Pol Ramos, Pol Vives and María Barbena share their love for diving and the sea and, since September 2022, they have also shared the adventure of starting a business with their startup Odicean. Barbena and Ramos met working as diving instructors in Thailand, while Ramos and Vives spent the summers in l’Escala (Costa Brava). Under the conviction that the “sea needs a breather”, the three divers began to publish content on social networks to raise awareness about the importance of caring for the marine environment. The two Pols contribute their knowledge in biology and Barbena, her experience in advertising and public relations.
The initial idea of ??the three divers changed direction after carrying out an expedition in the sea and seeing that the messages had much more effect when people experienced the sea in first person. This discovery was what led them to found the startup Odicean, based in L’Escala.
“We organize diving expeditions to the Red Sea, the Maldives, the Azores and the idea is that every year there is a new destination that keeps changing. This year’s is Mexico”, explains Barbena. In total, they organize between ten and twelve expeditions a year that allow you to swim among corals, sharks, manta rays and dolphins, while learning about biology and conservation of the marine environment. “We transform the way in which a person relates to the sea and we turn them into prescribers,” says Barbena.
Odicean’s second business leg is digital training for divers, which they teach under the name Odicean Academy. “We offer the PADI Open Water Diver, which is the basic diving course, videography and underwater photography training, and courses on conservation and marine biology,” the entrepreneur specifies. Finally, the startup is also a communication agency for brands in the sector, a job that María Barbena had been doing as a freelance professional and that they have now integrated into the common company. In addition, the co-founder points out that they collaborate with NGOs and with citizen science projects.
In the future they see themselves “making documentaries and being the Netflix of the sea”, in the words of the co-founder. For the moment, Odicean offers stable employment to its three young promoters, who have left their respective jobs to dedicate themselves fully to the business project. The company has not wanted to reveal its billing figure and most of the required initial investment has been in the form of time.
