Today’s guest is Charles Chiau, Chiau is the CEO, CTO, and Co-Founder of Bedrock. His solid background of more than 15 years in piloting and building vehicle systems, on land, sea, air, or space for big names like SpaceX is the cornerstone for Bedrock’s mission of bringing the secrets the ocean hides, closer to the minds and hearts of people.
A Very Much Needed Question
Bedrock has been around for over 4 years and a half, it’s a public benefit corporation (PBC) and it works to create technologies capable of solving a mystery that has been lurking in humankind for too long. What exactly is happening in our oceans? How can we better understand the world beneath those huge water masses? What sort of information do people need to make more informed decisions?
One Goal, A Long List of Benefits
Bedrock proposes to solve those questions with a data-first approach so the marine survey experience can be positively reframed. Now, that’s pretty awesome on its own, however, what makes Bedock's value proposition so unique it’s that they share the information with the public.
This sort of data is crucial to developing better and more accurate climate models, having higher levels of precision in weather forecasting, and promoting sustainable ocean exploration, and that’s only a part of the benefits.
The Right Vision, The Right Time
Chaiu tells us something essential about entrepreneurship and perhaps more precise, about social entrepreneurship, the ideals, the intentions that drive a person to believe that they can leave a good legacy to the world might not radically change during their life, the circumstances, on the other hand, are key to determining if it’s indeed the right time to act upon those dreams.
In the case of Bedrock, we live in a world that’s constantly surrounded by the imperious need to make unexpected decisions, problems might arise at any moment, at any location, transforming data into part of our most pivotal times. So why not put data at the reach of everyone who needs it?
A New Approach for Marine Surveys
Traditionally, marine surveys are carried out by a combination of huge ships and a team of people. These ships would go underwater with a sonar and remain there for as long as the data-collection process takes. Naturally, this is time-consuming and demands the use of large amounts of energy. That’s where Bedrock comes in.
Engineering AUVs-Autonomous underwater vehicles, portable devices precisely designed to move with ease anywhere underwater. Saving time, obtaining accurate real-time data, and protecting marine life in the same process might sound too good to be true, but that’s what Bedrock does. Their AUVs can seamlessly obtain real-time data from the seafloor minimizing the impact on the environment.
The Next Steps
Bedrock is ready to keep moving, the horizon for their vision is filled with opportunities like the expansion to new markets, testing their limits into different projects, and discovering more effective ways to gather data. Chiau is very specific on this. You can’t build a solution, without knowing first what’s the problem. But beyond the business goals, there’s an undeniable quota of idealism and social values that work to share the information gathered. Ultimately, to make knowledge completely accessible.
Focus on your Dreams, as well as on your Team.
As a businessman, Charles Chiau has seen a lot, as a person with big dreams and aspirations that could reshape the world, he’s the kind of man that could be a reference for younger generations. When we asked him what advice would he give to all those young entrepreneurs out there, he made clear that there were two essential components. One, learn to not be ashamed of how big your dreams are, actually to believe that anything is indeed possible. Two is to learn the power a great team has. You don’t want just people who do the work, you want people who are ready to face all the challenges at your side. There must be a common sense of working together on a mission representing everyone onboard. Ambition is equally important as it helps you to be resilient in the face of obstacles. There will always be obstacles, he says, things will definitely go wrong but that’s where the biggest lessons come from.
