-decade will be the ones defining it.

## 5. Maritime still needs reinventing the wheel

This is one of the biggest hurdles we've had to solve. Maritime is simply missing a lot of the base tooling that we take for granted in other fields.

A good example - among many - is routing. Most data in shipping is closely tied to a vessel's route, which can be a complex path between two ports. Ships prefer to use highways when possible, to avoid congestion and increase speeds in deeper water, which makes straight-line paths often the least efficient. Yet most platforms today still use straight lines to convert port calls to a route, or skip this process altogether.

Almost every company that does have routing has had to build it in-house, as have we. We might soon see startups that focus on these individual problems - as there already are - and try to deliver a general-purpose solution to each one. Further unbundling might be ahead of us.

Despite these problems, shipping can be an exciting place to work, for one big reason.

## Problems are exciting

Some of the most interesting problems are zero-to-one problems. It can be hard to get them right, and only time will confirm your hypotheses, but they allow for creative solutions that have the potential to redefine how we do things.

The problems of maritime are sometimes hard, but they are not new under the sun. They are the same problems faced by every industry as we try to find new ways to do things that were better than before. A path lined with just as many eureka moments as there are setbacks, I'm happy to be solving them every day. What has been repeatedly clear, is that there is not a boring day in sight for quite a while.



An examination of zero to one problems in maritime tech


Greywing User

Why there aren't many software firms in shipping

## For the first time

It was never on my mind to attend Posidonia. The first time it occurred to me was when Calypso, one of our collaborating partners at ATPI, mentioned it to me in March. Having never been to Posidonia before, I felt like I had to say yes. But my honest feeling was that it would be a week out of the office that could be spent better elsewhere. But that is life as a CEO: you take advice from people who have the experience and discount your own predilections, which tend towards doing the same thing and not rocking the boat.

![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/1image5.png)

So the die was cast, Hrishi, our CTO, and I were going to Greece and were going to make a week of it. I had imagined a relaxing 10 days with plenty of opportunities to take in some fascinating Greek history and perhaps even find the time to get away to one of the fabled Greek islands. It would be like a holiday but with a couple of meetings thrown in… I had started to warm up to the idea of getting away from it all.

## Did not see it coming

Arriving in Athens hit me pleasantly and gently. Wandering around some of the historical parts with beautifully crafted homes reminded me of Clifton Village in Bristol, a place that I had lived in for many years. It was relaxed, friendly, and had plenty of quirky cafes, and a panoply of shops, each one selling slightly more bric-a-brac than the last one. It made me silently thankful that I had left my girlfriend and her cat-like curiosity safely in Singapore.

![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/1image4.jpg)

I kicked off my trip with a visit to the ATPI office and spent some time with Nikos and Calypso. Together, we met some mutual clients and prospective customers. We also reviewed and broke down the progress of trials along with the deployment of Greywing. It was the first time I had met these people, and yet some of them I had known for years.  

The weekend hit and I had a stack of work ahead of me - prepping demonstration videos, reaching out to people I had promised to meet up with, and making sure that we had a game plan in place for the week to come.

Sunday arrived and I met my fellow Greywing team-mate, Meghna.  Hrishi had struggled to make it into Athens with scheduling conflicts and Meghna was starting work with us that week as ‘Head of Growth’ and I thought, “Why not get her out here?” She would learn more about the shipping industry in a week at Posidonia than she will in 6 months working at an office.

Meghna and I had a coffee catch-up, ran through some demonstrations, and then all by itself, slightly unbeknownst to us, Posidonia began.

## How it started

An early morning WhatsApp message popped up on my phone from one of our Investors, Shaun, at Motion Ventures. I suggested we meet for coffee in an hour and we rendez-vous’d at a secret cafe location.  We met in person for the first time and had a great catch-up, after which he invited me to join him for a quick bite with Marina from TMV later on in the day. Meeting Marina was like being inducted into a maritime startup family. Meghna was an hour into her job and we caught up with a whole host of people including Dhruv from Shipskart, Vasileios from VDK Capital, and Marina’s friend, Pam, who worked in Chartering in Cyprus. This unexpected bite turned into a 2-hour lunch and I think Meghna and I made our exit just in time for an early night and day one of Posidonia.

![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/1image3.png)

The plan was that Meghna would be on the stand that we were sharing with ATPI, Air France and KLM, while I would attend all the events and meetings with ship operators and owners. When I was not at meetings, then I would be at the stand.

