Rimot
Welcome to The Pivot series, where we celebrate the resilience and innovation of Atlantic Canadians entrepreneurs who adapted tremendously to face the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. We asked business leaders from across the region to tell us in their own words how they navigated the new economy and the lessons they learned along the way. Here is what one entrepreneur had to say.
Andrew Boswell
Rimot
Prior to the pandemic, we were working on the market rollout across the US and Canada for our first service on the Rimot platform, RimotRF. We had begun working on our second service for marine vessels. Our team was in the office every day when not travelling to trade shows and customers. As we began seeing the major impacts of the pandemic around the world, we quickly advanced planning and preparation and we were able to seamlessly transition to working virtually. What we didn’t plan was how many jobs would be lost and how this would affect our operations.
We were able to identify a new path to market and, during discussions with many customers and partners across the US and Canada, we discovered an urgent pandemic-fueled need for safer and faster entry screening for employees entering their workplaces. In 16 weeks, what we now call RimotHEALTH went from concept to being launched as our second product on the Rimot platform.
As things progressed, we had to ask ourselves if we wanted to pursue the advancement and investments in RimotHEALTH or revert to the original plan of launching a global oceantech product. While we are still supporting RimotHEALTH, in 2021 we chose to refocus on our original plan for our product for marine vessels. We are focused on the shift of near-shore vessels that are going electric for all the same reasons that vehicles are going electric on land. We are specifically focused on bringing software intelligence for vessel-to-grid to unlock the full environmental and financial value of those batteries among vessel owners and electrical grids.
The key to our survival and adaptability is really listening to our clients and partners. They are the best sounding board during uncertain times such as this. Their support, insight and trust allowed us to accomplish impressive things even when faced with such a challenge.