Blue Gas Marine has been a long-time CED member and participant in CED's Venture Mentoring Service. They were recently featured on WNCNC's What's Next program. Miguel Guerreiro loves to fish. But he doesn’t like the prices at the pump to fill up the boat that enables the fishing. Here lies a pain point, and Guerreiro was determined to provide a solution. Ah, the foundation of almost all great entrepreneurial endeavors.
Using his engineering degree and professional experience, Guerreiro and his team established Blue Gas Marine in early 2012 and began developing a technology that enables boats to run on natural gas. Fun meets clean energy and reduced pollution, a win-win right? Right, but there are a lot of great ideas out there and building and executing a business is another set of challenges. Entrepreneurs need help from those who have been there and done that. Enter CED’s Venture Mentoring Service.
Not long after Blue Gas Marine was established, Guerreiro applied and was accepted into CED’s Venture Mentoring Service. The program, based on the successful model at MIT, is free and offers the essential help that is needed to confront the complexities facing startups and their founders. The program is entering its fourth year and has helped more than 100 startups in North Carolina.
In discussing his experience with the program Guerreiro says, “The depth of knowledge and business experience provided to us by the four CED mentors helped solve operational challenges, acted as a sounding board prior to crafting partnership terms with established players in the industry, how to value the company, determine what investment vehicles where the best for our stage in the company development, and helped sharpening our message to customers.”
During the past two and half years, Guerreiro has received expert mentoring from a serial entrepreneur turned angel investor, a former c-level executive of a $250M manufacturing company and the former CFO of a large information website, who guided the revenue growth of the company from $6M to $140M. In the same time, Guerreiro has gone from idea to a prototype hybrid boat called the Blue Gas 1. Also, Blue Gas Marine, Inc. is expected to have the first ever direct from manufacturer hybrid natural gas boat ready for a fall energy conference in Raleigh and on showcase at major Florida boat shows including Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Springs.
You can check out more on Blue Gas Marine and see the Blue Gas 1 in action on WNCN.
“[CED’s Venture Mentoring Service] is by far the best free service we have ever received from any organization,” shared Guerreiro. At CED, we are proud to offer this service and thank our Mentor Partner members for enabling it to be free. We are looking forward to hearing more great things from Blue Gas Marine.
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