## How it went

If you have not been to Posidonia… things are spread out over a wide geographical area. Many of the clients are based in Pireas, Maroussi, Glyfada and Vouliagmeni, while the event itself is in the North-East of Athens, near the airport. Everyone has meetings, everyone is busy, and what that means is you just have to make it happen. My strategy for shows is: early to bed, and early to rise. I would normally have a 9 AM appointment with a ship owner, after which I would either continue with appointments, or attend one of the many conferences at the expo. Then, at the end of the day, time allowed - I would hit the show to catch up with Meghna and the ATPI team at the booth.

![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/1image1.png)

Very few meetings happened for me at the show.  Meghna was invaluable, and I had many kind comments from clients talking about what a great job she had done of demoing Greywing (all in her first week 🙌🙏).  Meghna would run through the demo and then link me into an in-person meeting and discussion onsite usually later on in the week, and sometimes, even on the same day!

It was relentless. I was aided by relatively early nights (usually around midnight), but by Wednesday, I was feeling it, and there was a real pressure to pack in as much as possible. I had not counted on the 30-45 minutes it took to get around in planning, and this compressed the time we had left at Posidonia. But the hosts we met were very gracious - in some cases I was late, in other cases, I had to cut meetings short, and in one case I outright turned up without an appointment on the off-chance that they were free (they were, but I had to wait 30 mins). It was a really interesting comparison to working in Singapore or perhaps, Hamburg.  There was this air of spontaneity in the Greek shipping industry. I also noticed that meetings were faster, to-the-point, and more efficient. People make quick decisions (one way or the other) and there was an emphasis on getting things done.

It was as if there was an unspoken understanding that everyone was doing their best to make it happen and that made it really easy to work in a world of uncertainty, randomness and slim opportunities, which was also true of Posidonia. It was a really nice sensation.

I had a real sense of responsibility coming into Posidonia. Our engineering team had been working relentlessly on developing a cutting-edge digital product that automated crew changes. Something unique and something that was not widely known to the marketplace. I knew how good it was. And now it was built, the ball was firmly in my court to communicate that to the maritime world. The most advanced digital engineering to come into the world of crew changes would lie undiscovered if I did not get the message out there. I think I can safely say whilst there are lessons learned from this Posidonia for next time, Meghna and I left no stone unturned in our efforts to get our message out: Greywing automates crew changes, reduces Opex, and increases savings for anyone paying for, or managing a crew change.

![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/1image2.png)

## What next?

For Greywing, the impact of Posidonia was immediate: potential clients, trials confirmed, and trials completed to move into contracts. I asked one CEO of a ship management company if he would be happy to sign a contract at the end of the week (who doesn't like a bit of timely PR?)... his response was “We won’t move that quickly, but we will move.”

And that is Posidonia. Posidonia is where the relationships start and the business follows.

![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/1image6.png)

Thank you to ATPI for so kindly allowing us to share their stand, to the organizers of Posidonia, and to all of the maritime community who made the event such a special place to be.

untitled5.jpg

What Posidonia meant to me

![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/image3.jpg)



From packed exhibition stalls to traffic jams around the city center: my first week in shipping technology was wild beyond my expectations. Coming fresh out of an analyst role at an investment bank, I was thrust into a space where I was simultaneously speaking with VC investors, startup owners, CEOs of shipping companies, and crew managers - all on my literal first day at Greywing. I had to pinch myself multiple times to believe that it was happening (and to stay awake!)



![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/image1.png)



As a recent graduate coming out of a large corporation pretty early in her career, and more importantly, as a woman of colour, there are frankly a handful of moments that I can think back to where I felt like I had total control and simultaneously, total freedom over what I did. It sounds like an oxymoron, but this last week at Posidonia showed me that it was possible. Although, I do have to admit that it is both liberating and terrifying. It’s like an exercise of being given a point to get to, and empowering yourself to carve out your own path to get to it. There we stood, at a rooftop party or the expo - a mish-mash of jetlagged, shipping-affiliated individuals, all at different levels of experience and at different levels of English literacy - dreaming, philosophising, and debating about the future of maritime in the city that once was the birthplace of democracy. Pretty crazy, right? 



I would leave the debates on what technology is the most important to the likes of the Socratic and Aristotelian decision-makers, but you can trust me when I say that I truly came to see the Greywing value proposition at the conference. And so did several others. 

I thought I had done all the due diligence I needed to before I joined the startup. The product, the team, the market fit, the competitor landscape - everything seemed to come into a big picture. But at Posidonia, I got to see the problem statement come to life. You see, investors want to find a good company with an even better team, crew managers want to optimize their time spent on crew planning and voyage management, ship owners want to cut costs and increase transparency, and Nick, our Co-Founder, really wants to automate crew changes. When I list these stakeholder goals - it is easy to see how Greywing’s software is in the middle of all of them. But for me to come to that realisation on my own was an especially satisfying kind of Eureka moment. 

