We’re shining a light on the incredible tech talent right here in Victoria, B.C. Through our Community Spotlight series, we’ll be profiling some of the amazing organizations, innovators, and startups that are helping shape the future of technology on the island and beyond. From cutting-edge software to impactful social enterprises, stay tuned as we celebrate the people and ideas driving our local tech scene forward.
Today, we’re featuring Scott Beatty, CEO of MarineLabs.
Marine Labs CEO Scott Beatty on a Hullo ferry.
How would you explain what your company does to someone outside your industry?
MarineLabs builds and deploys sensors that light up coastlines with real-time data. Our sensors collect high resolution, hyper-local real-time wind, wave, and weather information and forecasts and deliver it on a subscription basis. Port operators, vessel pilots, coastal engineers and others use this data to make smarter, safer decisions.
Unlike traditional data buoys, which are large, expensive, and hard to deploy—requiring ship time with cranes and multiple crew—our sensor nodes are compact, self-contained, and rapidly deployable. Our customers don’t need to manage deployments, procure or maintain data buoys, or rely on government agencies or apps to fill weather data gaps. They simply subscribe to MarineLabs.
What inspired you to start this company?
I grew up on Vancouver Island in a family that always supported my curiosity, especially when it came to taking things apart to see how they worked and designing and building things. I spent most of my time designing and building model planes, boats, rockets, and soapbox cars. And when I wasn’t building, I was outside in the ocean.
I studied mechanical engineering at UBC, and at first, I thought I’d go into aerospace, but I realized I wanted my work to have more real-world, immediate impact. That’s what drew me to ocean wave energy. During my PhD at UVic, I got to design and test wave energy converters in labs across Canada and Europe.
After that, I worked in a consulting firm specializing in ocean wave energy. But we kept running into the same issue: we didn’t have good enough data to validate coastal models. So in 2017, I started MarineLabs to solve that problem. We began by building small wave buoy technology and kept refining it, with help from great mentors and colleagues from UVic.
What’s been the toughest technical or strategic challenge so far—and how did you overcome it?
One of the biggest technical challenges has been moving from prototype to a truly dependable, sensor designed for long-term data collection. Most engineers can get a sensor into the ocean, but designing one that is reliable enough for global port operations in tough coastal conditions like BC, with built-in redundancy to make sure our data feeds are continuous. That’s another level of engineering. It’s taken extensive testing, iteration, and fieldwork to get it right, and it’s ongoing.
Strategically, a major turning point was learning to let go of assumptions. We launched MarineLabs with a clear vision, but early feedback showed us we needed to listen more. We initially prioritized wave data, but customers told us wind was equally as important. That kind of feedback has fundamentally shaped our priorities. It’s easy to chase new shiny ideas, but staying focused is what allows us to provide the most value.
What are you most proud of?
Personally, I’m most proud of my amazing daughter who has completed second year at McGill in Architecture and she’s crushing it. Business wise, I’m really proud of how far we’ve come as a team of smart, talented people who are growing with us and building their careers on the belief of the MarineLabs mission.
How has being based in Victoria shaped your company’s culture, product, or business model?
Being based in Victoria has shaped MarineLabs in a fundamental way. I grew up on the Island, and the ocean’s always been a part of my life—I’ve been surfing here for about 25 years. That connection to the coast is what sparked the idea for MarineLabs. When you spend that much time in the ocean, you develop real respect for it, and want to protect it.
That perspective runs through our company culture. We look for people who love the ocean and care about safeguarding it. Our team includes surfers, sailors, and paddlers, people who are genuinely passionate about the ocean.
As we’ve grown, we’ve been intentional about our values: we’re humble, hungry, and work smart. Safety always comes first. We don’t risk people, and we don’t put profit ahead of the planet. We’re building something meant to last, and to make coastlines safer. Victoria is the right place for that. It attracts the kind of people who care about the work and the mission.
What would make Victoria an even stronger tech hub?
Victoria has all the ingredients: talent, funding, lifestyle, and a strong base of experienced founders, academics, and researchers. But a lot of that happens in parallel rather than together.
What would make it stronger is more connection between all the different parts of the ecosystem, startups, established companies, researchers, NGOs, government, First Nations partners. We need more spaces that pull those threads together and create more opportunities. COAST is a great start, and I’d love to see more of that kind of cross-pollination. We’re not missing talent or capacity, but we could all benefit from more connectivity.
What is Victoria tech’s biggest hidden secret?
There are a lot of insanely talented and experienced gurus living here that have created world-changing businesses and innovations. And often they are more than willing to share their time and expertise. Go out and find them.