Environmental Entrepreneurship and Water Quality Monitoring

Last quarter, I took a class called Environmental Entrepreneurship. In this class, we had to come up with a sustainable business idea, create a business plan for it, and come up with a five-minute pitch video to present to the class. I worked with a team to come up with a remote water quality monitoring system and was in charge of developing the marketing strategy for our device. This was a great experience for me because it showed me that even though I was ignorant of the technical and scientific aspects of our pitch, I was still able to provide value and help our team in important ways.

Personal Importance

This project was important to me because it capitalized on two of the most important aspects of my life; environmentalism and entrepreneurship. To be able to combine the two in a class was incredible, and made me realize how viable of a career path sustainable entrepreneurship is for me. I had always assumed that I lacked the technical knowledge to pursue sustainable entrepreneurship, but this project taught me that my business and interpersonal skills are just as valuable in the sustainability sphere as other’s technical merits.

Tasks Accomplished

Created a five-minute video pitch for our idea. We used presentation and animation software to pitch our business, and each of us played a role in presenting the actual pitch.
Created a simple business plan that outlined what our product did, our value proposition, our proposed customer segments, and our proposed revenue structures.
Came up with marketing solutions for both B2B and B2C sides of our company, identifying key partners and networks through which we could begin distribution.
I took the lead on business-related tasks and was self-aware enough to leave technical and scientific research and explanation up to those team members better qualified.

Leadership Competencies Gained

Scope of Competence This experience taught me that even though I may not be the most competent team member in all areas, as long as I can provide value and lead in a part of the system I can contribute to the success of the project as a whole. This was difficult for me to realize at first, as I always thought a leader has to be the leading authority on all areas of a project. But by creating a company that was based on science and technology that I did not understand, and still being able to add value by being an authority in my own domain, I realized that it is ok to delegate and let others lead in areas where you may not have all the answers.

Idea Generation This class really pushed us to think outside the box, which I have always done fairly well but never in a structured manner. Going through the process of identifying environmental pain points, figuring out why they are not addressed yet, and then coming up with solutions that people and companies would actually be willing to implement was a great experience. In addition to coming up with my own ideas, I was able to observe my teammates’ ideation processes and gained some valuable insight into creative methods other than my own.

Other's Contributions By working with a multi-talented and interdisciplinary team, I was able to see how important it is for people to work within their scope of competence and utilize their skills in the most efficient manner. We had two marine biologists, two computer scientists, and me, an international relations and entrepreneurship major. We all quickly fell into the roles we were best suited for, and we also quickly realized that there were certain gaps that needed filling, such as an electrical engineer. We were able to get around these gaps in our skillset for the class project, but we all acknowledged that we would need to fill them if we were to take the project further.

Verbal Communication I’ve always been a natural orator, and public speaking has come easy to me. I was in plays in high school and have no problem presenting in front of large groups, and usually end up taking the primary presentation role in projects. However, with this project, everyone in the group had a part to play when pitching our idea, and it was extremely beneficial to observe others’ methods of preparing for public speaking, especially those who were not as comfortable with it. I was able to impart some public speaking advice and offer several techniques, which my team was thankful for.

Organization As the only member of the team who had worked in a startup scenario before, I oversaw setting up our organizational and communication structures. I created our Slack channels for communication, our Clickup workspace for project management, and most of the final presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint. Keeping our communication efficient and on track in order to meet our project milestones was something I felt very comfortable doing.

Future Orientation

This was another experience that showed me how much I enjoy working with small teams in a startup scenario, and one that inspired me to get involved with projects that may be outside my scope of competence. Knowing that I can do what I love in regards to entrepreneurship while contributing to the health of our planet is an incredible revelation, and one that I believe will heavily influence my career. I plan on pursuing environmental entrepreneurship outside of the classroom during my remaining time at UW and will continue to look for projects where I can add value, even if my hard-skill set is not directly applicable on the face of the project.