![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/image2.png)



The week did not come without its complications and hiccups. The overcrowding of wifi users meant that I could not demo a comprehensive crew change on my laptop. The upside of that? I got to demo it on my iPhone using my trusty e-sim data. If the software alone was not enough to impress crew managers, the ability to do it on a mobile app definitely was. One of the crew managers for a large Greek Shipowner immediately followed up to set up a meeting after remarking on the software’s versatility. I wish I could capture that reaction in a bottle and share it with the engineers that made that happen. Hrishi, our Co-Founder, and his team built this product from a few lines of code and it evoked such a visceral reaction in someone I had just met. Maybe next time I should strap a go-pro to my head to capture that. Although, I don’t think that people would have a very natural reaction to the demos anymore.

![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/image4.png)



I’m back in Singapore now, and to broadly summarise some takeaway thoughts on the role I have joined Greywing for - when I think about Growth, I think about getting Greywing to market. This is an incredible product and more companies can use it now. Our GTM strategy is going to evolve, just as the software did from v1.0 to v2.0, and I suppose that will also depend on how the product achieves levels of differentiation as we add new features. That means that we have some exciting ideas to turn the product into a complete end-to-end service, but we’ll save that announcement for the next blog post. ;) 

Sincerely, 

An inspired newbie to Tech and Maritime.

Reflections from a first week with Greywing, spent at the biggest shipping conference in the world

constantinos_kollias_yqbvjj8jgbq_unsplash_0521f6a233.jpg

Posidonia, First week at Greywing, and Growth!

# Team

Last year we had just finished our fundraise at 2.5 million USD coming out of Y-Combinator. With money in the bank our first objective was to hire a top-tier technical team to support our CTO, Hrishi.

I purposely put off hiring team members on the commercial side so that we could get the Engineering team right. That seems to have been a good decision; the speed at which we are moving on the back and front end is exciting. Since early 2022 we have been making huge strides on development.

We have 6 people in Greywing including myself, our CTO and 4 engineers. I was supported by a great Chief of Staff but he recently got snapped up by a Sovereign Wealth Fund.

That is the price you pay when you hire great people. They achieve great things at your business (and he did), but they also have great opportunities. The two of us were able to move extremely fast and we didn’t stop to put structure and systems in place. So when he got an offer to good to refuse, there was no redundancy in place.

Two is one, and one is none.

![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/two-is-one-one-is-none.gif)

A lesson from the military I should not be relearning.

But one of the upside is as the pace of technical innovation has increased our monthly burn has remained quite low - at this burn rate, we have Funds to see us into 2024.



# Product

We thought the product was great last year. But as I look at what the team have now built I realise how little we knew at the time about what was achievable.

I do not want to get into the product here before this turns into a marketing post. What I would say is we started carefully tracking and responding to User feedback around the accuracy, timeliness and user experience of how they consumed information.

We solved new problems for users, made our product simpler and more accurate. Now we are hiring a [Product Manager](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/greywing/jobs/WPJp4ud-product-manager) to run that process of customer feedback - analysis - iteration - building - release for the team as one of our most important hires.

As an aside, the Product Manager will complement the Head of Growth (already hired) and Customer Success Manager (final Interviews) that we have joining us. The idea is that they run the process of managing that iteration cycle with

🦸 The Head of Growth communicating to Users and Industry about what we have built

🙆 Our Customer Success Manager onboarding User and sourcing their feedback on works and what does not

🧑‍🏫 The Product Manager tying all of the feedback and user metrics we collect back into a final assessment of what the most valuable problem is that we can solve next and liaising with the engineering team to schedule it into the next sprint.

Once we have set that process up, we will look at someone coming in on the sales side. I really enjoy talking to customers and being at the heart of this business so I have written a pretty aggressive [job advert for an Account Executive to Lead Sales](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/greywing/jobs/rpBZCzh-account-executive). I wont give that responsibility up to the wrong person and I know the right person will read that job description and want to join us the next day.

No one can be told what Greywing is, you have to see it for yourself:

![No one can be told what Greywing is, you have to see it for yourself.](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/unfortunately-no-one-can-be-told-what-greywing-is-you-have-to-see-it-for-yourself.jpeg "Perhaps showing my age with these memes...")

