Seait Startup Journey: The First Client, Growth Challenges, and What’s Next
The Beginning – Landing the First Client
In 2019, a friend of mine who worked at Gyssestad BĂĄtforening, a harbor in Asker, told me about an opportunity to optimize their workflow. His manager suggested a visual map-based system for organizing boats in winter storage, which could make things way more efficient. Since there already was one paying client lined up, it would be profitable from the start. Plus, we figured other harbors had the same problem, meaning there was potential for growth, so after building the first version of Seait for Gyssestad, we decided to start a business together to expand.
This project showed me the benefit of having a network of people in different industries when searching for potential problems to solve. I would not have discovered this potential problem on my own, and because the people in my network already knew and trusted me, I got the opportunity to build a solution even if I didn't have a large portfolio of similar projects already.
Status Now
We’re currently profitable, and the system is running at Gyssestad Båtforening in Asker. But expanding has been more difficult than expected.
In 2024, our sales team—who has a network of harbor managers in the Viken region—started reaching out, inviting to demos, and trying to sell the solution we already had running at Gyssestad. The response from truck drivers and harbor employees has been promising, but convincing the managers to change their workflow and bring in Seait has been more challenging than we initially thought.
At first, my role was purely development, but in January 2025, I started focusing on sales strategy as well. We needed full effort to grow. Instead of just selling what we’ve built, I’ve been reaching out to harbors across Norway from a market research perspective, asking what software they currently use and if they have any pain points in their workflow to find new potential directions for our platform
What’s Next
This year, we’re testing different strategies to get potential leads. If we don’t see traction in the harbor industry, we’ll look elsewhere—maybe another field where our network gives us a way in.