Greywing version two is on the cusp of being released, I wont talk about it here - you need to see it for your self.



# Integrations

#### No Software is an island.

The biggest obstacle to - and reason for -  success Greywing has is integrations. What we see is clients, existing vendors and software providers slow walk the integration process or flat out refuse to do it.

I think this is for two reasons.

The first reason is that they perceive us as a threat.

They see us inserting ourselves as a digital layer between them and their clients and they do not like it. I understand this. It is hard to counter because it is a trust issue, and trust is built over time. What I would say is I have seen people change their opinions of us. Just last week a travel management company said to us they were open to collaborating because they realised we do not sell tickets.

Secondly, for software vendors such as crewing ERPS, perhaps they would quite like to do what we are doing. Or what we do is on their roadmap in future. The problem is their clients want the Greywing solution now and we see clients asking Software vendors who otherwise wont integrate with us to open APIs for us. It would be helpful to all if we could collaborate and help the industry evolve.

We very carefully chose a space within the industry where we would have no competition:

When your clients tell you to put the price up, you know its a good deal:

![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/will-ferrell-great-deal.jpeg)

1. We don’t provide crewing software.

2. We don’t sell flight tickets.

3. We don’t provide port agency services.

What Greywing does is provide a single easy to use platform to help our clients integrate their supply chain to operate more efficiently and to introduce digitisation into their businesses.

We work for the ship operator and they pay us a very reasonable monthly fee.

We have built some relationships with very permissive Crewing ERPs that are keen to get to market. Much of the industry is not digitised and we are recommending them wherever we can to help our clients reach their digital future. To anyone running a Crewing ERP please feel free to reach out to us, we love to collaborate and we do so for free, no commissions or integration fees.

The way most companies give referrals:

![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/no-commission.gif "When people always want a commission...")

No software is an island, having software that does not integrate with others is like having a Nokia 3210. Sure you can make a call with it but you are never going to book an Uber.

If you know you know - living my best life as a 16 year old.  But it couldn't book an Uber:

![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/nokia-snake.webp)

Perhaps their view will shift once we have been present in the industry for longer and as clients ask for us to be integrated.

There is a new generation of interoperable Maritime Software that is coming to the fore (less of an Island more of an Archipelago). They see their competitive advantage to unseat existing incumbents being in their ability easily plug into other systems so clients can do what they wish with the software they buy instead of being channeled into long-term mediocrity. So we will see how things play out.



# Summary

It has been an awesome year building Greywing and I want to say a big thank you to everyone who supported us from clients, to Users to our team members. It is so exciting to be moving so fast in a traditional slow to move industry and it is a cool adventure to be on. We are hiring [here](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/greywing) so if you love our mission and want to contribute let us know.



> Mission: What Greywing does is integrates your digital and physical vendors so we can automate anything that gets on or off a vessel, excluding cargo.
>
> Right now we are starting with Crew Changes.

If you would like to stay in the loop with what we do, reach us here.
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Notes one year on from raising at Y-Combinator

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What I think about, when I think about Crew Changes 2/2022

## 23 Hours.

In my first business, we protected ships from piracy.

23 hours.

That was the fastest we had ever mobilised a security team for deployment, from client request received to the team stepping onto the vessel, in Galle, Sri Lanka in 2013. Whilst we had to consider the intricacies of moving firearms between countries, maritime security team mobilisation was easier then conducting a crew change, there were no experience matrices, crew planning requirements to match an On-signer with an Off-signer, but the core elements of a crew change were there.

1. Vessels eta
2. Flights availability
3. Port Agents
4. Qualified personnel with in date qualifications
5. Vessel deviation and resulting “fast ball” scenarios like the above

For our operations team their daily routine was nailing down these variables for every security task that came in and giving the commercial team a go/no go response. It was fast paced exciting and inevitably we all experienced “Marsec Fridays” or the deluge of requests that would hit our desks just as commercial teams finalised charters before the weekend and the vessel security requirements would make their way to us for execution.

#### Toying with Technology

I had read some nascent books on technology at the time and their impact in business operations ([one called the Launchpad was a signpost to my life ten years in to the future](https://www.amazon.com/Launch-Pad-Inside-Combinator/dp/1591846587)) and I had always thought that much of the process of what we were actioning could be automated.

Booking flight tickets, issuing quotations, contracts, tracking the vessel on Marine Traffic, staying in touch with the master and the port agent via email to monitor the vessels eta - in none of these physical actions were my team adding any value. It was simply the fastest way to do it.

Where my team did add value was in the human factor.

1. Relationships with our Security Operators
2. Forming the teams that deployed on vessels to achieve the right blend of personalities.
3. Problem solving and crisis management

We proactively invested in technology and had a guy come into the office to build a system for us. The outcome was that he spent 4 weeks in the office learning all about what we did and writing some code, and then he left and we never heard from him again. Apparently what we did was too complicated. We dismissed technology as something best left to Uber and Airbnb but beyond the comprehension of a team of knuckle-dragging former Marines.

That was in 2013 and following that our process did not evolve. We emailed the travel agent, called the port agent and kept asking the master for regular updates to their eta by email and we would phone him up if he didn’t respond.

We were trapped in the 1990s. Why did we keep operating that way?

#### Natural Selection

Did I not have a vision where maritime security teams could be automated in terms of deployment, increasing efficiency, seamlessly dispatching Security Escort Vessels in West Africa and maximising efficiency, cost-savings and profitability within the industry?

Well the truth was, vision or no vision, the easiest way to solve these administrative problems was to hire people to administer them. It was the easiest option.

And in doing so we selected ouselves out of evolution.

It was also the option that would lead to the companies downfall and eventual squeezing out a a mid-tier player as the industry commoditised.

Initially cheaper security personnel, and then cheaper operations personnel came into the industry. We could not sustain our margins and we had to re-focus on lower volume high margin tasks such as oil & gas contracts and Superyachts.

Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, I can see how the careful application of technology could have led to us becoming the dominant player.

### 28th February 2020

“Are there any other problems you guys are dealing with at the moment?” I asked one of the Company Security Officers at leading Singapore based ship management company.

“Well now that you mention it, we have a lot of crew trapped on Vessels. We have not been able to do a Crew Change since January (2020). We are hoping things will improve by the beginning of April” he replied.

It was the 23rd of March 2020 and I had flown back to Singapore from the UK a couple of weeks prior, the only person on the flight wearing a N95 Mask that I had picked up from a Builders merchants in Southampton before I left.

I felt a little odd, but my girlfriend had begged me to be cautious as she had just emerged out of 14 days stay at home notice after a trip to China and didn’t want to risk me infecting her and getting us both locked down for 21 days in Singapore. (As she mentioned... given the eventual pandemic this proved to be just another strong indicator that my girlfriend is always right; ) )

I was doing the rounds talking to different CSO’s about maritime security and our new platform Greywing that could plug them into security resources in the piracy hotspots the Gulf of Aden and the Gulf of Guinea, when they mentioned Crew Changes.

Over the next few months I felt like I was re-learning many of the lessons of my days operating a maritime security company, except this time all of the problems were harder, because crew changes are much harder to manage then security teams, and furthermore they were complicated by Covid.

Before COVID being a Crew Manager was a hard job, but manageable. After COVID it became next to impossible.

The number one obstacle to crew changes was a combination of accurate information on port and immigration restrictions, blended with the ability to receive timely updates when the data changed as it did on a regular basis. Crew managers were chasing a combination of agency reports, port state restrictions, flight restrictions, flight availability and crew health and readiness updates - it was overwhelming.

When we talked with them about how they found the information we were met with a host of responses, online maps provided by port agents, daily emails from their suppliers but in all cases this information conflicted with one another, it was hard to isolate what was true and what was not true. An entire crew change planned around a single data point could be cancelled at the last minute, it was a situation in constant flux.

It raised the question,

### “Why can’t crew managers have the information that they need to make a decision on a crew change, at their finger tips, any time they want it?”

Chasing agents, talking to travel agents, emailing the master for updates on etas and researching different sources of data does not add any value to a crew managers day - if there is an easier way to do it.

I suspect the tasks that add value within crewing are similar to those I managed during my time in security.

The performance of either a vessel or a security team is primarily down to human factors.

1. How good are your people?
2. How well trained are they?
3. Do they have a close relationship with the team ashore who are managing them?
4. Do they know who to reach out to in an emergency?
5. Do they feel like they operate in a safe space to pass feedback to management to improve company performance?

I always said that in security we look for the qualities of competence and humility.

How are you meant to develop that awareness and build that relationship with your team if you do not have time to talk to your people?

That is what Greywing is all about. Automating the mundane, low value/high effort tasks so that Crew Managers can focus on the high value tasks.

The human tasks.


If you would like to stay in the loop with what we do, reach us here.

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Maritime security, digitisation and what you can do in 23 hours, how we ended up solving Crew Changes

galle-fort-sri-lanka.jpeg

What I think about, when I think about Crew Changes 1/2022

What a horrible word... “travelling salesman” a phrase that conjures up an image of someone trying to sell you automobile polish on your doorstep or something equally questionable, unrelated to your current needs and available somewhere else at half the price with more convenience.

Possibly the worst title one could start an article on Linkedin with 😉

![greywing-crew-changes-ceo](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/greywings-travelling-salesman.png "Greywing's travelling salesman")

And I get it. I am a horrible person to sell to. If an email is not immediately relevant to my needs I Command K - Block (thanks [Superhuman](https://superhuman.com/)). I do it without even thinking. Maybe 2.5-5% of incoming emails get any consideration and maybe a third of those get a response.

So when I am emailing people and some one does not get back to me, I get it. It is likely a waste of their time and mine and they are doing me a favour.

But despite that, do you know what, there is one thing I experience doing sales that is hard to find elsewhere in the business. It is hard to describe. 

I would call it meeting a fellow believer.

And that is going to mean different things to different people across the vast spectrum of humans out there.

What it means to me, is I meet some who cares, they question the status quo, and they know that the way things are now are a hangover from history. Like the feeling you get when someone gives you a business card and its got a fax number on it. 😬It happened the other day, I rang a guy up to pitch Greywing and I had thought twice about it. Whilst this guy ( a Head of Crewing for a 70 vessel company in the tanker market) had signed up to a demo version of Greywing 2 years ago he had never responded to any of my emails… for two years.

Emails like…

“Oh have you heard about how we automate crew changes…” or

“…did you know we have this brand new Port Agent integrated…”

perhaps "... and you can compare prices for crew changes between different ports in just a few seconds..."

…I would opine, and not a whisper back.



This guy appeared to me as interested in Greywing as much as my imaginary cat Aristotle was a fan of vegan cat food.

When he picked up I stumbled through my... ‘Hello, its Nick from Greywing we digitise crew...” 

He immediately cut me off. Dead.

And then he continued;

“Yes Nick! we have been emailing for a while haven’t we! I know Greywing well, I signed up really early on and it would be great to hear more about it.”

A few days later I was sat in his office reminiscing about the days of anti-piracy, which had played a part in both of our careers, and listening to this Head of Crewing tell me why he thought Greywing was such a good idea. He had grasped the vision and he expanded on it.

It was the best day of my trip. When you hear someone, who is a subject matter expert in their field, praise & engage with an idea that your team have nurtured for months it is the most rewarding feeling.

All those days when you ask yourself whether you are chewing glass based on your own whims and fancies and are you completely barking the wrong tree are vindicated when you meet someone who is a true believer in your vision and your product and just wants to see it implemented.

Because it is good for them, their crew and the industry.

And then, just like that; it stops.

It is time to get back to work to deliver the vision, prepare for the deployment and to email the next human who might not get back to you for two years.

Yet they will meet you on that lonely highway of innovation and entrepreneurship to start a common journey out of the maritime dark ages.

A journey into a world without business cards with fax numbers.

If you would like to stay in the loop with what we do, reach us here.

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Another milestone in building Greywing and changing Crew Changes.

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The best thing about being a travelling salesman

When I look back at 2021, it is hard to put it into words.

TLDR;

* Y-Combinator
* Raised US$ 2.5M
* Built an amazing team

Background: I moved to Singapore in 2019 to join a start up incubator, met Hrishi, started Greywing trying to optimise where shipping companies sourced their maritime security suppliers from in the Indian Ocean and West Africa. Then COVID happened and we realised that we could help our clients find out where and when to conduct crew changes. ([More here](https://blog.grey-wing.com/the-greywing-story.html)).

![1323A2DD-951E-4EF0-87E8-5BA84DEFF6D8.JPG](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/1323a2dd-951e-4ef0-87e8-5ba84deff6d8.jpg.jpg)

One of 120 hopefuls at the Entrepreneur First Kick Off Weekend. I would not meet Hrishi for a few weeks.

This time last year it was still Hrishi and I.

A year later, at night between 12-4am we were participating in the [Y-Combinator](https://www.ycombinator.com/) program and during the day we were working on the product and recruiting new clients. It was challenging managing the sleep deprivation and balancing that with client meetings. It was just one of those times where you pencil in working Saturdays as standard and allocate an hour off each day to get outside (Although I am not going to lie a lot of those YC calls passed midnight I took tucked up in bed, and the second they finished I rolled over and went to sleep).

I realised I had to develop extra work capacity. Many times in my military career I could work through a 24 or 48 hour period without sleep, it was no big deal. At 39 I was no longer as resilient, I was also doing less outdoor exercise because I spent so much time working which militated against endurance.

I listened to the [Huberman podcast](https://hubermanlab.com/) and started following his protocols on [Morning Routines and supplementation](https://hubermanlab.com/using-science-to-optimize-sleep-learning-and-metabolism/). I would start the mornings with a walk in the sun and in the evenings I would be consuming industrial-strength amounts of Magnesium.

I started the ketogenic diet as I found it gave me more balanced focus and work capacity (it feels like my brain operates about 15% faster) through out the day and that when I was on it I would have this overwhelming urge to sleep from 10pm onwards naturally wake up between 3.30-6am. The second my eyes opened my brain switched on and I was unable to continue sleeping. Before that I was struggling to get past those early morning lie-ins! I found a normal diet with carbohydrates increased my propensity to work into the night and to be hungover with sleep-deprivation the next day (nowadays I cycle into Keto for 3 months and out for a 2 week break).

The other thing I found was an inability to switch off whilst working all hours. During YC there was a small workload in the evenings after midnight and as time went on I found myself running investor meetings either between 10-1am or from 6am until 11am (Our investors were typically in Silicon Valley or New York). I would come of the evening calls absolutely wired having been delving into the depths of our business and I found I needed something like 30 minutes to an hour of watching Netflix just to put my brain back into neutral before I could fall asleep.

Having had an investor sign a term sheet with us and ghost us on the investment, in 2019 we took a scorched earth approach to raising investment. We closed investment offers as soon as we could on [SAFE notes](https://www.ycombinator.com/documents/). We gained momentum quickly and by [YC’s Demo day](<https://www.ycombinator.com/demoday#:~:text=Twice%20a%20year%2C%20Y%20Combinator's,read%20our%20Demo%20Day%20FAQ.)>)[](<https://www.ycombinator.com/demoday#:~:text=Twice%20a%20year%2C%20Y%20Combinator's,read%20our%20Demo%20Day%20FAQ.)>) we had raised US$ 600K out of a total of US$ 2 million. It was great going into Demo day with that much momentum and from that point on there was no doubt that we would raise. It took another 4 weeks to close out the raise, but then it was done and we were just coming into June. In the end we had raised US$ 2.5 million.

After fund-raising, we prioritised hiring the development team first. We set the standards for who we would hire as high as we could and I can say that we have managed to find incredible people to work for us. Even now, a year after YC started we only have a team of 8 where other companies our stage might have 20-40.

We took the view that we wanted to partner with people for the long term. The key criteria we recruited people on was humility and competence but we also had to like them! I have heard people say that “You have to work with people you don’t like” in the past, but I have not found that to be true. If someone is humble and competent I have always found it possible to develop a strong mutual working relationship.

My biggest fear when we recruit someone into Greywing, is that the rest of the team will think I have done a bad job, that I have bought someone into the fold that is not going to deliver and that they will have to carry.

If we have any doubts about someone, we don’t hire them. I think this is 100% the right way to hire. This approach may not be scalable but we have to make sure the core team of 10-15 people are the type of people that we want to work with. When we get to 150 people - as they grow and evolve through Greywing - the people they hire will reflect their values.

If I could change one thing about last year, it would be hiring. I would spend more time on it to bring in more talented Team Members. And this leads me onto, at least my, current weakness.

Hrishi and I are [Zero to One](https://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/0804139296) entrepreneurs. Of that I have no doubt, we have both originated multiple projects from nothing.

We can come into a space, build a product, solve the (right) problem and develop a solution.

This is the biggest obstacle to us making it to the next level. To build a scalable business we have to evolve beyond the day-to-day and look up and out into the future of the company.

That is what we need to achieve to move from 1X-100X in 2022, and why we are building a Team around us that we trust with our lives.

I have not touched on what we do. We solve a hard problem; digitising maritime Crew Changes.

But that is a story for another day.

An overview of 2021 at Greywing through the eyes of Nick, our CEO

screenshot-2022-01-28-073437.jpg

Greywing Year in Review - 2021

[Greywing](https://grey-wing.com), has raised a US$2.5M seed round to accelerate its operating system for the maritime industry with a new carbon scoring solution, which will give organisations visibility on the carbon impact of crew changes.

Investors participating in this round include Flexport, Transmedia Capital, Signal Ventures, Motion Ventures, Rebel Ventures, Y-Combinator, Entrepreneur First and more.

“The factors impacting a maritime voyage have grown in complexity with climate change and COVID-19 being thrown into the mix, and Greywing’s traction is accelerating to match the pace of these evolving challenges. This strategic raise will be critical to supercharge that growth by anchoring our capabilities around what the industry needs most right now,” said Nick Clarke, Chief Executive Officer at Greywing.

Until now, the only way for shipping companies to assess their carbon impact is after a vessel has completed a crew change. Greywing is the first platform that enables vessel operators to proactively make decisions based on real-time data to minimise the carbon impact of their crewing operations before they take action.  

35% of maritime emissions are unrelated to the operations on a vessel, these come from flights and other down-the-line costs in the operating supply chain, which are not currently tracked by the industry. The carbon impact of using Greywing for a single vessel is equivalent to taking 274 cars off the road every year.

Greywing’s real-time carbon scoring solution is the only holistic way to see how decisions around shore-based operations, flight bookings for the crew, deviation of voyage routes and more will impact a shipping company's carbon emissions. 

![](https://greywing-blog-static.s3.amazonaws.com/greywing_full-2.jpg)

The launch comes after the recent release of Greywing’s Crew Change tool, which gives shipping companies timely visibility on how COVID-19 requirements at each port will impact their crew resourcing because of restrictions specific to nationalities or travel activity.

“We are in a unique position as one of a handful of companies with enough digital data and technology to aid real-time decision making in ship operations. Our aim is to improve efficiency across carbon, threat and cost verticals by improving decisions as they're made, instead of after the fact,” said Hrishi Olickel, Chief Technology Officer at Greywing.

“Our oceans form the backbone of the world’s trade corridors and the only way to keep them open is with timely insights to bring down the carbon impact of the maritime supply chain. Greywing is taking this mission further by giving crewing teams the ability to proactively plan where and when they can minimise the carbon impact of a crew change,” said Shivas Kapoor, Head of Crewing, Hafnia.

“Greywing is one of the few - if only - companies with the right nexus of information and technology to be able to influence ship operations as they happen in real-time. If the maritime industry gets better at decision-making and surviving systemic shocks like pandemics and climate instability, it will be through tools like theirs,” said Chris Redlitz, Founder of Transmedia Capital.

“The maritime industry has entered a new era where data and analytics supercharge actionable digital solutions. Greywing integrates data trapped in commercial, technical and crewing siloes to enable more efficient and sustainable operations for shipping companies. We are excited about the data synergies between our companies,” said Nikolas Pyrgiotis, VP of Technology Ventures for Signal Group.

Greywing, has raised a US$2.5M seed round to accelerate its operating system for the maritime industry with a new carbon scoring solution, which will give organisations visibility on the carbon impact of crew changes.

capture.png

Greywing raises $2.5M seed round; launches new solution to track the carbon footprint of seafarers not yet captured by vessel operators

We have a brief update for you today, but a big one...

We have implemented an update to the platform that color-codes whether nationalities can change at a port subject to immigration restrictions.

It is a way to rapidly assess hundreds of Crew Change options in seconds to focus on the ones you can make happen.

And we look at all ports of call along a route, you can set the proximity, 20 or 60 miles - it is up to you.

You get to see a clear-cut overview of where the specific nationalities that need to do a crew change can get on and off.

In the below example the platform assessed crew changes at 42 ports within a 60 Nautical Mile radius of the voyage.  [You can see the live report by logging into the platform here.](https://dashboard.grey-wing.com/intel/report/0e262bd0-fafb-11eb-8a58-318f09bcf246)

​![](https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/374818238/1a0cb3364d561af541dceae1/Screenshot+2021-08-12+at+7.15.57+AM.png)​

If you want to search for flights at that location just click "*Add port to Route*" and redo the search.

​![](https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/374818691/cd6c0eac52004809b1b6bf93/Screenshot+2021-08-12+at+7.18.36+AM.png)​

Then we deliver flight options from ATPI or your chosen flight provider in a couple of seconds.

​![](https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/374819236/3b3b5c52115efabd17962bee/Screenshot+2021-08-12+at+7.21.19+AM.png)​

Finally, if you need to share this information with owners or charterers, you can either save the report and generate a link in the Top Right-hand corner:

​![](https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/374819819/96c8914a8b436e8772781010/Screenshot+2021-08-12+at+7.24.32+AM.png)​

 Or you can download an Excel Spreadsheet:

​![](https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/374819978/3d14e10a4ba17cc1af7e9dfe/Screenshot+2021-08-12+at+7.25.26+AM.png)​

We just had a whole host of feedback from Clients on things they want us to improve so you can expect to see some more updates from us soon!

Have a great week.

Proximity Changes, downloadable spreadsheets, UI changes

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